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Why Do We Name Servers the Way We Do?
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Mon Feb 02, 2009 06:20 PM
from the just-no-more-muppets-please dept.
from the just-no-more-muppets-please dept.
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?
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Suitable Naming Conventions For Workstations? 688 comments
spectre_240sx writes "We've discussed server naming a fair amount in the past, but I haven't seen much about workstations. Where I currently work, we embed a lot of information in our workstation names: site, warranty end date, machine type, etc. I'm of the opinion that this is too much information to overload in the machine name when it can more suitably be stored in the computer description. I'd love to hear how others are naming their workstations and some pros and cons for different naming schemes. Should computers be logically tied to the person that they're currently assigned to, or does that just cause unnecessary work when a machine changes hands? Do the management tools in use make a difference in how workstations are named?"
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Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
h t t p colon slash slash slash dot dot org
Re:Slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)
I've mostly found it a sign of a company's size/age/maturity as to how boring the server names are. Several places I've worked for started out with the admins coming up with their funny/cute/dorky naming schemes, only to eventually have server names be locked down in the name of STANDARDIZATION.
Then you have endless meetings to decide what should be the important components of a system name. Should it indicate the machine's location? It's OS? It's function? Should it even indicate which rack number and elevation slot the system is in? Eventually you end up with racks full of servers named SJC-LX-APPDEV01, NYC-SV-EXCHG02, and LDN-UX-SMTPDR01.
I have to admit, a little part of me misses having room for a little creativity in naming systems, but then the rest of me doesn't miss wasting time trying to come up with names for work systems. I've always got my home network to label with my ever-changing nerdly obsessions.
Parent
Re:Slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)
It does not bloody well make administration easier! If you have say X servers scattered over Y locations, it makes sense to call them:
(site)(os)(function)(number)
i.e.
sydwindb002
meaning sydney windows database 002
as opposed to tauron or frickin picon, or smurf (I'm not kidding you). Best of all though I've seen was server. Just server.
Serving what?? This was in a rack of 27 severs in total.
As a sysad, it shits me when people come up with 'cute' nonsensical names that have no consistency and aren't self explanatory. I mean, good software engineering principles dictate that you use meaningful variable names. Why not server names as well?
Parent
Snow White Theme (Score:5, Funny)
Old Reader's Digest Joke:
Seven terminals named Doc, Happy, Sleepy, Grumpy, . . ., and a printer named "Handsome Prints". :-)
D-d-d-dupe (Score:5, Funny)
Wines, cheeses, trees (Score:5, Insightful)
A goofy naming scheme is a bad idea when you're running over 100 servers in a dynamic environment. When your servers are named after wines, cheeses, and trees, who can say what Oak does, or Chablis, or Feta, or Jujuba, or Sassafras, ad nauseum.
-r0
Re:Wines, cheeses, trees (Score:5, Funny)
Well, not sure about where you are, but around here, adnauseum is the mail server.
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"Goofy" naming scheme? (Score:5, Funny)
Great idea! Let's name the others "Mickey", "Minnie", and "Pluto"
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Re:"Goofy" naming scheme? (Score:5, Funny)
"Urballs", "Urpenis", "Urnavel"...
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Re:Wines, cheeses, trees (Score:5, Insightful)
Duh, you don't refer to the servers by name directly, it's just a name.
Use CNAME with functionality pointing to that server. Naming a server "www" is just silly when it also does other stuff.
Naming the server "Hezbollah" and having a bunch of cnames point to it ensures you can easily move a service at any later time without having to rename the server.
Parent
Re:Wines, cheeses, trees (Score:5, Insightful)
Quite correct - someone please mod this up. The extra layer of abstraction you get by using CNAME records in your DNS really helps. A server's "real" name should not be the name of it's functional role.
Parent
Re:Wines, cheeses, trees (Score:5, Insightful)
On the other hand, if I told you 'mx2' and 'nas1' are down, you have a better idea of what you're dealing with... Forget that there's a CNAME from mail to daffy and a CNAME from p0rnserver to nas1.
Until someone decides to retire mx2, move functionality from nas1 to a new server named nas2, and make use of the old mx2 as the mail server.
Now you have nas1 and nas2. One's a mail server. You get to guess which one. But hey if you think you REALLY know better than the RFC, it's your network to run.
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Re:Wines, cheeses, trees (Score:5, Funny)
Naming the server "Hezbollah" and having a bunch of cnames point to it ensures you can easily move a service at any later time without having to rename the server.
Right. It also means that if there's a horrible disk crash, the FBI and NSA no doubt have several nice backup copies from last Friday you can borrow.
