Legacy Transfer Procedure
Introduction
The following section outlines the procedure that a registrar must follow to transfer a domain from the Legacy Registrar (Default Registrar) to their own registrar account.
The procedure below applies to all .ZA namespaces that have been migrated to the ZARC EPP System, including Co.Za , Net.Za , Org.Za and Web.Za .
1. Procedure
2. Verifying Transfer
3. Reasons Why Transfer Might Fail
4. Considerations
5. Frequently Asked Questions
6. Legacy System Changes Inline With New Policies
Procedure
The procedure to transfer a domain from the Legacy Registrar (Default Registrar) is as follows:
1. A Transfer Request must be sent for the domain name using EPP.
2. Initiating a transfer will send out voting emails to all the associated contacts. This includes the Registrant, Administrative Contact, Billing Contact and Technical Contact. Some contacts may not have correct or functional email address listed. In this event, they will not receive a voting email.
3. Registrars are encouraged to check their poll queue approximtely 30 seconds after the initiation of the transfer to ensure that the request has been processed and is not subject to instant failure as described below in "Considerations" and "Reasons Why Transfer Might Fail".
4. The associated contacts may follow the instruction in the voting email to cast their vote in order to move the domain over to the sponsorship of the Requesting Registrar, or to keep the domain with the Legacy Registrar.
5. At the end of a 24 hour period all votes will be tallied. Depending on the outcome, the domain will either be transferred over to the Requesting Registrar's EPP account, or remain with the Legacy Registrar. The Requesting Registrar will be notified of the outcome via a poll message in their queue.
Transfer Command
xmlns:domain="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0">
<epp:command>
<epp:transfer op="request">
<domain:transfer>
<domain:name>exampledomain.test.dnservices.co.za</domain:name>
</domain:transfer>
</epp:transfer>
</epp:command>
</epp:epp>
Response
If the command was processed correctly, a response code of 1001 will be returned by the registry. This means that the request has been acknowledged and certain criteria will be measured prior to fully initiating the Transfer. Criteria are listed below in the "Considerations" and "Reasons Why Transfer Might Fail" sections of this webpage.
xmlns:domain="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0">
<epp:response>
<epp:result code="1001">
<epp:msg>Command completed Successfully; action pending legacy system</epp:msg>
</epp:result>
<epp:resData>
<domain:trnData>
<domain:name>exampledomain.test.dnservices.co.za</domain:name>
<domain:trStatus>pending</domain:trStatus>
<domain:reID>RequestingRarID</domain:reID>
<domain:reDate>2011-03-15T08:02:44Z</domain:reDate>
<domain:acID>uniforum</domain:acID>
<domain:acDate>2011-03-15T08:02:59Z</domain:acDate>
</domain:trnData>
</epp:resData>
<epp:trID>
<epp:clTRID>CLTRID-13001761641-AIZ5</epp:clTRID>
<epp:svTRID>ZARC-EPP-12EB889D556-A12</epp:svTRID>
</epp:trID>
</epp:response>
</epp:epp>
Verifying Domain Transfer Status
During the transfer period a registrar can verify the current status of the requested transfer by performing a Transfer Query on the domain as follows:
xmlns:domain="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0">
<epp:command>
<epp:transfer op="query">
<domain:transfer>
<domain:name>exampledomain.test.dnservices.co.za</domain:name>
</domain:transfer>
</epp:transfer>
</epp:command>
</epp:epp>
Response
xmlns:domain="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0">
<epp:response>
<epp:result code="1000">
<epp:msg>Domain Transfer Query Command completed successfully</epp:msg>
</epp:result>
<epp:resData>
<domain:trnData>
<domain:name>exampledomain.test.dnservices.co.za</domain:name>
<domain:trStatus>pending</domain:trStatus>
<domain:reID>RequestingRarID</domain:reID>
<domain:reDate>2011-03-15T08:02:44Z</domain:reDate>
<domain:acID>uniforum</domain:acID>
<domain:acDate>2011-03-15T08:03:43Z</domain:acDate>
</domain:trnData>
</epp:resData>
<epp:trID>
<epp:clTRID>CLTRID-13001761670-DTRA</epp:clTRID>
<epp:svTRID>ZARC-EPP-12EB889E09F-D3D9E</epp:svTRID>
</epp:trID>
</epp:response>
</epp:epp>
Transfer Acceptance or Denial
Once the transfer voting e-mail has been received by any of the recipients, including the registrant, a decision must be made to either approve the transfer or deny the transfer.
