Network Working Group M. Stahl
Request for Comments: 1032 SRI International
DOMAIN ADMINISTRATORS GUIDE
This memo describes procedures for registering a domain with the
Network Information Center (NIC) of Defense Data Network (DDN), and
offers guidelines on the establishment and administration of a domain
in accordance with the requirements specified in RFC-920. It is
intended for use by domain administrators. This memo should be used
in conjunction with RFC-920, which is an official policy statement of
the Internet Activities Board (IAB) and the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA). Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Domains are administrative entities that provide decentralized
management of host naming and addressing. The domain-naming system
is distributed and hierarchical.
The NIC is designated by the Defense Communications Agency (DCA) to
provide registry services for the domain-naming system on the DDN and
DARPA portions of the Internet.
As registrar of top-level and second-level domains, as well as
administrator of the root domain name servers on behalf of DARPA and
DDN, the NIC is responsible for maintaining the root server zone
files and their binary equivalents. In addition, the NIC is
responsible for administering the top-level domains of "ARPA," "COM,"
"EDU," "ORG," "GOV," and "MIL" on behalf of DCA and DARPA until it
becomes feasible for other appropriate organizations to assume those
It is recommended that the guidelines described in this document be
used by domain administrators in the establishment and control of
The role of the domain administrator (DA) is that of coordinator,
manager, and technician. If his domain is established at the second
level or lower in the tree, the DA must register by interacting with
the management of the domain directly above his, making certain that
RFC 1032 DOMAIN ADMINISTRATORS GUIDE November 1987
his domain satisfies all the requirements of the administration under
which his domain would be situated. To find out who has authority
over the name space he wishes to join, the DA can ask the NIC
Hostmaster. Information on contacts for the top-level and second-
level domains can also be found on line in the file NETINFO:DOMAIN-
CONTACTS.TXT, which is available from the NIC via anonymous FTP.
The DA should be technically competent; he should understand the
concepts and procedures for operating a domain server, as described
in RFC-1034, and make sure that the service provided is reliable and
uninterrupted. It is his responsibility or that of his delegate to
ensure that the data will be current at all times. As a manager, the
DA must be able to handle complaints about service provided by his
domain name server. He must be aware of the behavior of the hosts in
his domain, and take prompt action on reports of problems, such as
protocol violations or other serious misbehavior. The administrator
of a domain must be a responsible person who has the authority to
either enforce these actions himself or delegate them to someone
Name assignments within a domain are controlled by the DA, who should
verify that names are unique within his domain and that they conform
to standard naming conventions. He furnishes access to names and
name-related information to users both inside and outside his domain.
He should work closely with the personnel he has designated as the
"technical and zone" contacts for his domain, for many administrative
decisions will be made on the basis of input from these people.
THE DOMAIN TECHNICAL AND ZONE CONTACT
A zone consists of those contiguous parts of the domain tree for
which a domain server has complete information and over which it has
authority. A domain server may be authoritative for more than one
zone. The domain technical/zone contact is the person who tends to
the technical aspects of maintaining the domain's name server and
resolver software, and database files. He keeps the name server
running, and interacts with technical people in other domains and
zones to solve problems that affect his zone.
Domain or host name choices and the allocation of domain name space
are considered to be local matters. In the event of conflicts, it is
the policy of the NIC not to get involved in local disputes or in the
local decision-making process. The NIC will not act as referee in
disputes over such matters as who has the "right" to register a
particular top-level or second-level domain for an organization. The
NIC considers this a private local matter that must be settled among
RFC 1032 DOMAIN ADMINISTRATORS GUIDE November 1987
the parties involved prior to their commencing the registration
process with the NIC. Therefore, it is assumed that the responsible
person for a domain will have resolved any local conflicts among the
members of his domain before registering that domain with the NIC.
The NIC will give guidance, if requested, by answering specific
technical questions, but will not provide arbitration in disputes at
the local level. This policy is also in keeping with the distributed
hierarchical nature of the domain-naming system in that it helps to
distribute the tasks of solving problems and handling questions.