Parent
Re:Wines, cheeses, trees (Score:5, Funny)
If obscurity is not a chief objective you could latinize the server's functions. Mailicus, Proxius, Validicus etc..
Add in some major/minor modifiers and you are in business.
Parent
Re:Wines, cheeses, trees (Score:5, Interesting)
A little extra work for us, but we have ways internally of handling this issue without much headache.
Parent
Re:Wines, cheeses, trees (Score:5, Funny)
A little extra work for us, but we have ways internally of handling this issue without much headache.
If your going for obscurity I'd go the other way... give some old pentium 1 with a copy of tradewars2000 in a closet the name 'auth-pay-master', and the your main server something like 'help-desk-print-server' ;)
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Re:Wines, cheeses, trees (Score:5, Funny)
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Rebel (Score:5, Insightful)
mac addresses (Score:5, Funny)
Worst naming scheme: (Score:5, Interesting)
functional naming.
Machines need arbitrary names, functional names are aliases.
Re:Worst naming scheme: (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Porn stars (Score:5, Funny)
I used to run a fairly lucrative business at a time when a certain industry was much more profitable... JennaJameson would always go down while RonJeremy would always be up.
Coincidence? I think not.
Break it down (Score:5, Interesting)
Use this convention for naming servers. company - airport code - role. For example, MSFT-PDX-MAIL01 (or DC01, TS01, APP01, etc)
Re:Break it down (Score:5, Interesting)
And a server that serves more than 1 role? 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?
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Snow (Score:5, Insightful)
Just like my user name, I decided to go with the word "snow" in various languages. So far, I have my router chioni, server nix, desktop losse, and various other names for components. My wii is yuki, my xbox 360 is xue, my ipod touch is lumi. Beyond that I've also used "eira" and "schnee".
At my university NMSU, the CS department used alcoholic drinks (vodka, gin, etc), which were changed to vehicles (cobra, stingray) over complaints from an incoming professor. The sunrays were "bear" in various languages (oso, medved, ursa), and later they had words from the hacker's dictionary (foo, bar, baz, frob)
The naming schemes all were easily memorable, and prompted word associations, making them easy to mentally group. Ok, except the translations for bears, (and mine for snow) except for fellow crazy polyglots, and linguiphiles.
Re:Snow (Score:5, Funny)
If your wii is yuki, you might want to see a doctor!
Parent
Never owned a server, but... (Score:5, Funny)
I had a series of Macs before I became a diehard Linux guy. I didn't know I could name the first one, but then came Mac and Cheese, Mac Truck and Fanfare for the Common Mac (around the time of Copeland).
Why? Because I could.
Logical names fail eventually (Score:5, Insightful)
Over time, systems get refactored for uses that they were not originally intended, so that box named web1 is now an ftp server and nobody bothered to rename it. The same happens when you try to name them by physical location. r1a2r10n5 got moved from Room 1, Aisle 2, Rack 10, Number 5 to another room entirely.
The easiest time I had dealig with servers was when they were named after japanese monsters. We had Godzilla, Mothra, etc. We all know that Godzilla was the PostresSQL server. If a box's purpose changed, we didn't have to worry about renaming it and people would eventually learn its new purpose.
Whimsical names work.
Surnames (Score:5, Funny)
All my computers are named after famous computerists. For example, Welchman. Turing. Babbage. (The exception is my old laptop, named after Richard Hammond.)
My phones are also given surnames: Stubblefield, Adams, etc.
All my iPods are called Steve.
Lots of good ones on Stack Overflow (Score:5, Informative)
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/262657/the-coolest-server-names [stackoverflow.com]
You name them after computer parts (Score:5, Funny)
Whimsical Conference room names (Score:5, Funny)
Ok, this drives me nuts. It's a little off topic, since it's names of conference rooms instead of server names, but the concept is the same.
Here in Colorado, we have 54 mountain peaks that are > 14,000 feet. They're referred to as "fourteeners," and they all (of course) have names.
Every company in Denver thinks they're damn clever by naming their conference rooms after the fourteeners. I don't know how many Long's Peak and Mount Evans conference rooms I've sat in, but it makes me want to hurl my chair at the window.
Ok, time for my anger management class. =p
I know a name for itworlds new mysql server (Score:5, Funny)
Pants are down (Score:5, Funny)
from rfc2100 (Score:5, Interesting)
(ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2100.txt)
The Naming of Hosts is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm as mad as a hatter
When I tell you, a host must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES.
First of all, there's the name that the users use daily,
Such as venus, athena, and cisco, and ames,
Such as titan or sirius, hobbes or europa--
All of them sensible everyday names.