This may be done by the associated contacts by clicking on the correct links provided in the email.
If an "Accept" vote is received, the vote is added to the vote to the current vote count.
If a "Deny" vote is received, the Legacy System communicates with the EPP system and instantly cancels the transfer request. This will send notification to the Requesting Registrar informing them that the trasnfer has failed due to a "No" vote.
If there are no votes received (Deny OR Accept) the domain will not be transferred.
Below is an example of an email that will get sent to all the recipients.
From: ticketman@co.za [mailto:ticketman@co.za]
Sent: DATE and TIME
To: your@email.co.za; AdminContact@idtbt.co.za; BillingContact@idtbt.co.za; TechContact@idtbt.co.za
Subject: COZA-Xfer: TICKET REPLY REQUEST: "idtbt.co.za" on hold for Legacy Transfer
MAGIC C00KIE:23517:61271d0962082:Accept Deny:ldtbt.co.za:
/\
/||\
||
Delete the word 'Accept'
or the word 'Deny' ONLY!
DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING ELSE
ON THIS LINE!!!
The domain "ldtbt.co.za" is in the pending queue for a Legacy Transfer.
This was requested by "admin@newregistrar.co.za". The original request was posted
at Wed, 16 Jan 2013 07:57:01 +0200 (SAST) and queued in pending at Wed Jan 16 07:57:04 SAST 2013.
To allow this to proceed - auto-reply to this e-mail quoting the magic
cookie line at the top of the message, ...after removing either the
word "Deny" or "Accept" - according to how you want to vote for
the Change.
(Auto-Reply means "reply to sender" - which is "ticketman@co.za".)
How it works, The application will wait for 24 hours. After this time,
if there is at least one Accept and no Deny's, the request will proceed.
Anything else will stop the request, eg one Deny - or no Accepts..
Please note that once the domain is transferred away from the legacy
registrar (UniForum) it cannot be transferred back.
Copies of this e-mail have been sent to:-
soa@ldtbt.co.za, billing@ldtbt.co.za, owner@ldtbt.co.za, admin@ldtbt.co.za, tech@ldtbt.co.za
support@co.za - Support at the COZA Office
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Request looks like......
Sender: admin@newregistrar.co.za
Domain: ldtbt.co.za
Action: T
Registrar: REGISTRAR NAME
Company: Your Company Name (Pty) Ltd
Postal: 1 Registrant Avenue, Registrant Park 9999
Street: 1 Registrant Avenue, Registrant Park 9999
Payment: 0.00 (I)
Bill/Acct: I
MailTo: billing@ldtbt.co.za
Vat No:
Administrative Info
Contact: Admin, Admin (Mr)
Company: Private Company (Pty) Ltd
Postal: 1 Registrant Avenue, Registrant Park 9999
Phone: +27999999999
Fax:
E-Mail: admin@ldtbt.co.za
Technical Info
Contact: Technical, Technical (Mr)
Company: Private Company (Pty) Ltd
Postal: 1 Registrant Avenue, Registrant Park 9999
Phone: +27999999999
Fax:
E-Mail: tech@ldtbt.co.za
Nameservers Records - etc
Primary Server : ns1.nameservers.com
Secondary 1 : ns2.nameservers.com
---
UniForum South Africa
Co.Za Domain Administrators
For Support: http://www.coza.net.za or e-mail support@co.za
Telephone: +27 11 314 0077 Fax: +27 11 314 0088
Processing of a Successful Transfer
If by the end of the transfer period there are no "Deny" votes, the Legacy System will send a command to the EPP System.
The purpose of this command is to finalise the transfer of the domain to the new registrar. Once finalised, the domain is deleted from the Legacy System and now reflects on the EPP System as being sponsored by the new registrar.
Verifying Transfer
Once a transfer has been processed, a registrar can verify the sponsorship of the domain by polling for a queued message or performing an EPP Domain Info command for the domain as follows:
Polling for the Approval Message
Polling will result in a message as below.
