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?"
Worst ask slashdot ever (Score:3, Insightful)
And that's saying something.
Honestly, can you even think of a stupider question? How is this even an issue? Just name each machine with an ID and put the information in a spreadsheet somewhere. It's not a complicated problem.
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)
Let me guess... (Score:2)
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."
Imperial College London (Computing dept.) model (Score:3, Interesting)
(for lab computers) ... vertex60. pixel01, synapse01, glyph01.
Pick something computing/science/maths-sounding. Name all computers of the same type with that, plus a number: vertex01, vertex02,
It's not as boring as "asset1241", but it's a *lot* easier to find numbered PCs in the lab. It's also easier for anyone wanting to use a machine remotely. Finding your usual glyph12 is running slow? Well, you know at least 11 other machine names.
Staff/research students could name their own PCs, presumably because it's
Use a name generator (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Our old sys admin (Score:5, Funny)
I name computers after girls I've fucked.
Right hand and left hand?
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Doesn't it get confusing with all those machines named after your mom?
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Interesting approach. So I assume your network was a bunch of machines with names like, "Spot", "Lady", "Princess", "Bessie", "Flicka", etc?
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.
New keyboard, please ! (Score:3)
First genuine LOL of the day. Thank you !
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Simply name it after the the DATA DROP ID. You can locate the machine
and when you change PC's, just change THAT machine name to correspond
with the drop location.
Yeah, put it in a 'spreadsheet'. Most 'spreadsheets' are merely
searchable lists... go figure, I guess people forget what a
spreadsheet IS.
Re:Worst ask slashdot ever (Score:5, Insightful)
Renaming PCs = BAD. You get away with it up to a certain size, but once you start implementing apps like a job tracking system, software licensing tracking, etc it just bites you in the arse... HARD.
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.
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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)
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:Worst ask slashdot ever (Score:5, Funny)
Wait, what? Seriously?!?
*brain melts down*
Yes, seriously. Everything you read on the Internet is true.
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We move PCs around constantly, so naming then mased on physical location is dumb for us. Same goes for typing them to a person, as we have a lot of contractors as well.
We name PCs based on building and major department ownership, followed by a hex string. Names are never re-used. The current IP of the system gives us a real good idea of where it's located (in terms of room or area), but it's specific physical address (desk location, etc) is stored in an asset tracking dtabase, nice and simple. Knowing w
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Dumb idea.
If you can't find the machine unless IT tells YOU what drop its on, I suggest you find a new line of work. Besides, wifi in the work place makes this a limited option. Machines move from desk to desk without the involvement of IT. Happens every day.
Machine name should be unique and fixed for the life of the machine in the corporate world.
Some things are tied to machine name, (some software licenses, etc) and windows objects when you put two machines with the same name on the same network. So EI
Re:Worst ask slashdot ever (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Worst ask slashdot ever (Score:5, Insightful)
If you rename the PCs you're forever trying to keep up - or dealing with false information, which is worse than no information...
Re:Worst ask slashdot ever (Score:4, Interesting)
Agreed. Just come up with a naming scheme and stick with it. Otherwise, you're just going to waste time trying to keep the names matching the machines' current status.
At the university I work, the servers are named after famous figures in the fields of psychology and brain research. At home, they're named after things from Star Control II (Ultron = the desktop that always breaks; Chmmr = the powerful computation server; Spathi = the laptop (which can flee the network); Greenish = the printer; Quasispace = the wifi network; etc).
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Exactly, this is why we name our PCs after the DELL service tag, if we are in doubt we can just call up DELL, they know everything about the machine that matters.
One Step Further... (Score:3, Interesting)
For the sake of making things easier on our SMS admins and the field team, we use the Dell/Apple/HP serial or service tag as well, since the manufacturer can keep the specs and the purchase order info themselves.
We do this:
Brand Code is either D for Dell, A for Apple, H for HP, etc.
And VMs under them are:
VM
So right now, my box is CISD6XQDMJ5, but I'm writing on a VM called CISD6XQDMJ5VM04.
The beauty of this is that it lets the admins on SMS easily select departments by building queries that say:
for all mach
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".
