Server Naming Conventions? 961
The reader continues:
"Here's a few ideas we've been tossing around, using Joe's Deli as an example:
- [four letter "name"][two letter service type][2 numbers]
eg) jdelwb03.domain.com
+ easy to determine the function and name
- hard to remember and pronounce, once you run out of four
character servers, determining the name and function will be
difficult. Joe's Deli and John's Delivery will have conflicting
names
- [random combination of numbers and letters]
eg) ak1jop3d.domain.com
+ none really
- confusing.. really confusing. Can you imagine saying to someone
"log on to alpha kappa one john omikron peter three delta?"
- [theme based name]
name servers based on a theme, eg Gundam
eg) zaku.domain.com, gelgoog.domain.com
+ easily identifiable - all Gundam names belong to Joe's Deli,
easy to pronounce and remember
- hard for a new tech or management (why would they need to know?)
to associate to a server
"I'd like to know what others in the tech community use for server naming policies when planning large scale data centres. Also, with data centres located nationally, does the naming convention pose any problems? Thanks."
alphanumeric dotted quad (Score:5, Interesting)
This lets you distinguish between the server number in a rotation (the second element) and the specific service it is supporting (the first element).
Our Convention (Score:2, Interesting)
[2 letters] - data center
[3 letters] - group name
[2 letters] - service type (wb, sq, lb)
[3 characters] - server number (A01, A02)
it works pretty well. For something with only one datacenter you may try some sort of physical location indicator rather than a data center name like server row number. It makes it a heck of a lot easier when you need to physically track down a server.
Close to home (Score:3, Interesting)
For my little network at the home office I use the original (pre- annexation) names of streets in the neighborhood.
My wife thinks this is cool because she loves local history.
I think it's cool because I get to use names like maple, kuchle, liberty, newburgh, and columbus. Only the real old-timers from the hood get it. They enjoy knowing a little something about computers that younger people don't, even though it's totally non-technical.
As a practical matter, it's a nearly inexhaustible "theme" category; as you need more names, just reach out to a larger radius. In a decent-sized city you'll need a full Class C to max out the theme.
Naming Conventions (Score:5, Interesting)
At the company I work at, we have ~5000 servers worldwide, and they all follow the same naming convention:
Thus, a production server in Minneapolis, Minnesota would be usmnminpsnnn , or a development server in Vancouver, BC, would be cabcvandsnnn .
i've worked in a similar environment (Score:5, Interesting)
Major cities. (Score:2, Interesting)
As an extra special bonus, it makes you feel like you're the president or something when you're having meetings about various world cities. Or at least.. uh.. it makes me feel that way.
well...duh.... (Score:2, Interesting)
for example
MR237BWEB01 - Mail Room number 237B Webserver 1.
CONF225FIL01 - Conference room 225 File Server 1.
EXTCOMPWEB01 - External Company web server 1.
alternatively you could also do the theme thing and assign some genre to a particular department.
for example, all accounting servers could be named after fish e.g. bluefish, haddock, trout, etc.
or colors or star wars themes or anything else.
i prefer the dept/room number/server type/server number scheme myself and using acronyms you could easily keep it under 8 characters for the host name.
Of course be sure to add the host names into a comma delimited file with an explanation and ip address/subnet and room location of the server (or rack location). Make sure you keep the file someplace publically accessible like on a webserver someplace.
people names? (Score:2, Interesting)
Row + Column + 4 letter name (Score:2, Interesting)
They had the name as such:
Row + Column + 4 letter name.
So, for the Joe's Deli example, which is in row 15 and column 20, you could have:
1520jdel.domain.com
You could also have:
Row + Column + 2 letter name + 2 letter service type
So for Joe's Deli again:
1520jdwb.domain.com
The downside is if you physically move the servers around, it can cause problems.
Two conventions I like: (Score:4, Interesting)
convention is a nice shortcut when a script
kiddie is portscanning.
2. Naming conventions. (I.e. name the
Web server "Tolkein-Place-Names", the
mail server "Famous-Composers", et cetera.)
If covering a large area.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Don't name the machines after what they do (Score:2, Interesting)
Comicbook character names and so-forth are fun, but can be seen as unprofessional by some, and possibly even offensive in some cases.
What I used (Score:3, Interesting)
We had fights with management wanting names like MAIL01, MAIL02, etc. but I bit them down when I told them that if one server type ever got above 100 then it would be a bitch or over 1000, etc.
Upper management liked the scheme cause when they would show clients the server rooms they would see these great literature references on the boxes which made us look inteligent. Win + Win.
Conventions (Score:2, Interesting)
2 Character City Code
4 Character Building Code
2-3 Character Descriptor (WS, IIS, FS, ADP, etc)
2-3 Character # (For more than one box)
So we'd have "PHMAILSVR01" (Philadelphia Mail Building File Server #1)
Currently, our workstations are USERNAME-OS (ie; JDOE-W2K, JDOE-LNX, etc). Servers have great names (no set convention), but they do have aliases that are cleaner (fileserver1 == pinky).
