rfc2146.txt

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Network Working Group                         Federal Networking Council
Request For Comments: 2146                                      May 1997
Category: Informational
Obsoletes: 1816


                 U.S. Government Internet Domain Names

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  This memo
   does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of
   this memo is unlimited.

Abstract

   This memo provides an update and clarification to RFC 1816.  This
   document describes the registration policies for the top-level domain
   ".GOV".  The purpose of the domain is to provide naming conventions
   that identify US Federal government agencies in order to facilitate
   access to their electronic resources.  This memo provides guidance
   for registrations by Federal Agencies that avoids name duplication
   and facilitates responsiveness to the public.  It restricts
   registrations to coincide with the approved structure of the US
   government and the advice of its Chief Information Officers.  Two
   documents are recognized as constituting documentation on the US
   government structure: FIPS 95-1 provides a standard recognized
   structure into which domain registrations for .GOV and FED.US can
   fit; and, the US Government Manual [3], a special publication of the
   Federal Register, provides official documentation of the government
   structure. The latter document may be subject to more timely updates
   than the former.  Either document is suitable for determining which
   entities qualify for second-level domain registration within .GOV and
   FED.US.

   As a side effect, this RFC reduces the number of .GOV and FED.US
   level registrations and reduces the workload on the registration
   authority.  Previous versions of this document did not address the
   FED.US domain.  This document anticipates the migration of the .GOV
   domain into the FED.US domain, in keeping with common practice on the
   Internet today.










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RFC 2146         U.S. Government Internet Domain Names          May 1997


U.S. GOVERNMENT INTERNET DOMAIN NAMES POLICY

   The .GOV domain is delegated from the root authority to the US
   Federal Networking Council.  The .GOV domain is for registration of
   US governmental entities on the federal level only.  Registrations
   for state and local governmental agencies shall be made under the .US
   domain in accordance with the policies for that domain.  Further
   references in this document to .GOV should be understood to apply to
   FED.US as well.  The most succinct form of the policy is "one agency,
   one name".  The agency may choose its own name, but an easily
   recognized acronym is suggested.  The following paragraphs enumerate
   the types of agencies eligible for registration and the types that
   are not eligible:


         1) The document "Codes for the Identification of Federal and
      Federally Assisted Organizations", FIPS 95-1 (or its successor)
      lists the official names of US Government agencies.  Either that
      document or the US Government Manual can be used to determine that
      an entity is eligible for registration as a second level domain of
      .GOV.

              A) Top-level entities (e.g., those in FIPS 95-1 with codes
         ending in 00 such a"1200 Department of Agriculture"), those in
         the US Government Manual listed as "Departments, Independent
         Establishments (not Corporations), and all the Boards,
         Commissions, and Committees"), and independent agencies and
         organizations (e.g., "National Science Foundation" and other
         non-indented listings unless prohibited below) as listed in
         this document are eligible for registration directly under
         .GOV.

              B) Cross-agency collaborative organizations (e.g.,
         "Federal Networking Council", "Information Infrastructure Task
         Force") are eligible for registration under .GOV upon
         presentation of the chartering document and are the only non-
         FIPS-listed or non-US-Government-Manual-listed organizations
         eligible for registration under .GOV.

              C) Subsidiary, non-autonomous components of top-level or
         other entities are not eligible for separate registration.
         International organizations listed in this document are NOT
         eligible for registration under .GOV.  Subsidiary components
         should register as third-level domains under their parent
         organization.  Other Federal entities may apply to the FED.US
         domain.





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RFC 2146         U.S. Government Internet Domain Names          May 1997


              D) Organizations listed as "Federally Aided Organizations"
         in FIPS 95-1 are not eligible for registration under .GOV and
         should register under .ORG or other appropriate top-level
         domain that reflects their status.

              E) Organizations subsidiary to "Department of Defense"
         must register under the ".MIL" domain via the Defense Data
         Network Information Center - contact [e-mail].

              F) Other entities may be registered by request of a
         cognizant Chief Information Officer (CIO); CIO's are those
         agency officials designated by the agency head in accordance
         with the requirements of the Information Technology Management
         Reform Act of 1996 and Executive Order 13011.

              G) Federal Courts constitute a special class of domains.
         All Federal courts seeking domain registrations should contact
         the Administrative Office of the US Courts for their guidance
         on policy and naming.

            a) The string "SUPREME-COURT" is reserved for the Supreme
            Court domain.

            b) All other courts and their officers and officials should
            register in .USCOURTS.GOV.  The only standard exceptions to
            these rules are changes to governmental structure due to
            statutory, regulatory or executive directives not yet
            reflected in the above document.  The requesting agency
            should provide documentation in one of the above forms to
            request an exception.  Other requests for exception should
            be referred to the Federal Networking Council.

         2) A domain name should be derived from the official name for
      the organization (e.g., "USDA.Gov" or "AGRICULTURE.GOV".)  The
      registration shall be listed in the registration database under
      the official name (per FIPS 95-1 or US Government Manual) for the
      organization or under the name in the chartering document.