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And who modded it overrated? This is basic LAN management stuff. If you're doing it any other way, you're not doing it properly.
And Flamebait? If you don't know how to name, manage, and track workstations properly you shouldn't be doing it. No-one who has responsibility for naming workstations should need to ask Slashdot about this.
Having said that, reading below people who name workstations on department/section/any physical location, well.
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This, as many above, seems to suggest that the names are arbitrary identifiers only used for administrative purposes. But is some real situations, all those computers are UNIX boxes, and users need to log in into specific ones (yes, even workstations), and remember which one is which. A 20 letter+digit white noise name is very unlikely to be remembered properly.
don't name by person just makes it harder to do sw (Score:2)
don't name by person just makes it harder to do swaps, moves, and other stuff. Also times you need a open system that many people uses. warranty end date, machine type + where it (general area) is seems good.
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Our desktop guys reimage workstations rather than relying on the last user to not fuck things up. Hostname contains department, user's name, and OS.
Re:don't name by person just makes it harder to do (Score:5, Informative)
Place I worked at previously had an even much simpler method: the hostname is the cubicle number followed by the image build number.
It made a lot of physical services such as repairs and upgrades much faster and really, there is just too much information about a user and machine to even consider using the hostname to store it all.
Re:don't name by person just makes it harder to do (Score:5, Insightful)
That's a lot of work when someone changes a cubicle.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
I've found that if it isn't automatic it gets forgotten.
Three years later you'll have WRKSTN_ROOM423 in room 132 and the admin or user that moved it will have either forgot completely or moved on.
Workstations should not need to be accessed over the network so they should not need a friendly name.
There is no reason why the tag number which is clearly printed on the machine should not be used.
Re:don't name by person just makes it harder to do (Score:4, Insightful)
In the tightest companies I have worked for, they name workstations and servers with meaningless random generated alphanumeric sequences.
I guess they consider it more secure, making it harder to figure out the network topology. Also, since the names are meaningless, there is never a need to rename the machine really, unless they would want to confuse even more want to be hackers.
Re:don't name by person just makes it harder to do (Score:4, Informative)
My old university/job used a three letter department code, and then the last six digits of the asset tag. You'd get systems like ITS-26301 and MTH-31415.
This is pretty solid, especially because:
Your mileage may vary.
Re:don't name by person just makes it harder to do (Score:4, Interesting)
There really isn't a good way. Would be nice to have two names, a permanent one, assigned early on, probably related to an asset ID, and a nickname based on the user or purpose of the machine. The nickname can be changed anytime the user or department wants to do so. Except that this may be a pain to do on some operating systems.
Like an ID for a database record (Score:2)
Like an ID for a database record, the name should be unique, mean nothing out of context, and used only to look up a description of all the information you are trying to encode in it. What happens if the warranty info changes? What happens if you assign the wrong machine, move where it is located, or change some other fungible property (either through upgrades, or simply because you encoded the wrong info?). You don't want to have to go through machine renaming exercises, updating dns entries, etc. or ha
Re:Like an ID for a database record (Score:5, Informative)
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Exactly. We have an 'asset tag' - a number written on the case with a sharpie. (Works perfectly fine for us!) The computer's name is just "PC" followed by the (zero padded to three digits) computer number. Thus, I'm on PC079.
(With us, when a person changes department or office, their computer follows them. Thus there's no sane reason for us to encode the office or department name into the computer's name.)
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Use asset tags. They are unique (at least should be) all other data are stored in database else where, sub-records keeping rest of the information like software loaded, key#, ...
*IF* BIG IF,you have more than 1 company under the same roof, add a simple company id, but really not needed, that is really a column in database.
Watch out for asset tags greater than 8 or 10 characters, depending. Can be problem with secondary machines and naming issues, like workstation ids IBM equipment (10 char unique / 8 char
how about (Score:2)
How about
MicrosoftSpamBot01 thru MicroSoftSpamBotxx?
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Only 2 digits? That's a small botnet.
Star Trek (Score:5, Funny)
Name them after Star Trek ships, races, planets and character names. You are obviously not a true CIS geek.
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It's all fun and games until someone gets ahold of some Tolkien.
