One of OARC's functions is to collect and archive DNS-related data from its members. This data is available to members for research and operational use. Some of OARC's data is available through the secure member's portal. Other data is available via shell access from a read-only file server. Members that require access to data must adhere to the guidelines outlined in the OARC Membership and Data Access Agreement.

Day In The Life of the Internet Traces

OARC manages the annual collection of traces from important and interesting DNS servers. OARC members can analyze this data on one of the OARC analysis servers. Visit the DITL page for more information.

Long-Term Query Collection

The collection is referred to as "LTQC" (Long-Term Query Collection) and it concerned itself just with priming queries, that is, the initial query that every resolver sends to a root server when it starts up in order to obtain an up-to-date set of DNS root server names.11 of the 13 root servers contributed data to this collection, including L-Root, the root server operated by ICANN. Data was collected between November 2009 and July 2010.

Deliberately Unvalidatable Root Zone

This was a study undertaken by DNS-OARC for the ICANN on the DNSSEC deployment at the root servers. Some of this work also produced data, a part of which has been graciously donated by RIPE.

Zone File Repository

OARC has been archiving copies of a number of TLD zone files on a weekly basis since March 2009. OARC members have access to the zone file archive on an analysis server. Please visit the Zone File Repository page for more information.

ISC's Domain Survey

The Domain Survey attempts to discover every host on the Internet by doing a complete search of the Domain Name System. It is sponsored by Internet Systems Consortium, Inc. with technical operations subcontracted to Network Wizards. Survey data is collected and published quarterly and is available directly to OARC members. Full details about the domain survey may be found here.

Server Network Traffic Graphs

Traffic statistics for C, E, and F-root servers are available to members on the OARC member portal. The statistics are essentially MRTG graphs that include packets/bits per second (in and out), and current/maximum/average counters.

AS112 Long-term Collections

The Ottawa Internet Exchange hosted a very busy AS112 node operating on the high-performance network service provider networks, such as GEANT and Internet2. It responded to traffic as far away as Australia and as close as its IXP peers. Much of this data is available in pcap format through the analysis systems for examination. This data was first made available in January 1 of 2015 and continued on for periodic, weeks-long duration. In addition, ICANN's 2 AS112 nodes were also added to the effort.

Real-Time DSC Data (Data collection ceased Summer 2021)

Several OARC members submitted near real-time DSC data to OARC, which is still available to members only. OARC discontinued collection of new DSC Data in Summer of 2021.

We have data from:

  • 2 Root servers: C,K
  • 2 RIRs: APNIC, RIPE
  • 1 TLDs: CZ
  • 1 Busy secondaries: ns2.dns-oarc.net
  • 1 busy AS112 node: as112.ottix.net