Advice on Internal Domain Names

[Kevin Darcy]

Kevin Darcy wrote:

> Mark Taylor wrote:
>
> > Hi
> >
> > I want some advice on how to name my internal domains.  We have a registered
> > Domain Name (foo.co.uk for this example), and I need to break it down for my
> > internal branches.
> >
> > The plan is to do a follows:
> >
> > Internet
> >       |
> > foo.co.uk
> >       |
> > Firewall
> >       |
> > intranet.foo.co.uk
> >       |
> > branch1.intranet.foo.co.uk ... branch50.intranet.foo.co.uk
> >
> > This will put all our internet servers on "visible" foo.co.uk.  Everything
> > on our intranet will be "non-visible" intranet.foo.co.uk.
> >
> > Is this the recommend approach to naming internal domains ?
>
> If you can get away with this, do it! It'll make your life much easier in the
> long run. Don't be surprised, though, if your users start complaining about
> "all that typing" and force you to put all of those branch subdomains directly
> under foo.co.uk....

After seeing some of the other comments in this thread, I'm going to partially
retract my recommendation. What's most important, if you want to get out of
maintaining two copies of it for the rest of your life, is to reserve your
highest-level domain (foo.co.uk in the example) for external names *only*. The
value of having a separate subdomain for everything internal (intranet.foo.co.uk
in the example) is that it gives people a place to put "common" internal names,
and thus helps them resist the temptation to try and shove them directly into the
highest-level domain. But if you can enforce the external-only restriction
without the extra subdomain level, then more power to you! Reducing domain levels
is, in general terms, a good thing.


- Kevin