         3) Only ONE registration and delegation shall be made for the
      purpose of identifying an agency.  The .GOV registration authority
      shall provide registrations on a first-come first-served basis.
      It is an individual agency matter as to which portion of the
      agency is responsible for managing the domain space under a
      delegated agency domain.







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RFC 2146         U.S. Government Internet Domain Names          May 1997


         4) Those agencies and entities that had multiple registrations
      under .GOV may retain them until August 1998, but sub-delegations
      will be permitted only under the one name chosen by the agency as
      its permanent name.  As of August 1996, the auxiliary domains will
      become un-delegated and will revert to the control of the .GOV
      owner.  As of 2 August 1997, all registrations in the auxiliary
      domains must be mirrored in the permanent domain and those names
      should be used where possible. At the three year point, all
      auxiliary domain registrations will be deleted (August 1998).

         5) Those agencies and entities already registered in .GOV but
      not listed in FIPS 95-1 (e.g., DOE labs, state entities) or the US
      Government Manual may retain their registration within the
      constraint of the single registration rule (see para 4).  No
      further non-listed registrations will be made.  State and local
      entities are strongly encouraged to re-register under .US, but
      this is not mandatory.


REFERENCES

      [1] Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 95-1
   (FIPS PUB 95-1), "Codes for the Identification of Federal and
   Federally Assisted Organizations", U.S. Department of Commerce,
   National Institute of Standards and Technology, January 4, 1993.

      [2] Postel, J., "Domain Name System Structure and Delegation", RFC
   1591, USC/Information Sciences Institute, March 1994.

      [3] US Government Manual,  Office of the Federal Register,
   National Archives and Records Administration, Washington DC 20804.


CLARIFICATION


      * Registrations prior to August 1995 are grand-fathered and do NOT
   require re-registration with the exception of duplicate registrations
   for the SAME organization at the same level.  E.g., 2 registrations
   that represent the Department of Transportation would be considered
   duplicates.  Registrations for each of the Department of
   Transportation and the FAA would not.  (The FAA is an autonomous
   component contained within the DOT).


      * The policy requires resolution of all duplicate registrations by
   August 1998.




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RFC 2146         U.S. Government Internet Domain Names          May 1997


      * Local and state agencies registered under the ".GOV" domain may
   remain there.  However, they are strongly encouraged to transfer to
   the .US domain.


      * Cross-agency collaborative efforts may register under "FED.US"
   as an alternative to asking for an exception to the .GOV policy.


FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS / ANSWERS


   EXISTING .GOV REGISTRATIONS

         Q.  What are examples of FIPS 95-1 Departments possessing
      duplicate top-level domain names, and what guidance has been given
      to them regarding these names?

         A.  Examples of FIPS 95-1 Departments with duplicate DNS'
      include "STATE.GOV" and "LABOR.GOV".  These departments had six
      months (until December 1996) to determine which name is permanent
      and which is auxiliary and three years to drop the auxiliary
      registration.



         Q.  Currently, our services are defined as www.cdc.gov,
      ftp.cdc.gov,  and gopher.cdc.gov.  Does this proposal mean that
      our names will now be: www.ntb.ops.cdc.phs.dhhs.gov, etc or at a
      minimum: www.cdc.phs.dhhs.gov, ftp.cdc.phs.dhhs.gov, and
      gopher.cdc.phs.dhhs.gov?

         A.  In the case of CDC, NIST, NIH, FDA, and the numerous other
      non-FIPS-95-1 agencies registered with ".GOV" domains, there will
      be no changes.  The existing DNS' of these agencies are grand-
      fathered under this policy.  In addition, the policy effects only
      the domains allowed to be registered directly under .GOV; further
      delegations are under the control of the sub-domain owner.  For
      the above, assuming the HHS sub-domain owner concurs, there is no
      problem with the HHS registering "cdc.dhhs.gov" as a sub-domain of
      "dhhs.gov".










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         Q.  How will registrations by Federal Laboratories be
      addressed?

         A. The existing domain names will be grand-fathered, i.e.,
      LBL.GOV.  Any new registrations will generally be within the
      domain of the sponsoring agency (and subject to agency policies),
      within the .US domain as a geographic entity, or within the FED.US
      domain.



         Q.  What are some examples of state government agencies
      registered under ".GOV" domain?  Will they need to change their
      DNS?

         A.  Examples of cities and states that originally registered
      under the .GOV include:  WA.GOV Department of Information
      Services, State of Washington LA.GOV Bureau of Sanitation, City of
      Los Angeles These entities are strongly encouraged to re-register
      in the .US domain but this is NOT mandatory.  No further state and
      local agencies will be registered under .GOV.



         Q.  It is not in anyone's best interest to name things by
      organizational boundaries as these things change. Internet domain
      names and host names, once defined and used, become so widely
      distributed that they become virtually impossible to change.

         A.  The policy does not require organizations to change their
      names once established, but individual agency policies may.  The
      DNS system contains some capabilities to assist in name transition
      - the CNAME record provides a capability for cross-domain aliases
      which can be used to ease a transition between one name space and
      another.  As noted in the clarifications, naming and sub-domain
      conventions WITHIN an agency or department DNS delegation are
      solely the province of that entity.














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