Suitable Naming Conventions For Workstations? 688
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?"
Let Mr. Black hat do it for you (Score:1, Funny)
zombie-pron-server-1 ... ... ...
zombie-pron-server-2
zombie-pron-server-3
zombie-pron-server-4
zombie-pron-server-5
Star Trek (Score:5, Funny)
Name them after Star Trek ships, races, planets and character names. You are obviously not a true CIS geek.
Re:Worst ask slashdot ever (Score:5, Funny)
Agreed. spectre_240sx, your question was bad and you should FEEL bad.
Our old sys admin (Score:3, Funny)
Easy... (Score:3, Funny)
i.e. gla-hub-04a-001
or here's a off the wall idea...
Number them as: City(or location)+machines static IP address within the internal network.
i.e. Glasgow-10-10-11-124
simples....
I ran out of names for my workstation (Score:5, Funny)
My first workstation was named tangent (after myself!)
My second workstation was named sine, followed by cosine, secant, cosecant and cotangent.
I got stuck for a while before I decided to go with arctangent, arcsine, etc but that didn't last
So out came hyperbolictangent... and I promptly gave up and now I name them after hot young female movie stars.
Morale of the story: Make sure your naming convention has room for expansion.
Re:Our old sys admin (Score:5, Funny)
I name computers after girls I've fucked.
Right hand and left hand?
Re:Our old sys admin (Score:3, Funny)
Doesn't it get confusing with all those machines named after your mom?
just please not CSI geeks. no rly. (Score:3, Funny)
imagine the horror of walking into a lab where all the workstations are named OMG-David-Caruso-01, ...
OMG-David-Caruso-02,
*shudders*
Re:I ran out of names for my workstation (Score:4, Funny)
Name all the boring low powered beige boxes.... (Score:5, Funny)
You can use my name for the zooty new multi-core with the blue leds.
Lovecraft (Score:2, Funny)
We used to name our machines after Lovecraftian deities but some of the sysadmins got grumpy when they couldn't pronounce the name >
Re:Star Trek (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Let Mr. Black hat do it for you (Score:5, Funny)
That's close to our system. We use adult toy names. It's pretty good, but you have to be careful not to use something obvious like "vibrator".
Arab, Bead, Tickler, Butterfly, MagicWand, Swing, Clamp, JackRabbit, etc... no one's caught on yet.
Re:I never run out of names (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Our old sys admin (Score:2, Funny)
Re:A good naming convention (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Worst ask slashdot ever (Score:5, Funny)
Just name each machine with an ID and put the information in a spreadsheet somewhere. It's not a complicated problem.
Too much work. I just call all my machines "Bob".
There ARE standards for this (Score:2, Funny)
Always consult a standard. For instance, ISO 10992a states that a machine name should be constructed by combining the name, age, sex, and favorite sexual position of each user on the computer, combining into a Unicode string, and taking the md5 checksum of said Unicode string. The resulting hex string shall be used as the workstation name. In the event of a collision, the sexual position of every user shall be replaced by their next favorite position until the collision is resolved.
Re:A computer name is not a database (Score:5, Funny)
WasteOfMoney
SureToBeHacked
WorthlessAsset
ClearlyUnderpowered
SpiderSolitair
For "special" machines, you can name them based on your prediction on what part will fail first:
BadPowerSupply
WorstMotherboardEver
NoisyFan
Re:I ran out of names for my workstation (Score:3, Funny)
Despite the exponential growth of technology in the second millennium, many enthusiasts assigned unrealistic upper bounds to the human empire's resources. Only 17 centuries before the conversion of the Clouds of Magellan to secondary storage for the Unified Andromeda Platform, one unnamed pioneer estimated that 640K is enough for anybody...
-Encyclopedia Galactica
Re:Easy... (Score:5, Funny)
If only there was some lightweight, distributed DB that could be used to associate a hostname with an IP address...
Re:Our old sys admin (Score:3, Funny)
Interesting approach. So I assume your network was a bunch of machines with names like, "Spot", "Lady", "Princess", "Bessie", "Flicka", etc?
University of Michigan model (Score:5, Funny)
Every engineering cluster had a theme. That meant that you knew what lab the machine was in but it still kept the names interesting. It also made it easy to remember that the dolts who killed remote jobs always used the NBA team machines because their prof told them to use that lab and how to kill processes.
The best theme? Rain, Snow, Hail, Leaf, Meteor, Skylab, etc. "Things that fall from the sky."
Re:Star Trek (Score:5, Funny)
I like to run a toke'n network. You take the toke, and when you're done, pass it along to the next node. I prefer this strategy for its high throughput. Not only that, but it's ahead of it's time. My network has been running a cloud for a couple decades already, and it was green before it was the in thing. The only problem is I can't remember what I named my workstations, so I'm afraid I can't help answer the question.
Re:Our old sys admin (Score:5, Funny)
I name computers after girls I've fucked.
Well yes you can techincally name them al localhost. In fact they all have that name by default.
Re:Worst ask slashdot ever (Score:5, Funny)
Name them after porn stars. That way when you say "Sylvia went down on me yesterday", people will think you actually have a life.
Re:Worst ask slashdot ever (Score:5, Funny)
PEBKAC_0000... (Score:1, Funny)
PEBKAC_0001...
Re:Worst ask slashdot ever (Score:5, Funny)
That's a bit like how we name our workstations, only we use a concatenation of person's full name, SSN, date of birth, mother's maiden name, person's present address and phone number, medical history, plus a single random digit for security reasons.
Re:Easy... (Score:2, Funny)
That would be so convenient. Let me know if you find something! I'm getting tired of using git to handle my distributed hosts file!
I found this really cool thing called DNS. I've discovered that you can encode all your hosts into a single string, then put it into something called a TXT record. I'm not sure of all its capabilities but all you need to do is ask it for that TXT record, then deconstruct the hosts file on whatever machine you need it.
Re:Worst ask slashdot ever (Score:2, Funny)
Well, I guess it won't work too well if they speak about how they removed Barbara, took her apart and used some parts to upgrade Alice ...
Re:Our old sys admin (Score:2, Funny)
i take it a workgroup of localhost is a circle jerk?
Re:Worst ask slashdot ever (Score:3, Funny)
I'd advise against it. I told my workmates that RonJeremy went down on me yesterday, and they moved my office to the broom closet.
Re:Worst ask slashdot ever (Score:5, Funny)
Wait, what? Seriously?!?
*brain melts down*
Yes, seriously. Everything you read on the Internet is true.
Re:I think I'm in the minority here... (Score:3, Funny)
Pokémon?
Re:I think I'm in the minority here... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Worst ask slashdot ever (Score:2, Funny)
It is a joke. Unless you are joking, in which case it is not a joke. NOBODY WHOOSH ME! I KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON!