The lost art of Server Naming

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meow
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#388636 6-Oct-2010 09:24

My work computer has "Naruto" whilst my Windows Server 2003 VM has "Sakura"
Laptops called "Marvin" from the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy and my external is called "Trillian" and our homes wireless network is called "Zaphod"

At my old flat in Nelson, Firewall is called "Toaster" - FreeNAS Server is called "Waffles" and the Wireless Network SSID is called "Cheese Grater"

Gotta be original about these things, I find the computer names show your personality, and I have one hell of a random personality :P

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FlyingPete

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#388640 6-Oct-2010 09:35

I did a change control for a server here called NT042 once, I replaced all the normal names with characters from Hitchhikers Guide.

Nobody noticed and the change control was approved.

(I thought setting Marvin as the change manager and the customer contact as Slartibartfast was a dead give away, but alas not).

Zeon

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#388659 6-Oct-2010 10:21

We use three sets:

Greek mythological figures - I guarantee you will never run out

Elements

Constellations

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xpd

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#388663 6-Oct-2010 10:24

We're boring for naming conventions here.... just the usual "exchxx" etc.

At home on my network I use Simpsons characters.

My desktop (when i had one) was Homer because it was the biggest PC in the house, Maggie was the wifes laptop and so on....

XPD / Gavin

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#388684 6-Oct-2010 10:54

I used to name my home machines after Muppet characters: Kermit, Fozzy, MissPiggy etc.

BartManGeek

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#388694 6-Oct-2010 11:25

When I started in my current role the servers were named:
telesto
europa
thalassa
galatea
naiad
pluto
proteus
puck
calypso
metis
sinope
ganymede
mars - two node cluster containing deimos and phobos
io
leda
pandora
tethys

We have now reverted to a more conventional naming scheme of domain-S-function

It does make things less l337 but day-to-day usage is more straight forward...

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gehenna

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#388707 6-Oct-2010 12:01

All the servers at my last job were named for Asterix characters, with the 2 DC's being Asterix and Obelix.

xpd

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#388725 6-Oct-2010 12:39

gehenna: All the servers at my last job were named for Asterix characters, with the 2 DC's being Asterix and Obelix.

Cacofonix was'nt the Exchange/Mail server by any chance ? :)

XPD / Gavin

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reven

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#388728 6-Oct-2010 12:44

when i first started my current job they were all named after star trek characters, mine was checkov. then we became boring and now they all [firstname][1stLetterOfLastName][num] eg johna01.

i formatted my machine and called it "Batman" at one stage, then someone asked "whos batman?".... everyone looked at me.

shadybrothers

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#388729 6-Oct-2010 12:44

I name all my boxes after notable Warcraft weapons. Deary me haha.

this is a slap in the face!

boby55

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#388737 6-Oct-2010 13:14

Last Company I was at, Named all the servers all randomly.

IIRC They were

Barbie, Ken, Jill, David, Andrew, Jack

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gehenna

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#388744 6-Oct-2010 13:46

xpd:
gehenna: All the servers at my last job were named for Asterix characters, with the 2 DC's being Asterix and Obelix.

Cacofonix was'nt the Exchange/Mail server by any chance ? :)

Surely was.
Monosyllabix was the jabber server :)
Vitalstatistix was the file server too from memory

reven

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#388753 6-Oct-2010 14:08

all my VMs are named after comicbook characters if that counts :)

red robin, black canary, jason todd, green arrow, joker, captain marvel...

insane

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#389014 7-Oct-2010 03:37

We use two names for each server, one obscure name that's public and one functional name which only exists in our internal DNS which then has a cname to the obscure public name.

That way

1: outsiders don't know what the function of the server is, as mentioned above
2: the server might have multiple roles and therefore multiple internal DNS name
3: internal DNS names reflect the function of the server

ie ln-web-04 ,

Quite easy to tell it's the 4th linux web server but out in public DNS it could be called bob.xyz.com

FlyingPete

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#389033 7-Oct-2010 08:07

insane: We use two names for each server, one obscure name that's public and one functional name which only exists in our internal DNS which then has a cname to the obscure public name.

That way

1: outsiders don't know what the function of the server is, as mentioned above
2: the server might have multiple roles and therefore multiple internal DNS name
3: internal DNS names reflect the function of the server

ie ln-web-04 ,

Quite easy to tell it's the 4th linux web server but out in public DNS it could be called bob.xyz.com

The fact outsiders don't know what our servers do from name is the primary basis for the reason why they are meaningless names.

Didn't think of the DNS angle before, that is quite smart.

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