Administrative Management Domain (ADMD)

What Is an Administrative Management Domain?

An Administrative Management Domain (often abbreviated as ADMD) refers to the collection of systems, servers, and policies managed by a single organization for handling email.

In simple terms, it’s the entire email ecosystem under one administrative control, including sending servers, DNS records, authentication policies, and inbound filters.

Each ADMD defines how messages are created, transmitted, and validated within its boundaries and how they interact with external email systems.

How Administrative Management Domains Work

The concept of the ADMD comes from the RFC 5598 Internet Mail Architecture. It divides the global email network into distinct administrative zones, each with its own set of trust relationships and authentication controls.

Within an Administrative Management Domain, all components (such as MTAs (Mail Transfer Agents), DNS configurations, and policy records) are managed by the same authority. When messages pass between different ADMDs (for example, from one company’s mail system to another’s), they cross a trust boundary.

This distinction is important for authentication and policy enforcement, since each ADMD must independently validate the integrity and legitimacy of incoming mail.

Why Administrative Management Domains Are Essential for DMARC Policy Deployment

When you publish a DMARC record for your domain, you are defining how your own ADMD handles and protects outgoing messages, and how other ADMDs (external mail systems), should treat mail that appears to come from your domain.

By clearly defining boundaries between administrative domains, organizations can control which systems are authorized to send mail on their behalf and prevent unauthorized use, spoofing, or policy conflicts.

Administrative Management Domains and DMARCeye

DMARCeye helps organizations visualize how their Administrative Management Domain interacts with others across the email ecosystem.

By analyzing DMARC aggregate reports, DMARCeye identifies which servers and third-party services are legitimately sending mail within your ADMD, and which ones may be unauthorized or misconfigured.

This visibility allows administrators to maintain tighter control over their domain’s authentication posture, ensuring that every system operating under their management aligns with the organization’s security policies and DMARC enforcement goals.