Naming conventions for hosts should follow the rules specified in
RFC-952. From a technical standpoint, domain names can be very long.
Each segment of a domain name may contain up to 64 characters, but
the NIC strongly advises DAs to choose names that are 12 characters
or fewer, because behind every domain system there is a human being
who must keep track of the names, addresses, contacts, and other data
in a database. The longer the name, the more likely the data
maintainer is to make a mistake. Users also will appreciate shorter
names. Most people agree that short names are easier to remember and
type; most domain names registered so far are 12 characters or fewer.
Domain name assignments are made on a first-come-first-served basis.
The NIC has chosen not to register individual hosts directly under
the top-level domains it administers. One advantage of the domain
naming system is that administration and data maintenance can be
delegated down a hierarchical tree. Registration of hosts at the
same level in the tree as a second-level domain would dilute the
usefulness of this feature. In addition, the administrator of a
domain is responsible for the actions of hosts within his domain. We
would not want to find ourselves in the awkward position of policing
the actions of individual hosts. Rather, the subdomains registered
under these top-level domains retain the responsibility for this
Countries that wish to be registered as top-level domains are
required to name themselves after the two-letter country code listed
in the international standard ISO-3166. In some cases, however, the
two-letter ISO country code is identical to a state code used by the
U.S. Postal Service. Requests made by countries to use the three-
letter form of country code specified in the ISO-3166 standard will
be considered in such cases so as to prevent possible conflicts and
RFC 1032 DOMAIN ADMINISTRATORS GUIDE November 1987
Obtain a domain questionnaire from the NIC hostmaster, or FTP the
file NETINFO:DOMAIN-TEMPLATE.TXT from host SRI-NIC.ARPA.
Fill out the questionnaire completely. Return it via electronic mail
to HOSTMASTER@SRI-NIC.ARPA.
The APPENDIX to this memo contains the application form for
registering a top-level or second-level domain with the NIC. It
supersedes the version of the questionnaire found in RFC-920. The
application should be submitted by the person administratively
responsible for the domain, and must be filled out completely before
the NIC will authorize establishment of a top-level or second-level
domain. The DA is responsible for keeping his domain's data current
with the NIC or with the registration agent with which his domain is
registered. For example, the CSNET and UUCP managements act as
domain filters, processing domain applications for their own
organizations. They pass pertinent information along periodically to
the NIC for incorporation into the domain database and root server
files. The online file NETINFO:ALTERNATE-DOMAIN-PROCEDURE.TXT
outlines this procedure. It is highly recommended that the DA review
this information periodically and provide any corrections or
additions. Corrections should be submitted via electronic mail.
The designers of the domain-naming system initiated several general
categories of names as top-level domain names, so that each could
accommodate a variety of organizations. The current top-level
domains registered with the DDN Network Information Center are ARPA,
COM, EDU, GOV, MIL, NET, and ORG, plus a number of top-level country
domains. To join one of these, a DA needs to be aware of the purpose
for which it was intended.
"ARPA" is a temporary domain. It is by default appended to the
names of hosts that have not yet joined a domain. When the system
was begun in 1984, the names of all hosts in the Official DoD
Internet Host Table maintained by the NIC were changed by adding
of the label ".ARPA" in order to accelerate a transition to the
domain-naming system. Another reason for the blanket name changes
was to force hosts to become accustomed to using the new style
names and to modify their network software, if necessary. This
was done on a network-wide basis and was directed by DCA in DDN
Management Bulletin No. 22. Hosts that fall into this domain will
eventually move to other branches of the domain tree.
RFC 1032 DOMAIN ADMINISTRATORS GUIDE November 1987
"COM" is meant to incorporate subdomains of companies and
"EDU" was initiated to accommodate subdomains set up by
universities and other educational institutions.
"GOV" exists to act as parent domain for subdomains set up by
"MIL" was initiated to act as parent to subdomains that are
developed by military organizations.
