Special Purpose Account (SPA) Naming Conventions
A Special Purpose Account (SPA) name can include a-z, A-Z, 0-9, periods, underscores, and dashes. It must adhere to the following rules:
- Length: Up to 30 characters long.
- Formatting: Cannot start or end with a period, underscore, or dash.
- User Prefix: Every SPA begins with the prefix
spa-followed by the name you choose. - Group Prefix: The management group for the account begins with
group-spa-followed by the name you choose.
Mapping SPA IDs to Email Addresses
When used with an associated bConnected account, the chosen name (without the spa- prefix) becomes the first part of the email address.
| Type | SPA CalNet ID | Associated Email Address |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | spa-account_name |
account_name@berkeley.edu |
| Example | spa-econhelp |
econhelp@berkeley.edu |
| Subdomain | spa-account_name-subdomain |
account_name@subdomain.berkeley.edu |
Prohibited Words
The following terms and patterns are not allowed in bConnected account names:
.*-digest.*-owner.*-request.*-approval.*-outgoing.*-bounces.*-confirm.*-join.*-leave.*-post.*-subscribe.*-unsubscribeowner-.*postmastermurder
For Subdomain Administrators Only
Only subdomain owners can name SPAs with their subdomain name. To prevent unauthorized use, no SPA name can start with subdomain-, contain -subdomain-, or end with -subdomain, unless you are the registered administrator of that subdomain. This includes uses of dots (.) and underscores (_).
| Constraint Type | Example Patterns (Restricted) |
|---|---|
| Prefix | subdomain-x | subdomain.x | subdomain_x |
| In Name (Infix) | x-subdomain-y | x.subdomain-y | x_subdomain_y |
| Postfix | subdomain-y | subdomain.y | subdomain_y |
Example: A disallowed name would be "go_to_stat" as "stat" is the short form of stat.berkeley.edu. However, "go_to_statistic" is acceptable because it does not contain the specific strings stat_, _stat_, or _stat.
Subdomain administrators may name SPAs in two ways:
- Use the primary domain
berkeley.eduand include any of your subdomain names as described above. - Choose from the list of authorized subdomains which will be post-fixed to the name you enter. In this case, the name you enter cannot contain any subdomain names.
Contact Us
- Management: Use the Special Purpose Accounts Admin App to create SPAs and manage membership.
- Support: If you have questions regarding SPA CalNet IDs, contact itcshelp@berkeley.edu.