Maine State Government
Dept. of Administrative & Financial
Services
Office of Information Technology
Enterprise Name Resolution Procedure
I. Statement of Policy
The
Office of Information Technology has established a Domain Naming Policy for the
use of Domain Name Services (DNS) in the State of Maine environment. State
agencies will use these procedures as a guide in naming enterprise information
technology assets.
II. Purpose
This procedure is intended to ensure that the method
of name resolution utilized is DNS and to create the complementary
enforcement mechanism.
III. Guidelines & Procedures
A. DNS (Domain Naming System) is
indentified as the international standard for name resolution across networks
of any size and within any routed, networked environment based on its
scalability, reliability and fault tolerance
B. It is acknowledged that there
are currently I.T. assets in the State’s environment that are unable to utilize
DNS to perform name resolution, but it is recognized that the vast majority of
devices on the network have no problem using DNS.
C. Any system, application, or
environment that needs to refer to networked assets should utilize DNS to
perform name resolution.
1. This includes not only systems
currently using DNS, but those currently utilizing WINS (NetBIOS), or Host
Files, which could utilize DNS but are not currently doing so.
D. DNS has been established as
the only officially supported method of name resolution provided from the
enterprise, and all systems requiring name resolution services are required to
utilize DNS.
E. Wherein DNS is the only
supported name resolution protocol, the use of FQDN’s (Fully Qualified Domain
Names) will be critical.
1. All servers, appliances and PC’s or laptops on the State
WAN are required to have a properly registered FQDN to assist in DNS queries
for that device.
2. All queries performed via DNS to locate such devices must
use the FQDN format of “machine-name.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx” (ie –
“computer.som.w2k.state.me.us”).
3. All computer or device names registered in DNS must follow
the naming standard format already established in the State of Maine’s Computer Naming Standard.
4. No hard coded dotted number
quad; all references should be to names.
F. It will be specifically mentioned that there are devices on
the network that do not need DNS name resolution, and as such should not
actually have DNS records associated with them. Only devices that will need to
be located via their DNS names should have records in the DNS database
1. Examples of devices requiring DNS records are servers and
PC’s, appliances, etc.
2. Examples of devices not necessarily requiring DNS records
are: infrastructure devices (such as environmental monitoring equipment), badge
readers, web-cams, etc.
G. All systems that could be using DNS but are not currently
doing so must be converted to use our Enterprise DNS solution by December 31st 2010.
IV. Applicability
This procedure applies
to all information technology assets, both hardware and software, including:
· Information technology assets that are owned by the
Executive Branch and Semi-autonomous State Agencies irrespective of
where such assets are located or hosted, and
· Information technology assets from other Maine State
Government branches that are reliant upon the State wide area network and its
support systems for their operation.
V. Responsibilities
All persons and parties engaged in information technology
work for the State of Maine are responsible for complying with the defined and
approved enterprise name resolution procedure. These roles include:
1. Enterprise DNS Administrator - Responsible for the
Architecture and Maintenance of the States DNS infrastructure
2. Server Administrators - Responsible for properly
configuring servers and other devices pursuant to the Enterprise Name
Resolution Policy.
3. Client Technologies -Responsible for the proper building and configuration of client desktops and
laptops pursuant to the Enterprise Name Resolution Policy
VI. References
VII. Document Information
A. Document Reference Number: 44
B. Category: Internet, Network and Transport
C. Adoption Date: 02/23/2010
D. Effective Date: 02/09/2010
E. Review Date: 02/09/2013
F. Point of Contact: John T.
Scott, Enterprise DNS Administrator, State House Station #145, Augusta, ME
04333, (207) 624-9522.
G. Approved By: Greg McNeal, Chief Technology Officer.
H. Position Title(s) or Agency Responsible for Enforcement: Wayne
Gallant, Network Services, OIT.
I. Legal Citation: Title 5, Maine Revised Statutes, Chapter
163 §1973, Section 1, Paragraph B authorizes the CIO to “set policies and
standards for the implementation and use of information and telecommunications
technologies” and Title 5, Maine Revised Statutes, Chapter 147 §1621, Section
