Domino Organization Naming Recommendations

Domino Organization Naming Recommendations
Rob Kirkland

Excerpted from Domino System Administration by Rob Kirkland, published by New Riders.

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The guidelines regarding the naming of the organization, OUs, servers, and people are as follows:

• The organization name, OU names, and server names should not contain spaces. This makes for easier administration of servers. User common names may contain whatever spaces they do in real life.
• Country names, if you use them, must consist of the two-letter abbreviations assigned to each country by the ISO [International Standards Organization].
• The organization name must be at least three characters and not more than 64 characters in length. Keep it short but identifiable.
• By default, Notes will assign the same name to your domain and organization. Consider making them different. This will make it easier in the future for people to recognize which one they are looking at. Some companies name their domain as outsiders know the company ("Winkin, Blinkin, and Nod") and their organization as insiders refer to it ("WBN").
• OU Names can be as short as a single character and as long as 32 characters. For the sake of those who have to type them out, make them as short as possible but long enough to be meaningfully descriptive.
• Server common names should be unique across the organization. In fact, server common names should be unique across all organizations and domains within your control. This minimizes the possibility of a user reaching ServerX/Acme when really intending to reach ServerX/Bard.
• Consider using server common names that will be easy for users to remember, whimsical even, instead of the deadly meaningless combinations of code letters and numbers typically assigned to computers by IS departments. The computer's host name or NetBIOS name can adhere to the IS department's standard naming scheme, if you want. But there's no need to inflict that on your Notes users.
• Users' common names are usually each person's real name. Decide if you want to use full names with middle initials or just nicknames and last names, then follow that rule when registering users. (But if a user doesn't like his full name and wants to use a nickname, go along with the user's wishes if you want.)
• If you decide to use users' middle initials in their common names, decide whether to use trailing periods. Consistency makes the environment less frustrating for users.
• If you want to use something other than the users' real names to identify them, you may. The only name field that requires an entry is the Last Name field.
• The maximum size of any user's or server's fully distinguished name is 128 characters. For the sake of those who have to type out the names, I hope you never approach that limit.

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