"NET" was introduced as a parent domain for various network-type
organizations. Organizations that belong within this top-level
domain are generic or network-specific, such as network service
centers and consortia. "NET" also encompasses network
management-related organizations, such as information centers and
"ORG" exists as a parent to subdomains that do not clearly fall
within the other top-level domains. This may include technical-
support groups, professional societies, or similar organizations.
One of the guidelines in effect in the domain-naming system is that a
host should have only one name regardless of what networks it is
connected to. This implies, that, in general, domain names should
not include routing information or addresses. For example, a host
that has one network connection to the Internet and another to BITNET
should use the same name when talking to either network. For a
description of the syntax of domain names, please refer to Section 3
The verification process can be accomplished in several ways. One of
these is through the NIC WHOIS server. If he has access to WHOIS,
the DA can type the command "whois domain <domain name><return>".
The reply from WHOIS will supply the following: the name and address
of the organization "owning" the domain; the name of the domain; its
administrative, technical, and zone contacts; the host names and
network addresses of sites providing name service for the domain.
RFC 1032 DOMAIN ADMINISTRATORS GUIDE November 1987
@whois domain rice.edu<Return>
Rice University (RICE-DOM)
Advanced Studies and Research
Kennedy, Ken (KK28) Kennedy@LLL-CRG.ARPA (713) 527-4834
Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
Riffle, Vicky R. (VRR) rif@RICE.EDU
PENDRAGON.CS.PURDUE.EDU 128.10.2.5
Alternatively, the DA can send an electronic mail message to
SERVICE@SRI-NIC.ARPA. In the subject line of the message header, the
DA should type "whois domain <domain name>". The requested
information will be returned via electronic mail. This method is
convenient for sites that do not have access to the NIC WHOIS
The initial application for domain authorization should be submitted
via electronic mail, if possible, to HOSTMASTER@SRI-NIC.ARPA. The
questionnaire described in the appendix may be used or a separate
application can be FTPed from host SRI-NIC.ARPA. The information
provided by the administrator will be reviewed by hostmaster
personnel for completeness. There will most likely be a few
exchanges of correspondence via electronic mail, the preferred method
of communication, prior to authorization of the domain.
HOW TO GET MORE INFORMATION
An informational table of the top-level domains and their root
servers is contained in the file NETINFO:DOMAINS.TXT online at SRI-
NIC.ARPA. This table can be obtained by FTPing the file.
Alternatively, the information can be acquired by opening a TCP or
UDP connection to the NIC Host Name Server, port 101 on SRI-NIC.ARPA,
and invoking the command "ALL-DOM".
RFC 1032 DOMAIN ADMINISTRATORS GUIDE November 1987
The following online files, all available by FTP from SRI-NIC.ARPA,
contain pertinent domain information:
- NETINFO:DOMAINS.TXT, a table of all top-level domains and the
network addresses of the machines providing domain name
service for them. It is updated each time a new top-level
- NETINFO:DOMAIN-INFO.TXT contains a concise list of all
top-level and second-level domain names registered with the
NIC and is updated monthly.
- NETINFO:DOMAIN-CONTACTS.TXT also contains a list of all the
top level and second-level domains, but includes the
administrative, technical and zone contacts for each as well.
- NETINFO:DOMAIN-TEMPLATE.TXT contains the questionnaire to be
completed before registering a top-level or second-level
For either general or specific information on the domain system, do
one or more of the following:
1. Send electronic mail to HOSTMASTER@SRI-NIC.ARPA
2. Call the toll-free NIC hotline at (800) 235-3155
3. Use FTP to get background RFCs and other files maintained
online at the NIC. Some pertinent RFCs are listed below in
the REFERENCES section of this memo.
RFC 1032 DOMAIN ADMINISTRATORS GUIDE November 1987
The references listed here provide important background information
on the domain-naming system. Path names of the online files
available via anonymous FTP from the SRI-NIC.ARPA host are noted in
1. Defense Communications Agency DDN Defense Communications
System, DDN Management Bulletin No. 22, Domain Names
[ DDN-NEWS:DDN-MGT-BULLETIN-22.TXT ]
2. Defense Communications Agency DDN Defense Communications
System, DDN Management Bulletin No. 32, Phase I of the Domain
Name Implementation, January 1987.
