Active Directory/Naming Standards
The WOLFTECH domain is designed to be usable by any organization within NC State University. Consequently, special naming considerations are necessary to promote organization, prevent conflicts, and ease delegation.
Most objects within Active Directory are required to have unique names. In addition, it is important that an objects name indicate its purpose, as well as the organization it belongs to. The following naming standards were developed to help achieve these goals. Please be sure to follow these standards, as any unidentifiable or conflicting objects may be removed.
Groups
Active Directory requires that all groups have unique names. This is achieved by including the acronym of the department, college, or university that the group belongs to. The table below outlines the naming conventions that should be used for different types of groups on the WOLFTECH domain.
| Software Groups |
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| Freeware Groups |
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| User/Computer Groups |
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Group Policies
Active Directory requires that all group policies have unique names. This is achieved by including the acronym of the department, college, or university that the group policy belongs to. The table below outlines the naming conventions that should be used for different types of group policies on the WOLFTECH domain.
| Software Group Policy |
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| Freeware Group Policy |
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| Departmental Security Policy |
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| Multi-Departmental Security Policy |
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| Domain-wide Security Policy |
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Machines
Active Directory requires that all machines have unique names. In addition, it is good network etiquette to not duplicate any other machine's name on the NCSU network. Please check QIP to ensure that the name you wish to use is not already in use on the NCSU network.
Rather than choosing a formula for naming machines, we've chosen thematic machine names that evoke personality, such as star constellations, athletic teams, and 15th century romantic poets. This helps administrators remember where the machine is, who uses it, and any past history. We've found that having this knowledge is indispensable and it would not be possible with formulaic names like ECE-PC-342-DANIELS-001.
Organizational Units
Active Directory does NOT require organizational units to have unique names. The only naming requirement for OUs is that they clearly indicate their purpose. There is, however, a default OU organization structure that is created for each new departmental OU. OU Admins are free to change, or even scrap, the default setup within their departmental OU if it does not meet their needs.
Above the departmental OUs, the WOLFTECH domain has a rigid OU architecture. To learn more, see OU Architecture Overview and Detailed Architecture.
Users
Active Directory requires that all users have unique names. This is achieved by using users UnityID (guaranteed to be unique), and in some cases, special suffixes. The table below outlines the naming conventions that should be used for different types of users on the WOLFTECH domain.
| Normal Users (w/ UnityID) |
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| Normal Users (w/o UnityID) |
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| Domain Admin |
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| OU Admin |
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| Departmental Computer Admin |
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Courses
To facilitate using Active Directory in lab environments, the WOLFTECH domain is automatically populated with course groups for courses in supported colleges. The groups can be used to give the appropriate students access in computer labs. Due to FERPA concerns, only Domain Administrators and Departmental OU Administrators can view the course groups and their memberships. In addition, non-admins cannot view the memberof field of other users (they can view their own). The following naming standards are used:
| Departmental Students |
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| Departmental Semester Students |
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| Course Semester |
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| Course Section Semester |
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