Texas
State Internet Domain Name Policy UPPS No.
04.01.08
Issue No. 2
Effective Date: 12/14/2012
Review: April 1 E3Y
01. POLICY
STATEMENTS
01.01 This UPPS directs the
assignment and administration of domain names, domain name services, and
Uniform Resource Locator (URL) values at Texas State. Consistent adherence to
this UPPS:
a.
assures that all Texas State domain names and URLs are consistent with
the rules, regulations, standards and practices of EDUCAUSE (the registrar of
the .edu Internet domain) and the Domain Name System (DNS)
employed by the global Internet community;
b.
facilitates accurate and efficient resolution of Texas State
domain names and URLs to their corresponding numeric Internet protocol addresses;
c.
promotes institutional consistency in the selection and naming of
domains and other URL components;
d.
assures that domain names associated with Texas State are a
positive reflection on the university; and
e.
maintains clarity and reduces ambiguity for users of Texas State’s
Internet-accessible resources.
See
Attachment I for answers to frequently
asked questions and additional background regarding this policy.
01.02 Like the global Domain
Name System, the domain naming convention described in this policy aligns
domain names and URLs with the university’s organizational structure to
eliminate duplicates, avoid conflicts, and minimize ambiguity. Consequently, a third
level domain or top level folder must reflect the identity of the responsible
university organizational unit (e.g., division, college, or department), unless
an exception is authorized under criteria described in Section 03.04 of this
policy.
01.03 Texas State University has
registered “txstate.edu” with EDUCAUSE as its second level domain name. All official university web sites and services must be
registered within the Texas State domain (txstate.edu), including those of:
a.
divisions, colleges, departments, and other university operating
units;
b.
recognized university organizations that host content on any server
within the txstate.edu domain; and
c.
individual faculty or staff in the performance of official university
functions.
01.04 As an institution of higher learning, the
university values and encourages the open exchange of information. To that end,
university entities (individuals, groups, or organizational units) may register
a website or service under the txstate.edu domain if that site or service:
a.
is consistent with the entity’s role at the university;
b.
does not detract from or impede the university’s mission; and
c.
complies with all university policies, most notably the following:
UPPS 04.01.01, Security of Texas State
Information Resources
UPPS 04.01.02, Information Resources
Identity and Access Management
UPPS 04.01.05, Network Use Policy
UPPS 04.01.06, University Web Sites
UPPS 04.01.07, Appropriate Use of
Information Resources.
Sites
which fail to meet all of these criteria must be hosted outside the txstate.edu
domain.
01.05 Information Technology
is responsible for implementing this policy and will work with individual
resource owners to ensure the assignment of URLs that are both effective labels
for the referenced resources and consistent with the provisions in this policy.
The special assistant to the vice president for Information Technology or
designee will review and authorize each new third level domain prior to its
activation in the Texas State domain name service. Resource owners may not
publish a new third level domain in any form or media without such
authorization. Resource owners may appeal denied URL requests to the vice
president for Information Technology, whose decision is final.
Domain Name System (DNS): The Internet’s address
resolution system. The DNS makes it possible to locate computers on the
Internet by textual name, rather than by the harder to remember strings of
numbers that form an Internet Protocol (IP) address. The DNS system consists of
a network of specialized servers that resolve (translate) textual domain
names into their corresponding numeric IP addresses.
IP Address: Internet Protocol Address. Under Internet Protocol version 4
(IPv4), a string of four numbers separated by periods (such as 111.22.3.444)
used to represent a computer on the Internet. The format of the address is
specified by the Internet Protocol in RFC
791. Most
people use domain names instead, and the resolution between domain names and IP
addresses is handled by the Domain Name System. [NB: The last unallocated Internet
addresses available under IPv4 were assigned in February 2011. A global
initiative is now underway to transition all Internet-accessible resources to
IPv6, as defined in RFC
2460 – Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification. IPv6 provides a far larger
pool of available addresses than IPv4.]
Resource: Any website or network
service offered through the university, accessible via the Internet, and
denoted by a Texas State URL or domain name.
Resource Owner: An organizational unit or
individual constituent of Texas State that has established or wishes to
establish a website or network service denoted by a Texas State URL or domain
name.