There are fancier names if you think they sound sweeter,
Some for the web pages, some for the flames:
Such as mercury, phoenix, orion, and charon--
But all of them sensible everyday names.
But I tell you, a host needs a name that's particular,
A name that's peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can it keep its home page perpendicular,
And spread out its data, send pages world wide?
Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,
Like lothlorien, pothole, or kobyashi-maru,
Such as pearly-gates.vatican, or else diplomatic-
Names that never belong to more than one host.
But above and beyond there's still one name left over,
And that is the name that you never will guess;
The name that no human research can discover--
But THE NAMESERVER KNOWS, and will us'ually confess.
When you notice a client in rapt meditation,
The reason, I tell you, is always the same:
The code is engaged in a deep consultation
On the address, the address, the address of its name:
It's ineffable,
effable,
Effanineffable,
Deep and inscrutable,
singular
Name.
Yay for colours! (Score:5, Interesting)
For smaller setups with less than ten machines, I like to use colours.
Red - Production Server
Orange - Staging Server
Yellow - Test Server
Green - Dev Server
Blue/Purple/etc etc for other things like the database server etc.
This way, when I'm setting up PuTTY or another shell, I can set the foreground text colour for each machine to match the server name, which stops most of those embarrassing mistakes when you run a command on production that you meant to run on test, and so on.
Let's just say the Dallas server... (Score:5, Funny)
Whoops (Score:5, Funny)
Medical Conditions (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Artificial Intelligences (Score:5, Funny)
...but I later decided on naming them after AIs.
Roker?
Jolsen?
Sharpton?
Yankovic?
Gore?
Oh, wait...
Parent
Re:naming (Score:5, Funny)
...and period3 means that you're 12 years old and just started puberty?
Parent
Re:Well, I'm currently using Fwiffo. (Score:5, Interesting)
Personally, I like MrDomainController, MrNameServer, MrFileServer, etc. Have a backup? Meet MsDomainController. Need yet another backup? JrDomainController? Need another one? No you don't. See, easy, unambiguous, useful.
Parent
Re:Well, I'm currently using Fwiffo. (Score:5, Insightful)
We had this exact problem. Originally they were all named Webserver1,Webserver2,Monitoring1,Monitoring2 etc etc etc. We decided it would be cool to name them all after simpsons characters. 3 Days later I get an alert to my phone at 2am to tell me Nelson is not responding to ping. WTF is Nelson? Is he important? No idea what he did, and if he needed rebooting immediately or could wait till reasonable hours.
Hence I'm a big proponent for a useful naming scheme.
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Re:Well, I'm currently using Fwiffo. (Score:5, Funny)
Nelson is not responding to ping
*Points* Haaa-haaa.
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Re:Well, I'm currently using Fwiffo. (Score:5, Funny)
Saves a fortune in tattoo removal.
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Re:Apparently odd naming often has a purpose (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:The Simpsons (Score:5, Funny)
We had a Simpsons fan where I used to work, When our engineering groups got our first workstations, he named his 'homer' and suggested that we follow suit. We named ours 'ulysses'.
Parent
Re:Idiots... (Score:5, Insightful)
Depends. Functional naming conventions often try to name servers according to some crazy attempt to fully qualify the server name. It'd be like naming your variables like I have seen in some VB programs (stupid Hungarian notation!)
I have worked in places where servers are given functional names, and places where servers are named in a more whimsical fashion. Functional names suck.
Even "meaningful" names lose meaning over time, due to changes in naming conventions, repurposing of hardware, or other unforeseen things. Might as well give them whimsical names which relate to one another, yet aren't dependent on the implementation details. Servers are named for human reference, else they'd be IP addresses.
Then, a new director or new group handles server allocation. The naming convention changes and you have to remember yet another arcane naming system.
Again, functional names are cumbersome and hard to remember. And you often have to type server names over and over again. It's easier to remember names like sleepy, grumpy, and dopey than to remember and constantly retype TXDALDC09DEV01, TXDALDC03DEVDB01, and CASFDC06QADB11.
If you just hate whimsical names, then at least serialize the server names. Server01, Server02, and Server03 is a better way to go than coming up with some complex system of fully qualified names.
Parent
Re:Idiots... (Score:5, Insightful)
By your logic, I can name all the variables in my code "x", "y", and "z" and then complain that they've hired *idiots* who can't remember that "x means the number of items in the shopping cart, duh". I could claim it's just a rite of passage into the world of complex software development...
Parent
Re:Server names (Score:5, Funny)
Thus, if you tether your Motorola cell phone to your laptop, you end up with Ockham's RAZR.
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