Illinois Domain Project Announces Opening of New illinois.edu Domain

The Illinois Domain Project is pleased to announce the opening of the new illinois.edu domain to the general campus community November 1, 2008.  

Beginning November 1, 2008, all units can request illinois.edu domain names. Any unit with an existing uiuc.edu domain name will be given the rights to the same name in the illinois.edu domain. All domain name requests must be made using the Customer Specific Domain Name request form on the CITES DNS Tools Web site ==> https://www-dns.cites.uiuc.edu/dnstools/DomainReq/customerspecific-uiuc.html. NO DOMAIN NAME REQUESTS WILL BE CONSIDERED UNLESS THEY ARE RECEIVED VIA THIS FORM.

Because of the anticipated volume of work, Host Manager is setting a two week service window for completing submitted requests. Incomplete forms will be returned to submitters. Once all required information is received by Host Manager, requestors can expect their DNS entries to be created no later than two weeks after all required information is received.

November 1, 2008 signals the beginning of Phase 1 work for the Illinois Domain Project. Phase 1 work entails ensuring all campus Web sites answer on both their uiuc.edu and illinois.edu addresses, with the preference being a permanent redirect to the illinois.edu address. Information on creating Permanent Redirects can be found here ==> https://wiki.cites.uiuc.edu/wiki/x/3gWOAQ. Phase 1 work is expected to be completed by April 30, 2009. Phase 2 work, updating links and references within Web sites, will not begin until May 1, 2009.

Between August 7 and October 15, 2008, a pilot was held to transition several units into the new domain. The purpose was to gather feedback, assess potential problems and capture Best Practices as units begin the work to transition into the new domain. Recommendations from the pilot, as well as other relevant information, have been organized on the project's public Wiki on the Web Servers page ==> https://wiki.cites.uiuc.edu/wiki/x/3gWOAQ. This Wiki is an open forum for IT Pros on campus to document and discuss their findings as we move through this transition.  All IT Pros are encouraged to share their work and suggestions in this forum.

In addition, units may also begin registering host names in the illinois.edu domain. This is an automated process that requires the corresponding illinois.edu domain to exist.

Requests for new names in the illinois.edu domain may also be submitted beginning November 1, 2008. To help units in the decision process for a new domain name, CITES, in conjunction with Public Affairs, has developed DNS Standards that include Acceptable Name Guidelines. This information is located on the CITES Campus DNS Standards Web site ==> http://www.cites.illinois.edu/dns/standards.html.

PLEASE NOTE: BEGINNING NOVEMBER 1, 2008, NEW UIUC.EDU DOMAIN NAMES WILL NO LONGER BE CREATED. However, units may continue to register hosts in existing uiuc.edu domains.

A series of Brown Bags on updating Apache and IIS servers for the new domain are being planned. Further information will be released when dates and locations are available.

To learn more about the Illinois Domain Project, please visit http://illinois.edu/goto/illinoisdomainproject. Or you can contact the project directly by e-mail at illinoisdomainproject@illinois.edu.