Uniform Resource Locator (URL): An
identifier that specifies the Internet location of an existing resource or
service and the mechanism for accessing it. The syntax is:
aaa://bbb.ccc.ddd/eee
as in the example http://library.txstate.edu/my-library, where:
aaa is the protocol (e.g.,
http),
bbb is the third level domain
or hostname (e.g., library),
ccc is the second level domain (e.g., txstate),
ddd is the top level domain
(e.g., edu), and
eee is the top-level folder
(e.g., my-library).
03.01 Computers connected to
the university network are nodes within the Texas State Internet domain. Resources
hosted by these computers (e.g., Web servers, email servers, etc.) shall be
identified in Texas State’s DNS services using “edu”
as the top level domain and “txstate” as the second
level domain.
03.02 Texas State resource
owners are generally expected to host their resources on computers owned by
Texas State or administered by Texas State personnel. Resource owners are also
expected to operate their resources in compliance with the university’s published privacy policy.
Under
some circumstances, however, the university may choose to contract with a
third-party to host and administer a resource or service. The university may also provide DNS lookup
services for the external service by assigning a txstate.edu domain name that
points to the external service. See the examples shown in the following table:
|
Resource |
txstate.edu Domain Name |
Actual Domain Name |
|
HR
Employment Application System (EASY) |
jobs.hr.txstate.edu |
txstate.peopleadmin.com |
|
Texas
State Athletics Website |
athletics.txstate.edu |
www.txstatebobcats.com |
|
Texas
State ePortfolio System |
ePortfolio.txstate.edu |
txstate.tk20.com |
In
such situations, the outsourcing department should ensure that prior to their
entering or registering with the outsourced resource, users of the resource are:
a.
informed that the resource is hosted or managed by an authorized
university provider, especially if the resource reflects Texas State branding,
logos, or trademarks;
b.
notified that the provider’s privacy and security policies will
apply and may not be identical in all respects to those of Texas State; and
c.
afforded access to the provider’s privacy and security policies and
encouraged to review them before proceeding.
03.03 The university’s domain
naming convention is designed to align with its organizational structure to
eliminate duplicates, avoid conflicts, and minimize ambiguity. Consequently, a
URL’s third level domain (or top level folder, if applicable) should reflect
the name of the responsible university organizational unit (e.g., division,
college, or department) and should be generally recognizable to visitors to the
university web site. Information Technology will follow this convention when
working with organizational units to determine their third level domain names and
top level folders. Examples of URL’s conforming to this convention include:
finearts.txstate.edu, library.txstate.edu, and www.txstate.edu/liberalarts.
03.04 Information Technology
may authorize exceptions for third level domain names and top level folders
within the txstate.edu domain only if:
a.
the proposed name does not require additional organizational qualification
to prevent confusion with other university sites or services;
Example:
for a site depicting only the internship opportunities available through the
McCoy College of Business, ‘internships.mccoy.txstate.edu’ would be acceptable
whereas ‘internships.txstate.edu’ would not); and
b.
the proposed name is unlikely to cause confusion with future university
sites or services that can reasonably be anticipated; Example:
‘research.txstate.edu’ would be acceptable as the hostname for a “gateway” site
for information related to the breadth of research activities at Texas State,
but it would not be acceptable as the hostname for the research activities of a
single department or college, or for the departmental web site of the Office of
Sponsored Programs); and
c.
the proposed name is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future; Rationale: Texas State domain names are
intended to be relatively stable so that hyperlinked references to them remain
reliable without the need for multiple redirecting entries or frequent updates to
the university’s DNS servers; and if at least one of the following
additional conditions is also true:
1)
the proposed name identifies a consortium of many different
organizations from inside or outside the university;
2)
the proposed name identifies a center or institute that is not a
department or other university organizational unit (e.g., swrhc.txstate.edu,
the Southwest Regional Humanities Center);
3)
the proposed name identifies a university-wide resource that is
not clearly associated with any single department or unit (e.g.,
CatsWeb.txstate.edu, TRACS.txstate.edu, BobcatMail.txstate.edu,
eCommons.txstate.edu); and
4)
the proposed name identifies a resource offered primarily to people
or groups from outside the university that are not familiar with a university’s
internal organizational structure.
