Server Naming Conventions?

Some random reader sent in: "Hi, I'm wondering what others out there use for server naming conventions. Our data centre right now houses a little under 200 servers, with plans to grow up to 4000 servers within the next five years. We'd like to pick something flexible and easy to manage with any tracking system. The servers we'll be implementing include SUN, HPUX, and AIX servers, in addition to existing Compaq and HP Intel servers, so we'll have to adhere to limitations placed on hostnames by manufacturers (ie HPUX lets you have an 8 character hostname)." We had a similar story a few years ago.

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."

Comments

Check the RFC

[wiredog]

RFC 1178, Choosing a Name for Your Computer

Re:Check the RFC

[mmontour]

Also see RFC2100, "The Naming of Hosts"

Sheesh people, use subdomains

[defile]

The LIRR homepage is http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/lirr/. The LIRR is run by the MTA, which is located in NYC, which is a city in NY, which is located in the US. Perfect scheme, and a suprisingly decent application of DNS. Especially for government.

So why suffer with jdeli342.domain.com? Why not a.jdeli.domain.com, b.jdeli.domain.com, etc? In addition to allowing for easier delegation of services, you can set search orders in /etc/resolv.conf so you can simply type ``ssh b'' to hop from host a to host b. That's just golden.

Some other examples..

Mail Exchangers

a.mx.domain.com
b.mx.domain.com

Nameservers

c.ns.fudge.domain.com
d.ns.fudge.domain.com

Web servers

e.web.domain.com
f.web.domain.com

And so on. If you get to z, make the next one aa, and then ab, etc.

Also, functional names should not replace cute names. DNS allows you to assign more than one name to a machine. If a machine is repurposed for another ask, it should still be known by its unique cute name no matter where it goes. At the same time, a single host can have more than one functional name.

No reason barney.domain.com can't also be bc.web.domain.com and e.porn.domain.com. :)

A source of cute names? Oh, uhm, right now I use Roman empererors. There were tons of them.

Re:That's what CNAMES are for

[DeathBunny]

However you can have multiple "A" records for the same host. Assign the hosts "real" name (norm, etc) in on A record. Create another A record for smtp.yourdomain.org.

Problem solved.

Re:Naming Conventions.

[JabberWokky]

Yeah, but that leads to phrases like "Sal just went down!" yelled across the office. Bad times. Of course, back in '93, we named the Novell Digi-something modem servers in the Palm Beach Courthouse "Shafey" and "Twan" because they kept going down on each other. The "Political Officer" (read: Elected Offical's Yes Man) calmly asked us to remove the tags and not explain why they were named that during the audit.

Personally, I named my home servers "riffraff", "columbia", my laptop "eddie", my palmtop "sadie", and so on. My work servers are "ritz", "tim", "susan", etc. For those of you who get it, it's a pretty simple naming scheme, and for those who don't, the work ones are respectable, non-geeky at a glance, and easy to remember.

For large numbers of computers, name them by department and number. Or location and number. Room/cube numbers seem like a good idea until you start swaping offices and cubes. Best off keeping the numbers semi-random so you don't expect anything, and just log where they are/their name in your asset management software. A system moving inter-department/location will have to be wiped. Period. Easier to track software licenses anyway (especially if each department has a seperate software budget). If you've set up your users correctly, all their files are on the server, anyway. Don't use "Four character and number" or something like that. No reason to say MKEC4711 when it can just be marketingeastcoast-4711. YMMV depending on legacy systems you have to chat with or through.

--
Evan "Back in my day, we walked around the office looking at the back of each computer for the ring that fell out of the token network. And we *liked* it".