Any registrar that wants to be .lu-accredited must pass a technical aptitude test to verify its ability to operate in the domains managed by the .lu registry.

The test is carried out on a server similar to the EPP server used by accredited registrars. It therefore meets the same technical criteria, except that the host name and TCP ports are different:

  RFC3734 protocol .lu protocol

Description

Implementation per the RFC3734 ‘Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) Transport Over TCP’ standard published by the IETF. 

.lu registry protocol with EPP command pipelining

Header

4 bytes, preceding each EPP message (optional)

None

Coding restrictions

None

UTF-8, compatible with the Unicode system

Metalanguage

XML (Extensible Markup Language) only in the test interface

XML (Extensible Markup Language)

Compatible IP addresses

IPv4 and IPv6

IPv4 and IPv6

Host name epp-test.dns.lu epp-test.dns.lu

TCP ports

  • 1704, SSL tunnelling
  • 1701 (without startTLS)*  
  • 1703 (with startTLS)*
  • 1702, SSL tunnelling  
  • 1700*

* TCP port available but not recommended

Prior precautions

  • The test must be carried out using the two test accounts made available by the .lu registry on the test server.

  • The test operations must be carried out the same day if possible.

Description of the test

As the test covers operations regularly performed by the accredited registrars, each of its components must be passed successfully:

  • Create a domain: Create at least one new domain, as well as the contacts, owner(s), and host(s) you will be using for the domain(s).

  • Update a contact: Update the details of one of the previously created contacts.

  • Update a domain: Edit the information of a previously created domain, flag it as inactive, replace the contact or name server, etc.

  • Trade a domain: Replace the owner of a domain using the command trade.

  • Transfer a domain: Transfer one of your domains from the account where you created it to your second test account. (Comment: For the transfer, the initial holder and the new holder must represent the same person/entity).

  • Delete a domain: Delete one of your domains.

  • Poll messages: Retrieve and acknowledge receipt of poll messages in your poll message queue. Make sure that the queue is empty.

  • Manage your character set: Correctly define the character set for your EPP commands and use non-ASCII characters in certain commands to verify that the character set is being managed correctly. To do so, use the XML header (<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>), and replace UTF-8 with the character set you are using.

  • Manage characters: Incorporate non-ASCII Latin characters – with diacritics – in at least one contact's information.

  • Manage domain types: Register at least one ASCII domain name and one IDN domain name.

  • Activate and deactivate a domain: Add and delete the inactive status flag for one or more domains. Deleting this flag may be necessary if the name servers did not work as they should have when the domain was created or transferred/traded.

 Sending and validating the test  

Once all the operations have been completed, tell the .lu registry by emailing registrar@dns.lu and indicate the domain names used.

If you have other questions about this test, the team in charge of the .lu registry is at your disposal.

 

Related FAQs

Is there a WHOIS or DNS server for the test service?

No WHOIS or DNS server currently operates on the information from the test database.

How should I set my time zone?

Make sure the hour specified for your tasks is given in 00:00:00 format.  If it isn't, the time zone fields might not be interpreted correctly in the interface for registrars.  

What transport protocols does the EPP server use?

The EPP server handles two variants of EPP-over-TCP:  

  • the transport protocol RFC3734 ‘Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) Transport Over TCP’  
  • a TCP flow encoded in UTF-9, specially developed by and for the .lu registry  

You can therefore program your EPP client in either of these two languages.