Re:Star Trek (Score:5, Funny)
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.
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*
Depends on the situation (Score:2)
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We name by SITE_DIVISION_BUILDING_ROOM_UID. Just from looking at a WS ID, we know just about where it is. If a user calls and only knows their building and room, we can easily isolate the machine.
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For every d there was a p. Numbers were reused with each version of the OS. Issue became remember which machine N had the application that you needed.
jerry
A computer name is not a database (Score:5, Insightful)
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
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....
Re:Easy... (Score:5, Insightful)
I laughed out loud. Using the IP address as the hostname? Genius.
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...
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Oh wait it was a KDawson post.. never mind...
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.
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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:I ran out of names for my workstation (Score:4, Funny)
obvious problem (Score:2)
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LOL!
I once run into a guy named “Marc” whose station was named “Marcellino“. Why the discrepancy, I asked???
It came so because his first worstation was named “marc”, then his second “marcel”, then his third “marce
Re:I never run out of names (Score:4, Funny)
Depends, really... (Score:5, Interesting)
For instance, if you have laptops, individually assigned to employees, and relatively low turnover, a name that tells you about the machine's primary user is really handy. It allows you to instantly associate the voice on the other end of the phone, or the name on the trouble ticket, with the machine in question.
If you have desktops, location based naming might be more useful, particularly if users move around, are replaced frequently, or share hardware per shift or something.
It's hard to give general rules for naming because, in essence, a name should capture(as succinctly as possible) the salient characteristics that make something unique. Exactly what those characteristics are depends heavily on how your organization is set up.
service tag (Score:5, Interesting)
People move, machines get re-allocated, rebuilt, etc.
I use the service tag. Why? Several reasons:
Stuff like "bob-pc" or "accounts1" does not scale and either becomes inconsistent, or you need to keep renaming PCs which presents other issues (fucks up any configuration databases you have, etc).
So, service tag - boring as fuck, but does the job.
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+5 insightful.
That's pretty much what my big company does.
Maybe the region/domain or functional group will be part of the FQDN, but the hostname will just be the service tag.
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There's no spectacularly *good* workstation naming convention, but the service tag is just convenient - its stuck on the side of the box from the factory and retrievable from the bios come re-imaging time :)
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We're putting each program (of computers) in its own OU and granting AD rights to a group to manage the PC's in each OU (so they can reset, delete or modify the computer objects). We have 5000 desktops across the country and no
I think I'm in the minority here... (Score:5, Interesting)
...but I'm a big fan of giving machines actual names, after TV shows, bands, movies, fiction, etc. I prefer to log into "Trixie.mycompany.com" instead of "LAUX001"; the former, in addition to being easier to remember, just gives the machine a trifle bit of "personality". Yes, I realize that the latter may convey more information (mail servers especially seem to do this: "CHIMAIL01", "NYCEXCH05", etc.), but it feels cold and impersonal; if you treat your machines as just machines, as just any old random tool you'd grab and work with, then they become just a series of interchangeable parts. Giving a machine a name invokes something, typically whimsical, that just adds a touch of humanity back into the system. Yes it's still a machine, yes it's going to spit out a thousand nonsensical errors when you forget a semicolon somewhere in your C++ file, and yes it will eventually be replaced, but for that period of time when you're working with it, you're just that little bit more connected to something more ... personal.
Maybe this is just old school thinking; it seems like this was much more common back when everyone had an account on the campus Unix boxen, complete with subtle importance ("Oh, you have an account on Kramden? That's a much faster Vax than Norton...what project are you working on that you scored that??").
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Pokémon?
Re:I think I'm in the minority here... (Score:4, Funny)
KISS (Score:4, Interesting)
What do you do when a machine is relocated? (Score:3, Insightful)
You have to rename it.
Which is silly.
As with people, machines should have a unique name, all the rest of the information about the machine should be in a database of some kind (a list in a text file would do).
Then when you move the machine, assuming that your DHCP, DNS and WIntel servers are up to scratch, yo have to do precious little but relocate the machine (and update your database).
With your naming scheme you have to rename the machine in addition to updating any database you may have.