[ DDN-NEWS:DDN-MGT-BULLETIN-32.TXT ]
3. Harrenstien, K., M. Stahl, and E. Feinler, "Hostname
Server", RFC-953, DDN Network Information Center, SRI
International, October 1985. [ RFC:RFC953.TXT ]
4. Harrenstien, K., M. Stahl, and E. Feinler, "Official DoD
Internet Host Table Specification", RFC-952, DDN Network
Information Center, SRI International, October 1985.
5. ISO, "Codes for the Representation of Names of Countries",
ISO-3166, International Standards Organization, May 1981.
6. Lazear, W.D., "MILNET Name Domain Transition", RFC-1031,
Mitre Corporation, October 1987. [ RFC:RFC1031.TXT ]
7. Lottor, M.K., "Domain Administrators Operations Guide",
RFC-1033, DDN Network Information Center, SRI International,
July 1987. [ RFC:RFC1033.TXT ]
8. Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities",
RFC-1034, USC Information Sciences Institute, October 1987.
9. Mockapetris, P., "Domain Names - Implementation and
Specification", RFC-1035, USC Information Sciences Institute,
October 1987. [ RFC:RFC1035.TXT ]
10. Mockapetris, P., "The Domain Name System", Proceedings of the
IFIP 6.5 Working Conference on Computer Message Services,
Nottingham, England, May 1984. Also as ISI/RS-84-133, June
RFC 1032 DOMAIN ADMINISTRATORS GUIDE November 1987
11. Mockapetris, P., J. Postel, and P. Kirton, "Name Server
Design for Distributed Systems", Proceedings of the Seventh
International Conference on Computer Communication, October
30 to November 3 1984, Sidney, Australia. Also as
ISI/RS-84-132, June 1984. [ Not online ]
12. Partridge, C., "Mail Routing and the Domain System", RFC-974,
CSNET-CIC, BBN Laboratories, January 1986.
13. Postel, J., "The Domain Names Plan and Schedule", RFC-881,
USC Information Sciences Institute, November 1983.
14. Reynolds, J., and Postel, J., "Assigned Numbers", RFC-1010
USC Information Sciences Institute, May 1986.
15. Romano, S., and Stahl, M., "Internet Numbers", RFC-1020,
RFC 1032 DOMAIN ADMINISTRATORS GUIDE November 1987
The following questionnaire may be FTPed from SRI-NIC.ARPA as
NETINFO:DOMAIN-TEMPLATE.TXT.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To establish a domain, the following information must be sent to the
NIC Domain Registrar (HOSTMASTER@SRI-NIC.ARPA):
NOTE: The key people must have electronic mailboxes and NIC
"handles," unique NIC database identifiers. If you have access to
"WHOIS", please check to see if you are registered and if so, make
sure the information is current. Include only your handle and any
changes (if any) that need to be made in your entry. If you do not
have access to "WHOIS", please provide all the information indicated
and a NIC handle will be assigned.
(1) The name of the top-level domain to join.
(2) The NIC handle of the administrative head of the organization.
Alternately, the person's name, title, mailing address, phone number,
organization, and network mailbox. This is the contact point for
administrative and policy questions about the domain. In the case of
a research project, this should be the principal investigator.
Organization The NetWorthy Corporation
Name Penelope Q. Sassafrass
Mail Address The NetWorthy Corporation
4676 Andrews Way, Suite 100
Santa Clara, CA 94302-1212
Phone Number (415) 123-4567
Net Mailbox Sassafrass@ECHO.TNC.COM
(3) The NIC handle of the technical contact for the domain.
Alternately, the person's name, title, mailing address, phone number,
organization, and network mailbox. This is the contact point for
problems concerning the domain or zone, as well as for updating
information about the domain or zone.
