At IU, what are the DNS policies?

UITS is responsible for administering the top-level domains (see below) officially acquired by Indiana University. In this capacity, it allocates, registers, arbitrates, and maintains the name space, guaranteeing best performance, fair use, and compliance with DNS conventions and IU appropriate use policies.

Name server operational policies

Proper administration of a name space implies the presence of official top-level domain name servers. IU maintains strategically located, highly available (24 hours a day, 7 days a week), fully redundant, and fault-tolerant name servers. For all practical purposes, there is no technical, structural, or functional reason for any additional name servers in this name space. Thus, UITS restricts departments from setting up local name servers. Where in the past some departments deployed local name servers, such practice invariably resulted in naming integrity problems, user confusion and frustration, and unnecessary departmental overhead.

Note: IU domain names may only be assigned to resources within the IU address space.

Name space management

• Top-level domains: Each IU campus is allotted a single top-level domain (TLD) in .EDU. It is important that programs and other activities be associated with the campus from which they are supported. Services supported from and serving the interests of one campus will not carry the domain of another campus, nor will these services be afforded the IU.EDU domain naming (see below). The .EDU registrar (EDUCAUSE) will not permit a single accredited institution to have more than one domain in the .EDU TLD. The TLDs are:
  
  

  TLD	Campus
  INDIANA.EDU	Bloomington
  IUB.EDU	Bloomington
  IUPUI.EDU	Indianapolis
  IUN.EDU	IU Northwest
  IUE.EDU	IU East
  IUS.EDU	IU Southeast
  IUSB.EDU	IU South Bend
  IUK.EDU	IU Kokomo
  IUPUC.EDU	IUPU Columbus

  
  
• Department domains: Department domains are containers representing organization entities within TLDs. These names take the form department.campus.edu (e.g., economics.indiana.edu and chancellor.iun.edu). This allows subsequent attribution of computers and services within that department domain.
  
  
• Subdomains: A subdomain is a container for logically related names within a department domain. These names reflect specific computers, units, and services within the department, and take the form service.department.campus.edu .
  
  
• The IU.EDU domain: The IU.EDU domain is reserved for IU services that meet either of these requirements:
  
  
  • They have a system-wide scope; that is, internally focused services or information provided from the web page(s) must be applicable and accessible to constituents on all (or a major portion) of IU's campuses.
  • They broadly represent IU in that externally focused services or information provided from the web page(s) must represent a nonprofit, non-commercial agency, institute, or program supported by all (or a major portion) of IU's campuses.
  
  
• Designer domains: Designer domains in this context are TLDs other than those indicated above that do not have an IU association included in the name (e.g., WellKnownInstitute.org , .net , or .info ). Use of these names will be granted only in the following cases, and subject to these limitations:
  
  
  • For .org , the entity represented by the web page or server being named is a nonprofit, non-commercial academic agency, institute, or program supported by a consortium comprised of a department or office of IU along with at least five nonprofit organizations external to IU.
  • For .net , the service represented by the web page or server being named is part of a set (i.e., a network) of similar external web pages or servers.
  • For .info, the service represented must provide an outlet for information for which there is an outside market, and where such information is uniquely possessed by a particular IU department or agency.
  
  
• Commercial domains (.com domains): Generally, .com addresses are not permitted in the IU technology environment:
  
  
  • IU entities that have a reason to use .com naming (either on university-owned computers or using services of an external provider) must submit their business plans to the IU E-Commerce Task Force. To initiate that process, email your request to  bl-ecom-operationalteam@exchange.iu.edu  for review by Treasury Operations and Financial Management Services.
  • For activities not governed by the processes and procedures of Treasury Operations and Financial Management Services, .com naming will not be permitted.
  
  
• General naming conventions: Service and host naming reflects on the university, the campus, and the department or agency; selected names must be specific enough to accurately characterize the entity or service being represented without confusion with other services, and must be professional and non-controversial. Furthermore, these conditions must hold:
  
  
  • A subdomain must be unique within a TLD.
  • A server (hostname) must be unique within a subdomain and a TLD.

  Because all IU campuses, departments, and services are subsets of the entire IU environment, central DNS support for naming will be consistent with information cited in this document.

Requesting use of IU.EDU or a designer domain

The University Information Policy Office will coordinate the review of requests for IU.EDU naming, and also for .org , .net , and .info . You must email such requests to  itpo@iu.edu . Your request must contain a detailed description of the service, including an explanation of how it meets the two criteria above as well as the following information:

• Service name
• Service owner
• Customers/clients
• Mission and/or description of services offered
• Regional campus contacts
• Server name and IP address

The Information Policy Office will not review naming that is otherwise consistent with campus/department/subdomain naming as outlined above.