In the 90's I named them after Greek Mythology. In the 2000's I named them after Star Wars planets. Currently, I name them after planets in the Dune Universe.
How do you name your servers?
- Thread starter sboesch
- Start date
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WEBPROD01 is so boring. SQLDEV02 is worse! FS01 is just wrong. SPOINT01 is abhorrent. DC01 is plain unimaginative. While the name of the planet can be a hint, I use the Computer description field for describing the primary role. For example, Dune and Arrakis would be Domain Controllers. Rossak would be the mail/spam filter.
I do a planet in our solar system based on size. Then add a sequential number.
Pluto = ARM
Mercury = ITX and smaller server and media players.
Mars = Network equipment and other misc IP devices
Venus = 1U
Earth = 2U, my most common
Neptune = 3U
Uranus = 4U
Saturn = Tower
Jupiter = 5U+
Examples of usage
Built my 157th on 1/1/2013 2U so it is earth157
Bought a huge 7U storage chassis which was a bad idea in the day. jupiter8
Have a half depth Supermicro pfsense squid proxy mars131
good thread idea
Pluto = ARM
Mercury = ITX and smaller server and media players.
Mars = Network equipment and other misc IP devices
Venus = 1U
Earth = 2U, my most common
Neptune = 3U
Uranus = 4U
Saturn = Tower
Jupiter = 5U+
Examples of usage
Built my 157th on 1/1/2013 2U so it is earth157
Bought a huge 7U storage chassis which was a bad idea in the day. jupiter8
Have a half depth Supermicro pfsense squid proxy mars131
good thread idea
When I was with the State of Ohio for 8 years, we named all our servers after US cities.
I have a funny story, and a true one at that.
I was in Operations Meeting, reporting on the status of some upgrades. I actually used this in a sentence "I did Bend, Dover and Bangor last night"
I have a funny story, and a true one at that.
I was in Operations Meeting, reporting on the status of some upgrades. I actually used this in a sentence "I did Bend, Dover and Bangor last night"
In the lab:
Test machines have names indicating location Test rack 1 DL380g7 would look something like TR1DL380G7a This made ilo naming easier as well... just tack on I to the front.
Production machines on the other hand were named after characters in the star trek universe.
And from all over...
Data, Phlox, Neelix, Picard, Riker, Seven, Archer...
Compile boxes are based on their OS...
rhel5u8x64 etc...
Personal builds:
Generally based on a characteristic of the build.
Either architecture or physical part.
first 64bit box was X-64
first dual-core X2-64
first quad X4-64 (sometimes R2 or R3 was added depending on how many rebuilds I was in...)
RavenV3 is my current build... wanna guess my case?
Now... I do pick special names for specific purpose machines (read not daily driver)
for instance I have a dedicated Folding box.
It is an overclocked watercooled AMD G34 4p (4x 12c) I call it [H]arbringer (a combination of harbinger and hard bringer) I call it the Hard Omen.
Test machines have names indicating location Test rack 1 DL380g7 would look something like TR1DL380G7a This made ilo naming easier as well... just tack on I to the front.
Production machines on the other hand were named after characters in the star trek universe.
And from all over...
Data, Phlox, Neelix, Picard, Riker, Seven, Archer...
Compile boxes are based on their OS...
rhel5u8x64 etc...
Personal builds:
Generally based on a characteristic of the build.
Either architecture or physical part.
first 64bit box was X-64
first dual-core X2-64
first quad X4-64 (sometimes R2 or R3 was added depending on how many rebuilds I was in...)
RavenV3 is my current build... wanna guess my case?
Now... I do pick special names for specific purpose machines (read not daily driver)
for instance I have a dedicated Folding box.
It is an overclocked watercooled AMD G34 4p (4x 12c) I call it [H]arbringer (a combination of harbinger and hard bringer) I call it the Hard Omen.
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Wow that AMD machine must be fast and use lotsa power. How did you overclock?
I use a numbered sequence 0000103 was the latest device. I thought by now we would have more devices and go though a thousand a year.
I use a numbered sequence 0000103 was the latest device. I thought by now we would have more devices and go though a thousand a year.
I like to use descriptive initialisms, TT - Test Target, TC - Test Client, LD - LinuxDesktop, etc., that I then end up forgetting what they meant a few weeks later. Or random names like bouncer(Firewall/IDS/IPS), supertanker(larger storage server), or code(VM I used to code on...).
I have a passion for flowers as one of natures most beautiful, diverse, and complex creations.
orchidaceae is my latest. Long names don't bother me.
orchidaceae is my latest. Long names don't bother me.
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I'm with you - I lean toward using more interesting names - at last I used to do so. Many years ago one of my teams started a minor revolt when I set the naming theme for the company to be authors, specifically my favorite authors... some of which proved to be a bit obscure and/or difficult to pronounce properly. I gave in and handed over naming rights to someone else. I won't list all of the authors, but I think it was the pronunciation of Borges that triggered the revolt. Shoulda gone with Star Wars planets instead!
I realize this is a home server/DIY kind of forum, but I'm so used to the security mindset where its best to have the exact opposite method: system numbers or unrelated words that reveal nothing about the purpose of the system.
On a really small network it doesn't matter, but even in enterprise you will see lots of fun nicknames. Its a small thing but every bit helps and if that means only your people know 'BobsYourUncle' is the domain controller on a segment then all the better.
Now, on my own network, I am free to choose any names that I want! Have I once again gone crazy with author names like Eco, Perec, or Ballard? The names of spices?, Cities?, Famous rivers? or any other of the themes from prior data centers?
No. I'm afraid that I've gotten boring. I now worry more about keeping track of VMs than I once did about security through obscurity so I have settled - without really thinking about it - on machines named after the applications that they run. Yawn!
Not that I gave it any real thought, but it does make good sense in hindsight. In the "old days" we'd try to run multiple apps on each server in order to get decent utilization. In that model, it made sense for the machines to have "identities" that were different than the apps they ran. Now that everything but the very largest apps are virtualized - and the VMs die when the apps they run are killed - it doesn't seem nearly as necessary to give servers their own identities.
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So do you just give everything random names and words? Just sit and type something?
Everything in my home network has a name somehow related to pigs...there is no rhyme nor reason to the names, but every one of them has something to do with piggery. Bigpig, littlepig, trough, barnyard, mud, whatever.
The pig fetish is not mine - it is my wife's. But as the old saying goes - what interests my love fascinates me.
Amusingly, it also mostly satisfies Aluminum's recommendation for randomness.
The pig fetish is not mine - it is my wife's. But as the old saying goes - what interests my love fascinates me.
Amusingly, it also mostly satisfies Aluminum's recommendation for randomness.
I tend to draw from mythology, as a lot of people I know do... apollo for a music/subsonic server, dionysus for an xbmc box, ogmios for a wiki VM, things like that. Makes it easier for me to keep track of what does what, and I discover a little bit more about history/mythology each time I go searching for an appropriate name 
If I'm rapidly testing VMs for a purpose or trying different configs I will just use descriptive names, however - I'd lose track of what was what too quickly otherwise.
If I'm rapidly testing VMs for a purpose or trying different configs I will just use descriptive names, however - I'd lose track of what was what too quickly otherwise.