SPA Naming Conventions

A knowledge base article about SPA Naming Conventions provided by the UC Berkeley IT Service Hub - Knowledge Portal

A Special Purpose Account (SPA) name can include a-z, A-Z, 0-9, periods, underscores and dashes. It can be up to 30 characters long. It cannot start or end with a period, underscore or dash. 

A SPA begins with the prefix spa- followed by the name you choose. When used with an associated bConnected account, this name (without the spa- prefix) becomes the first part of the bConnected email address:  

A SPA group begins with the prefix group-spa- followed by the name you choose. The SPA group is the group of members who have direct access to the SPA. 

SPA CalNet ID
Email Address
spa-account_name

account_name@berkeley.edu

Here's an example using econhelp as the bConnected account name: 

SPA CalNet ID
Email address
spa-econhelp econhelp@berkeley.edu

If you use a bConnected email subdomain, your new SPA CalNet ID and the associated bConnected email address will be:

SPA CalNet ID
Email address
spa-account_name-subdomain account_name@subdomain.berkeley.edu

Here's an example using econhelp as the bConnected account name: 

SPA CalNet ID
Email address
spa-econhelp-econ econhelp@econ.berkeley.edu

The following words are not allowed in bConnected account names:

For Subdomain Administrators Only

Only sub-domain owners can name SPAs with their subdomain name. To ensure this, the following rule is enforced:

No SPA name can start with 'subdomain-', contain '-subdomain-', or end with '-subdomain', unless you are the administrator of the subdomain in question. This rule also applies when using a dot (.) or an underscore (_). The following table gives you a complete overview:

prefix
in name
postfix
subdomain-x x-subdomain-y subdomain-y
subdomain.x x.subdomain-y subdomain.y
subdomain_x x_subdomain_y subdomain_y

An example of an illegal name would be:

go_to_stat

as stat is the short form of stat.berkeley.edu

but

go_to_statistic

is ok, since the name does not contain stat_ or _stat_ or _stat

As a subdomain administrator, you can choose to name your SPA in two different ways:

  1. You can choose the primary domain 'berkeley.edu' and use any of your sub-domain names as described in the table above.
  2. You can pick from the list of sub-domains which will be post-fixed to the name you enter when you create your SPA. In this case, the name you enter cannot contain any sub-domain names, including your own.

Contact Us

To create SPAs and manage membership, use the Special Purpose Accounts Admin App. 

If you have any questions regarding SPA CalNet IDs, contact itcshelp@berkeley.edu.