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Best DNS Naming Scheme For Small/Medium Businesses?
Bandman writes "My business just purchased a couple dozen blades, and with our existing servers, this brings us to around 60 machines. We're geographically dispersed, and most of the users who need to connect to servers are not technical (if that matters).
We used to use theme-based naming schemes, but we've been migrating to a more utilitarian system. I think it's clearer and more concise, but I've had some feedback from users who didn't find it understandable.
What do you use for your internal DNS schemes? How big is your network, and what do you recommend for future expansion? Does it matter to your users at all?"
The guys at work seem to enjoy their time with Jenna quite a bit.
Body parts. Easy to remember.
"Where is that file?"
"In the nose."
...therefore all my servers are given a hostname string equal to the Dell "Service Tag", followed by a dash, followed by the Dell "Express Service Code".
I really love my junior admins, and whoever the poor schmuck is that will take my place as senior sysadmin once I'm gone from here.
What we do is use a series of numbers separated by periods to designate a hierarchy. For example, the servers in the company all share the first number, say 192. Then, each department has its own number, say 168, giving us 192.168. Then, each location in the department has a number, such as 204, taking us to 192.168.204. Then we give each server a unique number, like 10, bringing us up to 192.168.204.10. It's very easy for me to recognize where a machine is by that address. We try to keep the numbers under 255 to make them easier to remember, and it's really not many more digits that a long distance code and phone number.
what goes after Server0003?
Make a Hash MD5 code from the location address of the server + it's Serial number. Use that for the server name. Or use a dictionary. start from a pre-determined random page and use the 3rd word on that page.then every server takes the 3rd word from the next page and so on... or start from 0001 and work up..
Laters Sol "Have you found the secrets of the universe? Asked Zebade "I'm sure I left them here somewhere"
The University of Wisconsin CS Dept. used cheeses. Never seemed to have a problem with running out, although they named two machines kraft-slices and velveeta, and the lawyers moved in and made them change.
Incidentally, included among the cheeses were puff, whiz, and head (the latter is also a popular Wisconsin food product, so it's all good).
...
If they can't remember IPs, they shouldn't be allowed on your network.
Power Users must be able to identify machines by MAC as well as IP.
Admins must be able to do both - in hex, decimal, binary AND octal.
Octet delimiters are for pussies.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
We had a test server which started off as something bland but since it was a test server people kept crashing it often. It became affectionately known as "Kenny". Now everyone just says "Who Killed Kenny!" when it dies a horrible death.
You must agree with your GP that that's certainly short and concise.
On the other hand, It seems to be a genuine innovative idea using Morse for server names.
I was building servers with another guy once. I asked him "what should the naming scheme be?"
Him: I dunno. How about... stars?
Me, looking at a smallish server: Okay, what's a famous dwarf star?
Him: Sneezy.
Assume I was drunk when I posted this.