IP, DNS and hosting guidance

Technical guidance on IP addressing, domain name systems and hosting.

IP addressing

Organisations that commission or procure Digital Services need to understand the use of IP addressing as these services move to be available over the public internet.

Historically, NHS Digital and its predecessor organisations have centrally provisioned and allocated both private and public IP addresses for use on the HSCN and previous private networks. Organisations that currently use the IPv4 private addressing allocated by NHS Digital will need to migrate to public addressing (either IPv4 or IPv6).

Document your use of IP addressing in your asset register.

Suppliers of Digital Services to health and care need to understand the current use of private IP addresses to remediate existing services.

Identifying current IP address allocation

Health and care organisations will have been allocated a block of addressing for use on the HSCN. Contact the NHS Digital IP address management team to understand your organisation's allocation of IP addresses.

If you find you have been allocated addressing that your organisation is not using, tell the team.

Your organisation may also have been using additional IP addresses allocated to you. If you believe you have been allocated IPv4 RIPE addresses, but are unsure of the range allocated, visit the RIPE website and use the search functions to identify the IP addressing that may be allocated to your organisation.

IP addressing resources

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HSCN IP address management

The NHS Digital HSCN IP address management policy defines the legitimate addressing schemes and the working principles for their use. It is likely that IP addressing will need to be changed to make a Digital Service meet the Internet First policy.

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IPAM RIPE Addressing

The RIPE Regional Internet Registry allocates and registers blocks of Internet number resources to Internet service providers (ISPs) and other organisations. RIPE sets the standards for IP addressing. Addressing for the public internet is likely to be distributed using RIPE standards.

Domain names

The domain name system (DNS) is the way that internet domain names are located and translated into internet protocol (IP) addresses, and vice-versa.

DNS resources

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Domain name guidance

This NHS Digital guidance provides guidelines on naming websites for your Digital Services and will help you to request domain names for any new service and changes to the IP addresses that are appropriated to the DNS.

Hosting

Where your Internet First compliant services will be hosted is an important consideration.

Hosting resources

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Off shoring and the use of public cloud services

This NHS Digital guidance on cloud hosting helps organisations comply with expected standards when choosing to adopt these technologies. It sets out the legalities and best practice as to how data should be stored and used. The standards may enable NHS organisations to benefit from the flexibility and range of services associated with the use of cloud facilities.

Last edited: 12 October 2020 10:57 am