RFC 1032 DOMAIN ADMINISTRATORS GUIDE November 1987
Technical and Zone Contact
Organization The NetWorthy Corporation
Mail Address The NetWorthy Corporation
4676 Andrews Way, Suite 100
Santa Clara, CA. 94302-1212
Phone Number (415) 123-6789
Net Mailbox Aardvark@ECHO.TNC.COM
(4) The name of the domain (up to 12 characters). This is the name
that will be used in tables and lists associating the domain with the
domain server addresses. [While, from a technical standpoint, domain
names can be quite long (programmers beware), shorter names are
easier for people to cope with.]
(5) A description of the servers that provide the domain service for
translating names to addresses for hosts in this domain, and the date
they will be operational.
A good way to answer this question is to say "Our server is
supplied by person or company X and does whatever their standard
For example: Our server is a copy of the one operated by
the NIC; it will be installed and made operational on
(6) Domains must provide at least two independent servers for the
domain. Establishing the servers in physically separate locations
and on different PSNs is strongly recommended. A description of the
server machine and its backup, including
RFC 1032 DOMAIN ADMINISTRATORS GUIDE November 1987
(a) Hardware and software (using keywords from the Assigned
(b) Host domain name and network addresses (which host on which
network for each connected network).
(c) Any domain-style nicknames (please limit your domain-style
- Host domain names and network addresses
BAR.FOO.COM 10.9.0.193 on ARPANET
BR.FOO.COM (same as BAR.FOO.COM 10.9.0.13 on ARPANET)
(7) Planned mapping of names of any other network hosts, other than
the server machines, into the new domain's naming space.
BAR-FOO2.ARPA (10.8.0.193) -> FOO2.BAR.COM
BAR-FOO3.ARPA (10.7.0.193) -> FOO3.BAR.COM
BAR-FOO4.ARPA (10.6.0.193) -> FOO4.BAR.COM
(8) An estimate of the number of hosts that will be in the domain.
RFC 1032 DOMAIN ADMINISTRATORS GUIDE November 1987
(9) The date you expect the fully qualified domain name to become
the official host name in HOSTS.TXT.
Please note: If changing to a fully qualified domain name (e.g.,
FOO.BAR.COM) causes a change in the official host name of an
ARPANET or MILNET host, DCA approval must be obtained beforehand.
Allow 10 working days for your requested changes to be processed.
ARPANET sites should contact ARPANETMGR@DDN1.ARPA. MILNET sites
should contact HOSTMASTER@SRI-NIC.ARPA, 800-235-3155, for
(10) Please describe your organization briefly.
For example: The NetWorthy Corporation is a consulting
organization of people working with UNIX and the C language in an
electronic networking environment. It sponsors two technical
conferences annually and distributes a bimonthly newsletter.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
This example of a completed application corresponds to the examples
found in the companion document RFC-1033, "Domain Administrators
(1) The name of the top-level domain to join.
(2) The NIC handle of the administrative contact person.
(3) The NIC handle of the domain's technical and zone
(4) The name of the domain.
(5) A description of the servers.
Our server is the TOPS20 server JEEVES supplied by ISI; it
will be installed and made operational on 1 July 1987.
RFC 1032 DOMAIN ADMINISTRATORS GUIDE November 1987
(6) A description of the server machine and its backup:
(a) Hardware and software
(b) Host domain name and network address
KL.SRI.COM 10.1.0.2 on ARPANET, 128.18.10.6 on SRINET
STRIPE.SRI.COM 10.4.0.2 on ARPANET, 128.18.10.4 on SRINET
(c) Domain-style nickname
(7) Planned mapping of names of any other network hosts, other than
the server machines, into the new domain's naming space.
SRI-Blackjack.ARPA (128.18.2.1) -> Blackjack.SRI.COM
SRI-CSL.ARPA (192.12.33.2) -> CSL.SRI.COM
(8) An estimate of the number of hosts that will be directly within
(9) A date when you expect the fully qualified domain name to become
the official host name in HOSTS.TXT.
(10) Brief description of organization.
SRI International is an independent, nonprofit, scientific
research organization. It performs basic and applied research
for government and commercial clients, and contributes to
worldwide economic, scientific, industrial, and social progress
through research and related services.
projects / unix-history / blob