xmlns:domain="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0">
<epp:response>
<epp:result code="1301">
<epp:msg>Command completed successfully; ack to dequeue</epp:msg>
</epp:result>
<epp:msgQ>
<epp:qDate>2011-04-15T14:36:50.275+02:00</epp:qDate>
<epp:msg>Domain transfer successful</epp:msg>
</epp:msgQ>
<epp:resData>
<domain:trnData>
<domain:name>exampledomain.test.dnservices.co.za</domain:name>
<domain:trStatus>pending</domain:trStatus>
<domain:reID>RequestingRarID</domain:reID>
<domain:reDate>2011-04-15T12:36:50Z</domain:reDate>
<domain:acID>uniforum</domain:acID>
<domain:acDate>2011-04-20T12:36:50Z</domain:acDate>
</domain:trnData>
<domain:panData>
<domain:name paResult="1">exampledomain.test.dnservices.co.za</domain:name>
<domain:paTRID>
<epp:clTRID>CLTRID-13025163365-EBGK</epp:clTRID>
<epp:svTRID>ZARC-EPP-12F440607EA-1C274</epp:svTRID>
</domain:paTRID>
<domain:paDate>2011-04-15T12:36:50Z</domain:paDate>
</domain:panData>
</epp:resData>
<epp:trID>
<epp:clTRID>CLTRID-13028710892-9TSI</epp:clTRID>
<epp:svTRID>ZARC-EPP-12F5929EBE1-9EC72</epp:svTRID>
</epp:trID>
</epp:response>
</epp:epp>
Performing Domain Info
xmlns:epp="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0"
xmlns:domain="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0"
xsi:schemaLocation="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0 epp-1.0.xsd">
<epp:command>
<epp:info>
<domain:info xsi:schemaLocation="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0 domain-1.0.xsd">
<domain:name hosts="all">exampledomain.test.dnservices.co.za</domain:name>
</domain:info>
</epp:info>
</epp:command>
</epp:epp>
The response will contain the following 2 elements:
1. <domain:clID>newRegistrar</domain:clID>
2. <domain:crID>uniforum/zacr</domain:crID>
The "domain:clID" element will now have the new registrar name, proving transfer success.
The "domain:crID" element will contain the Legacy Registrar ID, showing that it was originally created by the legacy registrar.
Reasons Why Transfer Might Fail
A domain may not be transferred during its Anniversary Period. The period is 3 days prior to its expiration up to the 6th of the following month as well as the first month of its registration. This means that if a domain's anniversary is on the 10th, it cannot be transferred from the 8th of the anniversary month until the 6th of the following month.
Furthermore, a domain cannot be transferred in the first month of its registration. Registrars must plan to transfer domains prior to or after the Anniversary Period.
The response code will be 2106. This is for the abovementioned case as well as cases where a transfer is rejected by a registrant or cancelled.
xmlns:domain="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:domain-1.0">
<epp:response>
<epp:result code="1301">
<epp:msg>Command completed successfully; ack to dequeue</epp:msg>
</epp:result>
<epp:msgQ>
<epp:qDate>2012-02-13T12:31:37.796+02:00</epp:qDate>
<epp:msg>2106: Domain 'exampledomain.test.dnservices.co.za'
not eligible for transfer, according to the co.za transfer policy</epp:msg>
</epp:msgQ>
<epp:resData>
<domain:panData>
<domain:name paResult="0">exampledomain.test.dnservices.co.za</domain:name>
<domain:paTRID>
<epp:clTRID>CLTRID-13028634158-75TL</epp:clTRID>
<epp:svTRID>ZARC-EPP-12F58B60A55-1CBC0</epp:svTRID>
</domain:paTRID>
<domain:paDate>2012-02-13T10:31:37Z</domain:paDate>
</domain:panData>
</epp:resData>
<epp:trID>
<epp:clTRID>CLTRID-13028635214-GW93</epp:clTRID>
<epp:svTRID>ZARC-EPP-12F58B74A42-EA059</epp:svTRID>
</epp:trID>
</epp:response>
</epp:epp>
1. Prior to transferring a domain, it is recommended that the domain has been paid for. Unpaid domains will not be transferred, but enter the deletion run.
2. Domains that have "Deny" votes will not be transferred. 1 Deny vote is all that is required.
3. Domains that have no votes (Accept OR Deny) will NOT be transferred.
A Legacy Transfer Request might also fail due to the allowed transfers per hour being reached. In this case, a response code of 2306 will be returned by the server. The allowed number of transfers is subject to change and represented by an "X" in the example below.
<epp:epp xmlns:epp="urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:epp-1.0">
<epp:response>
<epp:result code="2306">
<epp:msg>Maximum number (X/1 hour) of pending concurrent legacy transfers reached</epp:msg>
</epp:result>
<epp:trID>
<epp:clTRID>ABC-EPP-9876</epp:clTRID>
<epp:svTRID>ZARC-EPP-1234</epp:svTRID>
</epp:trID>
</epp:response>
</epp:epp>
Considerations
The following considerations must be taken into account:
1. If a domain happens to expire while in the transfer process and the transfer is processed, the registrar will be charged accordingly. This encourages domain retention.
