Guide to Web Publishing

Responsibilities and policies for domains

.gla.ac.uk and .glasgow.ac.uk

• The University of Glasgow IT Services is the registered holder and maintainer of the domains .gla.ac.uk and .glasgow.ac.uk.

.ac.uk, .gov.uk, .nhs.uk

• UKERNA (Janet Network) is responsible for the administration and registration of domain names under the .ac.uk and .gov.uk sub-domains and the NHS manages the nhs.uk name space.
• Jisc's eligibility policy provides more information about UKERNA rules and application procedures

.uk

• Nominet manages the other sub-domains under .uk.

Others

• Other domains and sub-domains are managed by a variety of commercial organisations

Policy

In all cases the site and its content would be bound by:

• The University of Glasgow website terms of use
• The University of Glasgow acceptable use of IT facilities
• JANET acceptable use policy
• JANET connection policies and procedures

Owner responsibility

The named owner of the domain has overall responsibility of the domain but is not necessarily the person that updates it.

• Only the named owner can request changes and IT Services cannot transfer ownership 

When deciding on a named owner, it is important to consider business continuty and putting a process in place if that person leaves the University. 

Identify domain name

The choice of your domain name should reflect the information resource that is to be made available, but may also be limited by availability, as the domain name may already be in use.

• You can check the availability of domain names

The University of Glasgow requires Colleges, Schools, Institutes and Services to use the www.gla.ac.uk umbrella, with the URL format www.gla.ac.uk/area.

Even if Colleges or Schools host their own server, it is possible for requests to www.gla.ac.uk/area to be redirected to the local College/School server.

Domain names outside of this scope are only likely to be accepted by the University where they reflect a broader grouping of interests across departments, centrally funded organisations, national or international organisations with a core educational or research activity.

There are few circumstances where domain names outside .ac.uk are appropriate for University related business.

Domain name registration

New registrations

Registrations within the .gla.ac.uk and/or .glasgow.ac.uk domains are dealt with locally by IT Services, who is the administrative contact and delegated as nameserver for any domain names that it hosts.

Procedures

Registration of a domain name involves the following:

• Choice of a suitable domain name
• Registration of name by IT Services
• Delegation of name to a DNS domain name server
• In addition, it will be necessary to determine what facilities are required by the site (TLS, SSL), which host will act as the server for the new service and how the site will be run and supported

Registrations in other sub-domains are subject to:

• Domain availability
• Successful application to the authority
• Potential charges

Do not register a domain name using online registration agencies. Problems may arise in administering DNS name server entries, possibly resulting in excessive costs to modify the registration, or an inability to make changes or resolve issues.

Submit request for new domain

Submit request

To request a domain name for a new web site, you must have permission/agreement for where the site will be hosted before considering any potential external web development.

Once confirmed, submit your request via the UofG Helpdesk and include the following information:

• A full explanation and justification of reasons for the proposed web site
• Domain name to be registered
• A budget code to charge against
• How many years are required to be purchased (maximum 10 years in the first instance)
• Name of the person responsible for maintaining and making renewal decisions in the future
  • This role is extremely important and consideration should be given to maintain the information for business continuity e.g., should the person leave the University
• Details of support arrangements for these facilities

If applying for an ac.uk domain, you will be asked for additional information on the request form.

Approved requests

Once approved, IT Services will:

• Register the domain name with the appropriate internet authorities
• Maintain the domain name in its name server tables

Timescales

Anyone considering establishing a web site is urged to plan carefully, allow plenty of time for initial discussions that may be needed upon registration, and sufficient time for the registration and delegation of the domain name to take place. 

Transfer of existing registration

Existing domain names will be owned by a particular organisation/individual with a person named as the administrative or technical contact.

Only the named person can make requests for changes to the domain registration with the appropriate domain or sub-domain administrative authority.

Requests for a domain registration change require the University of Glasgow's approval, a domain name change request from the administrative contact in the other organisation, and the transfer of the delegated nameserver to the University of Glasgow.

Failure to do so can cause the domain name to disappear from DNS tables, making the website unavailable.

If you have an existing registration to transfer over, request this via the UofG Helpdesk with the following information: