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Best DNS Naming Scheme For Small/Medium Businesses?

Posted by timothy on from the elephant01-elephant02-elephant03 dept.

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?"

15 of 481 comments (clear)

  1. I use porn stars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The guys at work seem to enjoy their time with Jenna quite a bit.

    1. Re:I use porn stars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      How much of a load can Jenna handle?

    2. Re:I use porn stars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Three. Anyone can get in on port 80, 22 if she knows you, and 443 requires a little bit of negotiation.

    3. Re:I use porn stars by glitch23 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Three. Anyone can get in on port 80, 22 if she knows you, and 443 requires a little bit of negotiation.

      I would think port 79 would be a gimme for Jenna.

      --
      this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. -- Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
    4. Re:I use porn stars by this+great+guy · · Score: 4, Funny

      443 requires a little bit of negotiation.

      IOW more than a simple handshake.

    5. Re:I use porn stars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Just to warn you, a Jenna server will go down on you often, while still giving you plenty of uptime.

  2. Two words. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Body parts. Easy to remember.

    "Where is that file?"
    "In the nose."

    1. Re:Two words. by Plutonite · · Score: 4, Funny

      There are enough anatomical details for the female reproductive system to provide a complete and scalable solution to this problem. Stop acting like you're new here, dammit :)

  3. Nice short concise meaningful systematic names... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...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.

  4. We use a series of numbers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  5. Re:Short and Concise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    what goes after Server0003?

  6. interesting idea by s0litaire · · Score: 4, Funny

    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"
    1. Re:interesting idea by Jesus_666 · · Score: 5, Funny

      How about using an SHA-1 hash of an incrementing counter? The first box is 356a192b7913b04c54574d18c28d46e6395428ab.company.internal, the second one is da4b9237bacccdf19c0760cab7aec4a8359010b0.company.internal etc. The mapping between counter values and machines is stored in an Excel spreadsheet, printed out and stored in the server room.

      That way you get a unique naming scheme that's both logical, understandable (you can convert the host name into its counter value through a simple rainbow table) and reasonably safe from hash collisions.

      --
      USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
  7. Re:Short and Concise by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...

  8. Southpark Character by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.