-k
Re:Check the RFC (Score:3, Interesting)
Of historical interest, from the RFC (written in 1990): "Extremely well-known hostnames such as 'sri-nic' and 'uunet' should be avoided since they are understood in conversation as absolute addresses even without a domain." I consider myself a bit of an old-timer, but though I recognize uunet, I've never even heard of sri-nic. I'm sure someone knows about this; please inform!
Actually a positive for random. (Score:2, Interesting)
few naming conventions i've used.. (Score:2, Interesting)
Now I have my computers setup with the names of transformers.. rodimus, galvatron, megatron, optimus, etc
Here at work we use greek gods.. zeus, hermes, atlas, ares, nemesis, athena, pan, etc
Although those won't be very practical if you got a server-farm of 4000+ servers
Transformers, More than meets the eye! (Score:2, Interesting)
All NT machines can be decepticons because they are evil [att.net], and all UNIX machines can be Autobots becuase they are friendly.
Your biggest UNIX machine can be Optimus and your biggest NT machine can be Megatron.
Your tape library can be Soundwave because he was the transformer that you put tapes into.
Your entire NOC can spend a fun filled afternoon debating naming decisions. It is a fun waste of time!
Interplay (Score:2, Interesting)
r6.c42.room21.db4 or something (meaning Row 6, Column 42, server room 21, database server number four)
Once you have that many servers, cute little names just become a pain in the ass.
Re:Naming Conventions (Score:5, Interesting)
I think snnn.ps.min.mn.us.company.com will look way better.
Instead of Sci-Fi (Score:2, Interesting)
All main servers are named after suns (eg Sol),
secondary servers after planets (eg Terra),
third-level servers after planetoids (eg Moon),
and so on
Re:Element names work well for a small low-order n (Score:5, Interesting)
Personally, I favor naming them after scientists - this is what 95% of the world's laboratories in every field do. The two computers in my dad's lab are Watson and Crick (he doesn't even work with DNA). Substitute other sorts of famous people; presidents, athletes, whatever.
The anime characters are good, if that's what people in your group can remember. One lab I was in that had a lot of computers used deities; Linux were Hindu deities, NT were Greek, and Irix were Egyptian. We added a Mac (OS X) which I named Arawn (Welsh deity).
With 200 machines, you're gonna run out of pet names really fast, so I think you'd need to assign a whole new category of names to each busines, so Joe's Delivery could get Rolling Stones songs, and John's Delicatessen could get war criminals. That would be cool, and that way any administrative subdivisions could use naming conventions that they were good at remembering.
Oh! I have an idea, you could assign each company a word (Winter and Dog, say) and name every computer associated with that company that word, in a different language. All of the web-servers could be french (Hiver and Chien?), the POP servers spanish (Invierno and Perro) and so forth.
Re:be sensible (Score:5, Interesting)
That's stupid. Now if I move the server from one rack space to another, or upgrade it to a different platform then all my users have to change the config on any applications that reference the server? Not a long term scalable solution.
Keep location and platform information in a seperate document or database. Or create HINFO records in DNS.
Re:Naming Conventions. (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm a student at Stanford, and one of my profs set up a lab a couple years back where each of the workstations was a logical operation. And, Xor, Nand, Or, Iff, etc.
The server was called "gates", because each of these is a logic gate.
Then, Bill Gates donated money and there was going to be a Gates Computer Science building.
Needless to say, my prof lost his name pretty damn quickly, and old Bill was relented to.
biology, smart guys and curdled milk (Score:2, Interesting)
Rodents:
Lamentably, we ran out of rodents; using so many we almost broke the convention by moving to marsupials. Also, certain uptight folks we worked with also took umbrage to their machine being the RAT, BEAVER or (heaven forbid) GERBIL. Which gave rise to...
Invertebrate Meiofauna:
We could have grown forever with this convention, it's just that only one guy could come up with new ones. So we settled on...
Cheese:
But the best convention came from a crappy .com I worked for a few years ago:
Storied scientists:
Naming conventions (Score:1, Interesting)
racknumber.unitplacement.domain.com
ie if it is rack 12 and the bottom of the server was at the 24U holes it would be
012.24u.domain.com
Moderation courtesy of Moderators on Crack, Inc. (Score:2, Interesting)
As for RFC 2100, it is funny. Very old, but funny anyway.
Whisky! (Score:2, Interesting)
I use Great Single malts for my favourite machines (Ardbeg for my G4, Port-Ellen for my Firewall and Auchroisk for my laptop). Machines that I dont like that much, particularly those running windows, can be named using nasty American blends like Jim Bean (Huh!).
Looking at www.maltmadness.com most people will find more Whiskys than they have computers (and they are rated as well).
If you are using American, Irish, Canadian and Scotch Wiskies and still cant come up with more names, just add bottling etc:
ardbeg1975
ardbeg17years
ardbeg_caskstrength
etc.
Re:Element names work well for a small low-order n (Score:2, Interesting)
We've got a lab at school in which the machines are all named after Pokemon. It's kinda silly to log into Wigglytuff, but you've got hundreds of names to use.