At IU, what are the DNS policies?

UITS is responsible for administering the Domain Name System (DNS) for all Internet domains assigned to Indiana University. The following policies apply to domain names hosted on IU DNS servers.

On this page:

• Local name servers
• Top- and second-level domains
• Department domains and subdomains
• Designer domains
• Commercial domains
• General naming conventions
• Requesting IU.EDU or designer domain naming

Local name servers

UITS restricts departments from setting up their own local name servers. IU maintains strategically located, highly available (24 hours a day, 7 days a week), fully redundant, and fault-tolerant name servers, thereby removing any technical, structural, or functional reasons for additional name servers in the IU name space. When, in the past, some departments deployed local name servers, such practices 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.

Back to top

Top- and second-level domains

UITS manages official IU domains by allocating, registering, arbitrating, and maintaining the name space, thereby guaranteeing best performance, fair use, and compliance with DNS conventions and IU appropriate use policies.

UITS reserves the top-level domain (TLD), IU.EDU, 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.

Campus second-level domains (SLDs):

Note: EDUCAUSE, which administers the .EDU domain, will not permit a single accredited institution to have more than one domain in the .EDU domain. However, IU's domains have existed since before these policies were enabled, and in some instances, IU has been grandfathered in.

Because it is important for programs and other activities to be associated with the campus from which they are supported, UITS does not allow services supported from and serving the interests of one campus to carry the domain of another campus, nor will it allow these services to the IU.EDU domain.

Back to top

Department domains and subdomains

Department domains (e.g., economics.indiana.edu and chancellor.iun.edu) are containers representing organization entities within SLDs. They allow subsequent attribution of computers and services within that department domain.

Subdomains are containers for logically related names within department domains, and reflect specific computers, units, and services within departments. They usually take the form service.department.campus.edu.

Back to top

Designer domains

Designer domains (in this context) are other TLDs that do not have an IU association included in the name (e.g., centeroncongress.org, or others in the .NET or .INFO domains). UITS will grant use of such names only in the following cases, subject to these limitations:

• For .ORG, the entity represented by the web page or server being named must be a nonprofit, non-commercial academic agency, institute, or program, which is supported by a consortium comprised of an IU department or office of IU and at least five nonprofit organizations external to IU.
  
  
• For .NET, the service represented by the web page or server being named must be 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 that has an outside market and is uniquely possessed by a particular IU department or agency.

Back to top

Commercial domains

Commercial (.COM) domains are generally not permitted in the IU technology environment. Sites maintained by an IU office may not use a .COM domain. Sites that are not conducting commerce should not use a .COM domain.

IU entities that have a reason to use .COM naming for approved revenue generating activities (either on university-owned computers or using services of an external provider) must submit business plans to the IU E-Commerce Task Force for review by Treasury Operations and Financial Management Services. UITS will not permit .COM naming for activities not governed by the processes and procedures of Treasury Operations and Financial Management Services.

Back to top

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:

• An SLD must be unique within a TLD.
• A subdomain (server/hostname) must be unique within its parent SLD.

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.

Back to top

Requesting IU.EDU or designer domain naming

The Office of Public Affairs and Government Relations (PAGR) will coordinate the review of requests for IU.EDU naming, and also for .ORG, .NET, and .INFO. Submit your request via the PAGR Domain/Virtual Host Name Request form.

PAGR staff will not review naming that is otherwise consistent with campus/department/subdomain naming as outlined above.

Back to top