2. If a domain is marked as unpaid in the legacy system, it cannot be transferred.
3. If a transfer was already initiated and is now stuck, the stuck transfer request must be manually removed. See Frequently Asked Questions below for the process.
4. If a domain is pending an update or change it cannot be transferred away untii the update has been processed.
The restrictions on when domains are eligible for transfer from the legacy system is due to a fundamental difference between the legacy system and the EPP system:
The legacy system only invoices for domains at the end of the month in which the registration occurred, while the EPP system is a real-time billing system, with invoices being batched on a periodic (weekly) basis.
Unfortunately, because the systems are separate loosely coupled systems, the only way to ensure that we do not double bill is to put this restriction in place.
The WHOIS facility may be used to obtain domain information sorted by registration (anniversary) date to see which domains are due for renewal in the month before they were registered, ie. before these domains fall into the billing cycle of the legacy system.
FAQs
Q: Why was this domain requested to be transferred?
A: All registered domains are being migrated over to the new EPP system. If a domain has been requested for transfer it means that the requesting registrar is ready to take sponsorship from the Legacy Registrar and become the new sponsoring registrar for the requested domain.
Q: What is the Legacy/Default Registrar?
A: The Legacy/Default is the current sponsor for all domains that must be migrated to e ZARC Accredited Registrar. The Legacy Registrar simply acts as a default holding registrar with no capabilities for updates, and therefore Accredited Registrars may migrate their client's domains from the Legacy Registrar in order to continue managing them..
Q: What will be the impact/consequences of transferring a domain?
A: There is no consequence. The transfer of a domain from the Legacy Registrar to a new registrar simply indicates a change in sponsorship. All the information will be retained and moved with the transfer and the current registrant will not change, insuring that domain ownership is not changed when transferring.
Q: Does the current owner/registrant have a say in the transfer of the domain to a new sponsor?
A: The registrant has an opportunity to "voice" their opinion. An e-mail will be sent to their currently provided address. The e-mail will provide options for them to Deny/Accept the transfer of the domain to the new sponsoring registrar. For more information on how the registrant procedure works, please view the Registrant Voting Procedure.
Q: How long does a legacy transfer take?
A: The entire transfer can take up to 48 hours from the initial request. The first 24 hours is for the voting on the transfer request. At the end of the 24 hours, the votes are counted. If the transfer is approved, the final 24 hours will be used to transfer the domain from the Legacy system to the new EPP system. If at the end of 48 hours there is no response, please contact the registry by creating a ticket here.
Q: Can a domain be transferred from an Accredited Registrar back to the Legacy Registrar?
A: It is not possible to use the EPP transfer command to transfer domains from an accredited RAR back to the legacy RAR. There are, however, 2 alternatives which may be used.
1. Transfer the domain to another Accredited EPP registrar. This being the preferred approach.
2. In the case of Co.Za ONLY, Delete the domain by requesting the Accredited Registrar to delete the domain. Once deleted, re-register the domain on the legacy system.
Note: This carries a real risk that the domain is re-registered by a third party during the time between sending the registration email and the actual registration on the legacy system.
Q: The response code tells me that there is already a pending transfer request but there actually is not.
A: There are certain situations where a transfer request will get stuck on the Legacy system. If this happens, the domain will appear fine but the response to a transfer request will indicate that the domain is already pending a transfer, hence 2 transfers cannot be initiated. To rectify this, please create a ticket here, provide us with the domain name and subject as "Stuck Transfer"
Last update: 23-02-2023 08:07:42
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All issues and questions relating to the ZA EPP Registry Registrar System must be raised in the Contact/Support pages through the Registrar Portal. This is to ensure that our support department tracks and addresses all issues. If you have an account, please log on to the Registrar Portal and submit a support request online.
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Office Closure
Dear Registrar,
As Wednesday, 1 May approaches - a South African public holiday marking Workers' Day, we extend warm wishes for a safe and restful celebration to you and your family. Please be informed that our office will be closed on Wednesday, 1 May and will resume operations on Thursday, 2 May 2024. Support services will remain accessible during this period. Feel free to reach out to us via phone at +27 11 314 0077 or email us at support@zarc.net.za, and we will be happy to assist. We sincerely appreciate your ongoing support.
Warmest Regards,
The ZARC Team.