When creating non-PennKey accounts, naming conventions need to be followed to specify what school/center the account is attached to and to stay outside of the PennKey namespace.
Standards Overview
Non-PennKey Account Types
- Shared accounts
- Resources
- Rooms (Conference, Classrooms, etc.)
- Equipment
- Projectors
- Microscopes
- Vans
Terminology
Account name: Unique identifier (e.g. ISCConf337a)
Display name: Name that appears in the GAL, presented alphabetically (ISC 3401 Walnut Conf 337A)
Sign-in address: An account’s login credential (ISCConf337a@isc.upenn.edu)
Account Name Requirements
- Minimum of 9 characters or including a hyphen (for names shorter then 9 characters) in order to avoid the PennNames space
- 20 characters or less
- Begins with a standard 3-4 character abbreviation for its sponsor school/center (see Appendix)
- Includes the type of resource in the account name (see table below)
- Blank spaces not allowed
- Uses dashes instead of underscores (Underscores do not always appear on screen when using a browser to access mail.)
Abbreviations for Resource Types
| Type | Abbreviation |
| Conference | RoomConf |
| Classroom | Class |
| Helpdesk | Help |
| Projector | Proj |
Examples:
- ISCConf337a (ISC 3401 Walnut Conf 337a)
- WHAProj01 (Wharton Projector 01)
Please note: It is possible to keep the actual account name hidden (if, for example, adding a standard prefix impacts an account’s branding). Use an email alias for the account, rather than the actual account name, and set up the Display Name with the more appropriate account description.
Display Names
Requirements
- 30 characters or less
- Unambiguous, descriptive, and succinct
- May include SMTP RFC compliant character EXCEPT for commas and parentheses. (Dashes and spaces are both acceptable.)
Formats
- Start with the sponsoring org name
- Include Type of resource. This would group all resources of a particular type together (see "Abbreviations for Resource Types" in the Standards Overview section).
Example:
- ISC 3401 Walnut 265C Conf A
O365 Email Naming Conventions
For approval of the @upenn.edu SMTP address for a non-PennKey account, the account name must be unambiguous (a name clearly referring to one and only one UPenn entity) and there can be no conflict with an existing PennName assigned to another individual. In addition, a compelling business justification is required.
Sign-in address
The Sign-in address will be unique across the tenant and will be provided by the O365 service based on the format accountname@subdomain.upenn.edu (e.g. sas-acctname@sas.upenn.edu rather than sasacctname@upenn.edu). If an organization does not have a third level domain that the service is virtually hosting, then pobox.upenn.edu will be used.
Common mailbox accounts are characterized by a recurrence in more than one org of a particular account name (e.g. help@wharton.upenn.edu and help@isc.upenn.edu). Common mailbox accounts with @upenn.edu email addresses are not available.
Outlook Searches
IMPORTANT: When you do a search in Outlook, it only looks at some of an account’s fields and searches by the start of each field’s content only.
From within Outlook, the GAL searches on the following fields:
- Display Name
- Surname (Note: NOT first name)
- Alias
- Recipient Type Details (i.e. the Account Type)
Appendix
Standard School/Center Abbreviations
APPC – Annenberg Public Policy Center
ASC – Annenberg School of Communications
BSD - Business Services
DAR - Development and Alumni Relations
DES - School of Design
DOF - Department of Finance
DRIA - Department of Recreation and Athletics
FRES – Facilities and Real Estate Services
GSE - Graduate School of Education
HR - Human Resources
ISC - ISC
LIB - University Library
MUS- Museum NUR - School of Nursing
OACP - Office of Audit Compliance and Privacy
PDM - School of Dental Medicine
PRES - President
PROVOST - Provost
RES - Residential
SAS - School of Arts and Sciences
SEAS - School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
VET - School of Veterinary Medicine
VPUL - Student Services
WHA – Wharton