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Why Do We Name Servers the Way We Do?
jfruhlinger writes "If you use a Unix machine, it probably has a funny name. And if you work in an environment where there are multiple Unix machines, they probably have funny names that are variations on a theme. No, you're not the only one! This article explores the phenomenon, showing that even the CIA uses a whimsical server naming scheme." What are some of your best (worst?) naming schemes?
There's a pretty sizeable collection of funny/clever server names on Stack Overflow here:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/262657/the-coolest-server-names
Sturgeon was an optimist.
I can suggest reading rfc1178 (http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1178).
It contains some common-sense advice about host naming. Here's a sample:
I'm so far successfully naming my boxes after moons in the solar system. Pro: you can think of the boxes as A, B, C, etc., but let them have more interesting names than that.
Anime characters should be fine too. Usagi, Chiyo-Chan, Sakura, ... :D
Or you could go for slashdot memes... natalie-portman, cowboyneal, in-soviet-russia, car-analogy, etc... ;-)
I don't think I agree. The vast majority of hostnames out there are pretty uncreative based on what I've seen. For example, 99% of the sites I visit have a hostname of simply "www".
When people call me for help, I want to hear clear and recognizable names, whether it's "Bert" and "Ernie" or "Portland" and "Chicago."
What really increases my alcohol consumption is when I see networks with five thousand devices all named on a variation of "djfh4538kj01", followed by communication difficulties. Congratulations, now your oh-so-clever naming schmeme means that we're going to spend the rest of the conversation talking about your boxes with the Nato phonetic alphabet.
"I'm sorry, are you seeing the route flap on Delta Juliet Foxtrot Hotel or Bravo Juliet Sierra Hotel?"
Do that a few times and you'll long for a cluster of boxes named Mal, River and Simon...
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
In other words, people like cute names. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes not so much.
There used to be a building in Cupertino where most of the development work on Java was done. All the conference rooms were named after places where coffee is grown. Moderately cute.
Another building, also at Sun, had conference rooms named after DisneyLand/World attraction. Knowing that I hate all things Disney, God chose to punish me by giving me an office in that building. I particularly hated the main conference room, which was Mickey's Toontown. The attraction is, of course, named after a locale in Who Framed Roger Rabbit which in turn is based on a fetid slum in the very sordid book Who Censored Roger Rabbit. (In the book, Roger is the victim, "censored" being a toon euphemism for "killed".) So every time I went to a meeting I was reminded about Disney's ability to take dark and nasty things and turn them into cutsy inoffensive — and meaningless — "family entertainment." Bippity boppity boo!
A server can and often does have more than one role. But for me at least, there's only one *primary* role. That's the one I use to tag a server with. For example FS01 (file server) may also host anti-virus deployment and a website and perhaps FTP in the future. But, it's primary a file server as that's what its purchase was intended for.
or if you're trying to fit names into a small namespace? Or you ever have to pass the name over the phone to a colleague?
Yes and yes. Very easy to do.
Life is not for the lazy.
Foggy Bottom is the Department of State
I think you mean Karl Marx
All the medical evidence is that circumcision does nothing of the sort. Every time there's new thing, like AIDS, claims are made that circumcision prevents it and it is always proven false. It is a mutilation to reduce sexual pleasure and has no other purpose. That female circumcision is worse is meaningless. But don't let the piles of medical evidence cloud your reality.
This is the best restaurant I ever eat in
Actually, the "piles of medical evidince" have lead the American Association of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association not to recommend routine circumcision of newborns. Given the number and density of nerve endings in the foreskin, comparison to clitoridectomy is not so far-fetched. Just because the one is socially accepted where you live doesn't make it any less barbaric than the other.
I personally hate that naming scheme, it's confusing and produces long, hard to remember and typo-prone hostnames.
NS records exist for a reason. Your example could just as easily be:
windb002.syd
Since every Windows network (and that tends to be where I see domain names like that) is a real DNS domain, there's no reason you couldn't do this. This has the added benefit of being able to push a DNS search domain based on the location of the computer doing the DHCP request, then having certain hosts that are replicated in each area subdomain, for example a CMS or a DB. Does sydwindb002 replicate to nycwindb002? Have windb002.syd replicate to windb002.nyc (and vice versa) then let users just put in windb002, and traveling users will be able to automagically use the closest and probably fastest DB server.
Or, in the case of a CMS, have one top-level CMS that refers to local ones. Say you have cms.example.com and cms.xxx.example.com. Depending on your network location, typing in CMS will either take you to the top-level CMS or the local one, which might aggregate data from the top-level one.
There's an old saying that says pretty much whatever you want it to.
I thought this was a good idea until the first time we moved an office...
A hostname _needs_ to be sufficiently unique that you can understand it across a noisy datacentre.
Aliases and configuration management is where it's appropriate to record server attributes, not in the hostname.
By all means put a dns alias in for your server called budgie, such that you can hit is as 'mailserver1.company.com', or for that matter 'slot22.rack44.datacentre3.company.com', or 'pop3.company.com'. Maybe even 'budgie.linux.company.com'. But don't start trying to compress this information into your 8 character hostname - it's just plain doomed to failure.
And this is why you don't have a girlfriend. Grow up, boy.
Incorrect.
Circumcision is child abuse.
Can't remember the names of the 3 VERY SIMILARLY named hosts that you work in regularly for Development /Quality Assurance Testing / Production? Easily done:
Assuming the following hosts map to 192.168.1.10 through 12:
SJC-LX-APPDEV02
SJC-LX-APPQAT04
SJC-LX-APPPRD01
Add them to your local /etc/hosts file with names that are useful to you. (make sure that /etc/nsswitch.conf includes "files" for host resolution)
192.168.1.10 my-dev
192.168.1.11 my-qa
192.168.1.12 my-prod