DUH Moment on /. (Score:2)
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 >
NGC 6960 (Score:2)
Cities. (Score:2)
Shanghai
Mumbai
Buenos Aires
Moscow
Karachi
Delhi
Manila
Sao Paulo
Seoul
Istanbul
Jakarta
Mexico City
Lagos
Lima
Tokyo
New York City
Cairo
London
Tehran
Beijing
eventually you'll get to places like Holyhead, Waco, Palo Alto, Bakersfield, Piscataway, Sudbury, Guelph, Alice Springs, etc.
RS
Two words (Score:2)
Either assign them yourself (00001, 00002, 00003...) or use the manufacturer's serial number.
(Now, if you're doing it for your home network, that's a different story. Use the names of known ring-bearers, or secret identities of the Justice League, or actors who've played the Doctor, or starship captains, or whatever you find amusing.)
Beer (Score:2)
Random names (Score:2)
How about these:
- abcdef
- ghiklm
- nopqrs
- uvwxyz
Then there is always:
- bob
- alsobob
- theotherbob
- notthatbob
- bobby
- bobbydoesdallas
- bobbob
Name them whatever you want, since chances are by the time you get enough computers you usually have someone who decides on boring names like:
- l00312
- l78302
Simply because it makes inventory easier. In the meantime decide amongst yourselves and choose something that
Physicists. (Score:2)
I am a grad student in a physics department at a major university.
The grad students have access to a lot of machines around the building as workstations, and they're all named things like lagrange, maxwell, gauss, etc. (Bohr, newton, faraday, and the like are servers.)
Individual professors get to call theirs whatever they want -- my advisor's two are klingon and romulan.
Asset Tags. (Score:2)
If your company uses asset tags make the machine number the asset number. At least you'll be able to find it network wise, and when it get re-imaged the machine name will be easy to figure out no matter how hosed the original drive.
Also, if the machine changes users, the asset number is still relevant.
Names are important. (Score:2, Troll)
I insist on something you can pronounce and preferably something that makes sense and gives a strong indication what it is. If you are really desperate, call it something cutesy that people will at least remember.
They want to use incomprehensible, unpronouncable, random strings of characters One True Official Company Blessed "product codes".
I asked them for where the One True dictionary of product codes is. There
Changing hands shouldn't be a problem (Score:5, Insightful)
The machine should be reimaged when it changes hands, so resetting the name will add about 5 seconds to the setup process. Not a big deal.
Re:Changing hands shouldn't be a problem (Score:5, Insightful)
Whatever naming scheme you choose, ensure that you can leave the names alone once they're assigned. Renaming PCs is bad and creates additional workload for no good reason.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
A good naming convention (Score:2)
This question (Score:2)
I think I first read it on talk.computers in 1984.
There's an RFC for that (Score:3, Informative)
Just for reference: RFC 1178
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1178.html [faqs.org]
While it is not a direct answer to your question, it does give a lot of good why and why not's on this subject. Just as handy now as in the 90s.
System serial number (Score:2)
We use system serial number to generate the hostname during the sysprep phase. This is a great scheme imo because naming is based on something burned into the bios, making asset management much easier and it discourages the use of workstations as ersatz servers.
We've cycled about 250,000 workstations through this system since 1999, and haven't had a name collision yet with HP, Dell or IBM
One Word (Score:3, Insightful)
One word: TinyURL.
Identifiers are not descriptions (Score:3, Insightful)
It is a common mistake, but do not attempt to insert descriptions into identifiers. You wouldn't name your child "Dribble-gums-nursery-2" and expect then to be still comfortable about it when they reach their teens. But call then something meaningless like "Kevin" and there's no problem. Computers are no different.
If you create an identifier that attempts to describe the computer, rather than just give it a unique name, you can be sure that by the time it comes to decommissioning it the identifier will be misleading. Things will have changed. It will have a different location, a different OS, a different owner, or a different spec.
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.
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What's hard about "hostname"? (Score:4, Insightful)
because if you're going to rename a server, you might as well rebuild it
What, "hostname $new_name" is too hard to type? I mean, you don't hardcode the machine name in application config files and rc scripts, do you?
Do you?