[Ops] non-responsive services in the Registry

[Markus Demleitner]

Hi Tess,

Thanks for tackling this.

On Fri, Jul 07, 2023 at 01:18:46PM +0000, Jaffe, Tess (GSFC-6601) wrote:
> So I'm looking for information about how to remove services from
> the registry that are not responding and whose responsible contacts
> aren't either.  Renaud pointed me at a mention on the Ops page
> (https://wiki.ivoa.net/twiki/bin/view/IVOA/IvoaOps#Procedure%20for%20Removing%20Non-Respo)
> which refers to "A revised procedure was adoped by the IVOA in
> October 2016."  But we don't find it.  Anybody know where I can
> hear about what other registries are doing and what we should do?

Well... this, I seem to remember, refers to item 7 in these Exec
minutes:
<https://wiki.ivoa.net/internal/IVOA/IvoaRepMin/ivoa-fm66-20161020.pdf>.
I think Pierre had a nicely worked-out paper back then that I may
even be able to dig out if necessary.  Pierre, if you have it at
hand, can you perhaps put it on the twiki in some suitable position?

But then in practice here's what I've been doing when I encounter
dead services by chance, typically because dead services have bad
resource records, too:

(1) use the contact address to ask the service's operators

(2) if they are unresponsive, try the originating publishing
registry's operators

(2a) if they are responsive, work with them to either get the service
fixed or have it removed from their publishing registries

(2b) if they are unresponsive, see whether any living services are
published through that registry (in case *it* is still alive).  If
that is the case (never has been), improvise.  Otherwise, ask the
Exec to tell the RofR to remove the dead publishing registry.

Perhaps that's something we should note down on the Twiki, perhaps on
a page linked to by Ops and Registry?

               -- Markus