FQDN Length

[Cache]

At present our Domain Name is in the format school.longschoolname.local and 33 characters in length.

 

I'm at the stage now of starting to adapt things, so moving towards DFS for software deployment and mandatory profiles and other things which will require the FQDN. The question is, before I start embarking down this route, is the length of the FQDN going to cause me any problems down the line? Should I be considering renaming the domain before I start?

 

I know the ideal option would be to rebuild the domain, but that's too big a job for me to consider at the moment due to various things happening (and lack of time being another), where as renaming the domain, although a large and risky job, would mean that everything would carry on running fairly easily and quickly.

 

If the length of the FQDN is unlikely to cause any problems, then the thing can stay as it is as far as I'm concerned, just need input from people who have more experience then me.

 

Thanks!

[srochford]

There's some info here Naming conventions in Active Directory for computers, domains, sites, and OUs but basically, 33 characters is not a technical problem but it could be a problem if people have to type it :-)

 

Are you running Exchange? The presence of Exchange is pretty much a show stopper if you want to rename a domain but otherwise it's doable (but not easy)

 

I'd leave well alone :-)

[Cache]

No exchange server (as of yet, although would love one) so that doesn't come into play.

 

If it's not going to be a technical problem and it's just poor old me who's going to have to keep typing it in when needed, then I guess I might as well just leave alone.

[AngryTechnician]

The only potential problem I can think of is that you're going to hit "pathname too long" errors more easily than with a shorter name. Ultimately, the rest of the path is going to be the bigger contributor. Keep your share names short and you should be OK.

[ChrisH]

I always use the first part of our domain name when referring to our DFS paths and I don't have any problems as ours is quite long as well. I think you only really need to be bothered about the FQDN when you are working in a multi domain environment and even then you can get the clients to use a suffix search list.