Internet Naming Standards

Proper selection and use of Internet system and service names is important to successfully carrying out the mission of the University. Whether a site or service name is published for use by the entire world or a small subset of Texas Tech employees or students, these naming standards must be followed:

System Names

The system name is the left-most portion of a fully qualified Internet domain name; that which is to the left of the left-most dot ('.'). Example: widget.dept.ttu.edu - the system name is widget

Alias Names for Published Sites & Services

Web sites and IT services must use aliases that are descriptive of the provided service to point to the assigned system name.

System names must not be included in published site URLs. System names change frequently due to aging hardware & software, storage limitations, etc. Published URLs should not be affected by system name changes.

Published URLs should only use alias names, never system names.

Name Scopes

Internet names will have a broad scope or a narrow scope. The scope of the name is determined by the context of the service or site it represents or perhaps by the intended audience.

For sites or services which represent a department, the name would be "scoped" under the name of the department (department.ttu.edu). This naturally associates the name with the department and provides immediate context within that department.

For sites or services which represent a cross-department or multi-disciplinary effort, or perhaps the University as a whole, the name would be "scoped" at the top-level (ttu.edu).

Official Department Names

[www.]dept.ttu.edu

Where:

www – (optional) standard prefix for web site names. If “www” is not present, the service is assumed to be world-wide web and represent the department's main web site service.

dept- 2-12 letter department designator

A department is an officially recognized unit within Texas Tech University's organizational hierarchy (i.e., an organizational unit or OU). Typically, a department is represented by a level-5 org ID in the Banner system. In some instances, a department may exist at level 6 or 7, but these cases must be reviewed and approved by the Director of Telecommunications. Although the general term "department" is used here, this category may also include colleges, divisions, schools, official institutes, centers, and academic and service units.

If questions arise as to whether a name officially represents a department, the Director of Telecommunications will discuss the matter with the appropriate department head.

Academic/Administrative Program Names

[www.]dept.ttu.edu/program

[www.]program.dept.ttu.edu

Where:

program - program name or mnemonic

Academic/Administrative programs are typically initiatives which may last from a few days to a few years, but do not have the status, permanence or identifiability of a department or departmental group.

Short Web Site Address "Go Tech" Service

go.ttu.edu/program

Often, top-level names are sought because a short web site address is desirable. Texas Tech offers another service for this purpose. Short Web Site Address "Go" Service can be requested to achieve an address of the form go.ttu.edu/program.

If you desire a short address for promotional purposes, you should request a short web site address rather than a top-level program name.

Top-level Program Names

[www.]program.ttu.edu

Some program names are appropriate for placement at the University's top-level (i.e., program.ttu.edu). Names at the top-level must meet criteria of university-level services or reach such a broad audience of Texas Tech as to not logically fall under any one specific department or program.

Top-level names should be requested sparingly and only when deemed appropriate for a University-wide scope. These names also receive one or two levels of higher administrative consideration and review to determine if a requested name is appropriate for the top-level. When making this type of request, please allow time for this additional review.

Generally, top-level names are reserved for programs of the Office of President or Office of Provost which reach the entire population of Texas Tech or the general public at large.

Technical Points

An important distinction should be made between an alias and a system name. Each system name (sometimes called a fully qualified domain name or FQDN) is directly associated with its assigned IP address. An example of that relationship is shown below:

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

When requesting an alias, you need to specify the full system name to which the alias will point.

System Names for Secondary IP Addresses

Should a specialized service (e.g., virtual web server, VM hypervisor, etc.) require that secondary IP addresses be allocated to a system, the system name assigned to this secondary address will have --n appended to the primary system name. For example, if the system name is gizifratz.ttu.edu, then the system name associated with the secondary IP addresses would be gizifratz--1.ttu.edu, gizifratz--2.ttu.edu, and so on.