Domain names are assigned to registered static and fixed IP addresses using the guidelines detailed below at the time the IP address is allocated. This approach has been very successful in managing an IP network having thousands of connected systems with very few conflicts and operational problems.

Naming syntax is based on the device type in which the registered NIC is installed....

Workstations and printers
Servers and host systems
Application services (web, mail, pop, ftp, etc.)
Secondary IP addresses
Network equipment
Mail exchangers

Domain names for workstations and printers

Personal computing workstations are defined to be those running the following operating systems:

Windows 3.x Windows 98 Macintosh OS

Windows 95 Windows 2000 Professional OS/2 Workstation

Windows NT Workstation Windows XP Professional

These systems and all printers are assigned names of the form -

bbttnnn.dept.TTU.EDU

where:

bb - two letter building designator tt - 'M' for microcomputers; 'PR' for printers nnn - nth number of systems in building dept - 2-4 letter department designator

Domain names for servers and host systems

Host and server systems are defined to be those running the following operating systems:

Unix (all variants) Linux Windows NT Server Windows 2000 Server

VMS MacOS Server Novell NetWare Windows XP Server

MVS & VM/CMS OS/2 Server Windows XP Advanced Server Windows 2003 Server

These systems are assigned names of the form -

hostname.dept.TTU.EDU

where:

hostname - unique name chosen by the host/server system's administrator; comprised of 'a'-'z', '0'-'9' & '-' (dash) dept - 2-4 letter department designator

Domain name aliases for application services (web, mail, pop, ftp, etc.)

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) recommends that application services such as web, ftp, and mail use aliases that are descriptive of the provided service to point to the assigned system name. To promote ease of management and consistency on TTUnet, systems are assigned aliases of the form -

service.dept.TTU.EDU

where:

service - WWW for web, FTP for file transfer, MAIL for Internet mailers, POP for pop3 servers dept - 2-4 letter department designator

An important distinction must be made between an alias and a system name. All systems have a DNS name associated with the IP address assigned to each installed interface card. An example of that relationship could be shown as

DNS name	=>	IP address
sphinx.net.ttu.edu	=>	129.118.3.2

Aliases are related to the DNS name, not the IP address.

Alias	=>	DNS name
www.net.ttu.edu	=>	sphinx.net.ttu.edu

When requesting an alias for a service, you need to specify the DNS name to which the alias will point.

Names for secondary IP addresses

Should a specialized service (i.e., virtual web server) require that a secondary IP address be allocated to the network interface card in the system, the DNS name assigned to this secondary address will have '--n' appended to the current hostname. For example, if a host or server was assigned the name 'gizifratz.ttu.edu' for its initial IP address record and a secondary address was assigned, then the name associated with the secondary would be 'gizifratz--1.ttu.edu'.

Domain names for network equipment

All network hardware devices are assigned names of the form -

Mail exchange records

Some departments may set up one or more SMTP mailers to handle incoming Internet mail. It is recommended that a mail exchange (MX) record be provided for each service or system name participating in handling incoming mail. Please contact the TTUnet Network Operations Center for assistance in adding this information to the Domain Name Service.