Do you need to sign up for Russia’s hosting provider register? And if so, how do you do it?
Why?
Federal Law No. 406-FZ of July 31, 2023 amends Russia’s laws “On Communications” and “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection.” It takes effect on December 1, 2023.
Here’s the gist. Existing hosting providers are being counted, and they have to add themselves to the register. New providers will have to go through a fairly complicated process before they can start offering hosting. The register opens on December 1, 2023, and all existing hosting providers have until December 15 to sign themselves up.
Who needs to sign up?
Any company that provides hosting services. That includes website hosting, the obvious case, and pretty much anyone who makes their computing resources available to customers. Virtual machines, cloud services, Docker containers, databases, disk space. All of it.
Just like with SORM, Russia’s lawful interception system, it makes no difference who your customers are. Individuals, companies, sole proprietors. You gave someone access to your computing resources? Congratulations, you’re a hosting provider.
Even if you’re a tiny company running three VMs with 1C on your own server for three other companies, I’d still recommend registering as a hosting provider. Here’s why:
- Right now, signing up is fairly straightforward. Starting a hosting service later will be harder.
- If you decide it’s not for you, you can say you’ve stopped offering the service.
- You’re planning to grow, right?
Where to sign up
Roskomnadzor’s application portal is here: https://service.rkn.gov.ru
The hosting provider registration section is here: https://service.rkn.gov.ru/monitoring/rph
The guide to filling out the application is here: https://service.rkn.gov.ru/docs/manualRhp.pdf
If you get stuck, email support at help_rhp@noc.gov.ru. The address is in the guide, but who reads all the way to the end?!
To fill out the application, sign in with your organization’s electronic signature or through ESIA, Russia’s government sign-in system.
What you’ll need
Have these details ready:
- The physical address and geographic coordinates of your computing resources.
- The address and geographic coordinates of your internet connection.
- The IP address range you use for hosting.
- Your autonomous system number (ASN). If you use your ISP’s addresses, ask them for the number or look it up in the RIPE Database.
- How much computing capacity you have: how many CPU cores, how many gigs of RAM, and how many gigs of disk space.
- The contract number and the date you signed it with your upstream internet provider.
I think that covers the main stuff.
Read the guide all the way through before you start. It’ll make the form easier to fill out.
Filling out the form
The first time around, allow about an hour. You’ll spend some of it figuring out what goes where, some filling it in, and some learning how to track down errors.
If a field throws an error, say, when you enter coordinates, try removing punctuation and special characters.
My tip: Hit “Save” after filling out each section of the form. It makes errors easier to find and saves you from typing the same stuff twice.
To open the applications section, you need to give your portal account the “Hosting Provider Register” permission. Without it, you’re going nowhere. You might have to sign out and back in.
Then open the form and get filling.
The official guide actually explains it all pretty clearly, step by step.
Portal errors
Yep, the portal crashes regularly and seems to enjoy it:
Wait half an hour and try again. Or email support.
Or you might get this:
There’s probably an error in one of the sections. That’s why it’s worth hitting “Save” after each one. Or email support.
Once you’ve filled everything in, hit “Submit for review.” You should see something like “Under review since…” followed by a timestamp.
I think that’s it for now.
On December 4, 2023, Roskomnadzor boasted that it had approved a grand total of 16 applications and that another 40 were being filled out. I’m guessing those 40 had been submitted for review and then sent back for corrections. That’s not a lot, to put it mildly…