All such exceptions are subject to periodic review by Information
Technology to determine if the exception is still warranted.
03.05 With some exceptions,
most txstate.edu websites are registered under two third level domain names,
one that includes the “www” prefix and one that does not. Either can be
designated as the primary with the other provided by Information Technology via
a redirection service. For example, http://catsweb.txstate.edu is the primary
URL for CatsWeb services, but those services are also
reachable via http://www.catsweb.txstate.edu.
03.06 Third level domain
names and top level folder names may not exceed 63 characters in length and should
be comprised of letters, numbers, and hyphens (i.e., no spaces or special
characters).
03.07 Third level domain
names should not have been trademarked or copyrighted by any entity other than
Texas State. For example, Texas State’s implementation of the Sakai learning
management system has been branded TRACS with the domain name tracs.txstate.edu
rather than sakai.txstate.edu.
03.08 Domain names must not
be controversial, offensive or misrepresent their purpose.
03.09 Information Technology
will contact the registered owner or custodian of any resource that does not
respond appropriately to network connection requests. If the inappropriate condition
persists, Information Technology may block or redirect connection requests to
the offending resource until the situation is resolved.
03.10 Information Technology
may revoke or deny DNS service at any time for any resource found to be in
violation of legal statutes or university policies.
04.01 Information
Technology operates the university’s DNS service primarily to resolve the
domain names of university resources (….txstate.edu) to their corresponding
numeric IP addresses. Information Technology may elect to provide DNS services
(address translations, re-directs, etc.) for other resources, including those
hosted outside the txstate.edu domain if, in its judgment, all of the following
conditions are met:
a. The proposed
resource significantly supports university-related organizations or functions;
b. The proposed
resource will likely be used by a significant number of faculty, staff, or
students;
c. The proposed
URL of the resource is unlikely to be confused with that of a Texas State
organizational unit or with any existing resource within the txstate.edu domain;
and
d. The
administrator (i.e., VP, dean, director, chair) of any organizational unit with
which the hostname might otherwise be associated has explicitly approved the
use of the hostname on a host outside of txstate.edu.
All such requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis. See Section
03.02 for examples of previously-approved requests.
04.02 Technology
Resources may refuse to provide domain name services for any resource hosted
outside the txstate.edu domain if the resource signifies or represents:
a.
an organization or venture, commercial or
noncommercial, that is not an explicit part of the university; or
b.
a project or activity that is funded primarily by non-university
resources.
04.03 University affiliates
(e.g., alumni association, booster clubs, etc.) may register resources within
the txstate.edu domain or outside of the txstate.edu domain, consistent with
other provisions of this policy.
04.04 To host a publicly
accessible resource on a computer with a Texas State IP address, the resource
owner must utilize ‘txstate’ as the resource’s second
level domain name and ‘edu’ as its top level domain
name. Such sites can be registered under other domain names (e.g., .com or
.net) with external domain registrars, but those externally-registered domain
names must ultimately resolve to the same IP address as the university URL
assigned to that resource. Example: The domain name “McCoyMBA.com” may be registered with
an external domain registrar as long as the name resolves to the same IPA
address as “http://www.mccoy.txstate.edu/Graduate-Programs/Home/MBA.html”.
The
above notwithstanding, Information Technology cannot guarantee and is not
responsible for the accessibility of any resource registered under a domain
other than txstate.edu.
To
facilitate compliance with this requirement, the administrator of the resource
should contact Information Technology to coordinate associated domain name
services and IP routing configurations prior to requesting the domain name and
prior to configuring any services related to the domain name and its IP address.
05.01
Reviewers of this UPPS include the
following:
Special Assistant to the Vice
President April 1 E3Y
for Information Technology
Associate Vice President for April 1 E3Y
Technology Resources
Associate Vice President for April 1 E3Y
Instructional Technologies Support
Vice President for April 1
E3Y
Information Technology
This
UPPS has been approved by the following individuals in their official
capacities and represents Texas State policy and procedure from the date of
this document until superseded.
Special
Assistant to the Vice President for Information Technology; senior reviewer of
this UPPS
Vice
President for Information Technology
President