Dear DB-WG, NCC-Services and Routing WG Community! Over the recent month or so, a deployment of a new version of the DB-SW, to the production environment, turned out to (potentially) have serious impact on automated router configurations in (an) operator's network(s). The issue was reported to the NCC's DB-WG Group and the specific problem has already been fixed (actually on the same day as reported). Here's the link to the service announcement page: http://www.ripe.net/lir-services/service-announcements/ripe-database-query-o... However, as the incident seemes serious enough, a small group of interested people (Rüdiger, Nigel Titley, folks from the NCC and myself) started to dig a bit deeper, into what was (and is) perceived to be aspects that need review, more transparency and maybe improvement. We plan to look at some aspects, amongste others, like: - better communication regarding upcoming new SW releases - better transparency when and where (TEST DB, Production DB,...) new software will be deployed - version control and documentation But the most important thing is an improved and more transparent process to deploy new software versions *as soon as possible*! Then we can take it from there... While this message is also sent to the NCC Services and Routing WG, fyi, I'd like to suggest to have follow-up comments and discussion on the DB-WG List! Looking forward to fruitful discussions, best regards, Wilfried