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Domain Name Life Cycle

Domain Name Life Cycle :

Let’s be familiar with Domain Name Life Cycle. This is the cycle from the time it is first registered till it is deleted

Although the typical domain name life cycle is difficult to follow, however we’ve tried to simplify it for your reference

Below is an outlined phases of domain life cycle.

Active (1-10 Years): After the domain purchasing the domain is active for 10 years, depending upon length of subscription. The renewal is not more than 10 years.

On Hold (1-45 Days): If the registrar receives no response from the owner of the domain till 45 days it sends the delete command to the registry. The domain could continue to operate till 45 days depending upon registry and other factors.

Redemption Period (30 Days): After the period in hold status the domain name is kept in grace period in the registry. During this time the website is not working nor do the domain name is available to people to buy. It means the owner of the website gets the extra grace period to renew

Deletion(5 days): After the Final Delete command is sent the domain name is still is Shared Registry System and cannot be purchased by others. The original owner can still renew this domain

Available: Once the deletion completes, the name is released for purchase by the other public.

DNS
Domain Name System (or Service or Server), an Internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses. Because domain names are alphabetic, they’re easier to remember. The Internet however, is really based on IP addresses. Every time you use a domain name, therefore, a DNS service must translate the name into the corresponding IP address. For example, the domain name www.example.com might translate to 198.105.232.4.

The DNS system is, in fact, its own network. If one DNS server doesn’t know how to translate a particular domain name, it asks another one, and so on, until the correct IP address is returned.

Nameservers

Domain name servers translate domain names to IP addresses.
Human-readable names like “howstuffworks.com” are easy for people to remember, but they don’t do machines any good. All of the machines use names called IP addresses to refer to one another. For example, the machine that humans refer to as “www.howstuffworks.com” has the IP address 70.42.251.42. Every time you use a domain name, you use the Internet’s domain name servers (DNS) to translate the human-readable domain name into the machine-readable IP address.

Primary Nameserver

The primary nameserver is the machine where the records are edited and maintained through, and is held to be the final authority on the domain name. If there is an error here, it will propagate throughout the internet, so it is vitally important that the records on the primary nameserver be set up correctly.
These records are stored in something called a “zone file.” The zone file is a text file, stored on the nameservers, which contains all the technical information regarding the servers for the domain. All the authoritative nameservers need to have a matching copy of the zone file, since they are equally likely to be asked about the domain whether secondary or primary, though the file is only edited and maintained through the primary nameserver.

Secondary nameservers

The remaining nameserver or nameservers listed on the whois record transfer, or copy, the zone file from the primary nameserver. These nameservers are referred to as secondary, and ensure that the domain does not go off-line if there should happen to be a problem with the primary, and also makes resolution faster by allowing more than one option for finding authoritative information for the domain.

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Exploring Domain Status

Exploring Domain Status :

Before having a look at the domain status lets check out some definitions  which would help you out:

Registrar: It is a business that has the ability to register domain names on behalf of anyone interested in obtaining a domain name. The registrar maintains the information regarding each domain and manage registration, expiration and NIC fee collection process.

Registrant: Registrant is the person or organization registering a domain name, the registrant is also recorded as legal owner of the domain name.

Registry: A Domain registry is a database that contains information about every registered domain name. when you register a domain name every information regarding the domain is stored in the registry database. Different registries exist for different top level domains.

Lets see some of the states the domain would be in its lifetime.

Domain Status:

Active: The registry sets this status. This is the default or normal  status code at the registration time. The domains which are active are used for websites or for registering name servers. Active status denoted that the domain can be transferred from one registrar to another(After completing atleast 60 days with the current) registrar.

Registry-Lock: This status is a preventive step taken for security measures for the domain. This will lock the domain name at the registry level and  prevent it from being transferred, deleted or modified. It can be renewed  though.

Registrar-Lock: The Sponsoring registrar sets this status. The domain cannot be modified or deleted. The domain will be included in the zone

Registry-Hold: The registry sets this status. The domain cannot be modified or deleted. The domain will not be included in the zone.

Registrar-Hold: The sponsoring registrar sets this status. The domain cannot be modified or deleted. The domain can be renewed and it will not be included in the zone.

Redemption period: The registry sets this status when a registrar request that the domain name be deleted from the registry and the domain has been registered for more than 5 days. The domain will not be included in the zone, also cannot be modified it can only be restored. The domain will be held in this status for a maximum of 30 days.

Pending Restore: The registry sets this status after a registrar request restoration of a domain that is in REDEMPTIONPERIOD status. Registrar cannot modify or update domain. The domain will be included in the zone. The domain will be held in this status while the registry waits for the registrar to provide required restoration documentation. If the registrar fails to provide documentation to the registry within 7 calendar days to confirm the restoration request, the domain will revert to REDEMPTIONPERIOD status. The domain status will be set to ACTIVE only if the registrar provides documentation to the registry within 7 calendar days to confirm the restoration request.

Pending Delete: The registry sets this status after a domain has been set in REDEMPTIONPERIOD status and the domain has not been restored by the registrar. The domain will not be included in the zone. Once in this status all registrar requests to modify or otherwise update the domain will be rejected. The domain will be purged from the registry database after being in this status for 5 calendar days.

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