Determining The Domain Name

By Author: Mike Jones
Total Articles: 256
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In Windows Server 2003 and Active Directory, a domain name is a name given MCITP certification to a collection of networked computers that share a common directory. Because Active Directory uses DNS as its domain naming and location service, Windows Server 2003 domain names are also DNS names. When logging on to the network, Active Directory clients query their DNS servers to locate domain controllers.
In DNS, names are arranged in a hierarchy and can be partitioned according to the hierarchy. The hierarchy allows parentchild relationships where the name of the child domain is designated by the name of the parent domain, preceded by a label for the child domain. For example, uk.microsoft.com is a child domain of the microsoft.com domain; for the child name the "uk" label is placed before the name of the parent domain, microsqft.com. Thus, a domain's name identifies its position in the hierarchy.
In the example shown in MCITP, the root domain is named contoso.com, while each of the child domains have been named for the physical locations ...
... that represent the domains.
Because domain names designated in Active Directory are employed by users as they navigate the forest, the names you select are very important. Select an easily identifiable name for the forest root domain, which is the basis for its child and grandchild domains. If you adhere to some basic guidelines, you should be able to determine domain names that meet the needs of your organization. The following are guidelines for naming domains:
Although Windows Server 2003 DNS supports the use of almost any Unicode character in a name, by using only Internet standard characters you ensure that your Active Directory domain names will be compatible with other versions of DNS.
Differentiate between internal and external namespaces. Because most organizations have an Internet presence, you should use different names for the internal
and external root domains to clearly delineate public resources from private resources and prevent unauthorized users from accessing resources on the internal network. For example, Microsoft is represented on the Internet by the DNS name free Microsoft practice tests. However, the organization might use corp.microsoft.com to represent their Active Directory forest root domain name.