Computer naming convention for schools

[atr]

Hi Guys,

 

I know the subject of naming computers is getting quite long in the tooth and has been discussed a lot but I'm looking for experiences of naming computers specifically in a school.

 

The computers here are currently not following any sort of plan. Office computers are names with users initials, followed by last two numbers of year purchased followed by a letter indicating if it is desktop or laptop. i.e. atr15d

 

Computers in the classrooms are named after room number but not all rooms have numbers and so that is where things get a bit complicated.

 

I've started naming them after the subject so MATHS01-T for a teacher machine and machines used by students are followed by a -S.

 

I'm looking for suggestions on what others are doing.

 

Alex.

[NB9457]

We name students machines by name and number, staff laptops by first initial, surname then -LT. Class PCs are TPC-RoomName

 

But to be honest it's what's best for you and your team. I also think before naming something, if I'm not here, will whoever else is be able to understand it easy enough?

 

Good naming saves hassle and makes life easy!

[ITBadger]

We follow the convention of . Thus we may have A1-DT-01 or B13-LT-16 or CONF-IM-01 for Desktop number 1 in room A1, Laptop number 16 in room B13 and iMac number 1 in the Conference Room.

We try to avoid naming devices after staff unless they have been issued to a specific member of staff, in which case we follow the convention , so SMT-MB-JB for the MacBook of Joe Bloggs who is in the Senior Management Team.

 

This seems to cover all bases for us and combined with OU's in AD allows us to see easily if something is in the wrong place, and to identify each device easily.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Dave.

[atr]

Thanks. Yes what I want is something that everyone can understand but is easy to manage. Was very tempted just to name them using service tag. :-)

 

What do you do when you have multiple PC's in a classroom. For example.... LANGLAB-T and then 24 other language lab PC's?

[HBPS]

class pc's are class-staff laptops are laptop-staff initials student laptops are caddyname-number

[skell]

[Room]-[ComputerNumber]-[YearImaged]

 

If its imaged more than once in the same year, it gets a letter at the end.

[localzuk]

We are migrating to a naming system to cover our whole Trust here.

 

Devices are named:

 

LAP

AIO

DES

 

followed by their 8 digit asset number

 

Except for in IT suites, then they are named by their school eg

 

DMS-ICT1-01

 

All the asset tracking details are stored in our asset management system, so things like purchase date and the like are easily discoverable.

[ITBadger]

Thanks. Yes what I want is something that everyone can understand but is easy to manage. Was very tempted just to name them using service tag. :-)

 

What do you do when you have multiple PC's in a classroom. For example.... LANGLAB-T and then 24 other language lab PC's?

 

In that case we would have LANGLAB-DT-01 to LANGLAB-DT-24 for the student computers and LANGLAB-DT-T for the teacher computer.

[jthompson]

We apply a unique 5-digit asset tag to all computers, and use that as the basis of the computer name for it's entire life. We also differentiate between laptops and PCs (so LT01234, PC01289, etc.). Staff just need to give the number (visible on the desktop wallpaper or somewhere obvious on the hardware) when reporting issues. Most rooms have machines arranged in numerical order to help find particular machines more easily, but it's not necessary.

If we want to know where a machine is, we search our inventory using the tag and that gives us all we need. I've found that using the same machine name for the life of the hardware helps give it a clearer history (easier to dig out old helpdesk tickets about it from years back, etc.).

[HarryMonkey]

We have the room name/number followed by machine number for classrooms eg ICT1-01, ICT1-02 etc. For student laptops, it tends to be the dept, NB and an number for example HUMS-NB-01, HUMS-NB-02 etc.

 

All staff laptops are NBK followed by the next number in sequence, NBK-01, NBK-02 etc.

 

Admin machines tend to be ADM then the dept and then machine number so the finance office would be ADM-FIN-01, ADM-FIN-02 etc.

 

These are all then listed in our inventory spreadsheet with staff names against the relevant laptops. We don't use names or initials in any workstation/laptop names.

Edited May 23, 2017 by HarryMonkey

[mikkydoos]

Laptops: ASMITH-LTP

Desktops: RoomName-Number incrementing from the door.

Mobile devices: STAFF-IPAD-01/-ANDPHONE/-IPHONE

Static PC's: WHITEBOARD-ROOMNO-01

Display PC's: DISPLAYPC-ROOM

 

 

Doesn't matter as long as you keep a spreadsheet of what's what and where.

 

I remember when EVERYBODY called their machines: BILBOBAGGINS, GANDALF, SPOCK. Cheesy

[eyetea]

Staff machines - R[Floor Number]-[Room Number]-[TEACH / STAFF#] Main teaching PC will always be teach, any additionals or office PCs just get numbered.

Student machines - R[Floor Number]-[Room Number]-[identifying number] - Room plan and label on the PC identify which one it is in the room.

[Snoochieboochies]

Room name, then incremental device number for that room. Eg, DT01-01.

 

Laptops usually have LT- at the beginning.

[6Foot2]

Where possible we name our stations by room, similar to replies above. When that isn't possible (no room number etc) we try to identify a role that the user of the computer might have (Deputy Head, Head's PA, etc)

 

I was building a new machine for a member of staff who has two offices. I asked him what he would like his computer to be called. He said 'NappyRoadie' due to a role he had in a previous job.

 

Note to self: Not asking a user for ideas for a station name in future.

[Fazza]

We use the following naming conventions for client PCs:

 

Staff Laptops: StaffLap-001

Staff Desktops: StaffDesk-001

Computer Suites: A3-01 (A3 is the room number)

Student Laptops: StuLap-001

 

We avoid using departmental names wherever possible as a PC may be in the Maths department now but in a couple of years time it could be relocated to another department. Some really old PCs I've come across are called 'Sarahs-PC' and Sarah left a long time ago so it gets confusing! By standardising in the above naming convention all we have to do is update the asset register when a PC changes hands or moves rooms etc. The only exception is if a computer suites PC moves rooms then it is renamed to that room.

[ITJS2015]

Staff Laptops

 

Make-Asset Number-Staff Initials

 

Tosh-0001-gh

 

Onsite machine

 

Department/classroom- Asset number- Computer number

[Davit2005]

For me it depends on size of network, big networks 500+ machines I'd name by asset tag, setup BGInfo to give the user the DNS name of PC.

 

From my experience, things can get in a right mess if PC's start getting moved around rooms then you have to re-image one and lose track.

[dry]

I feel sorry for a lot of your fingers when connecting to PCs via vnc etc!

 

Joe Bloggs is my example.

His laptop would be BloggsJ

If he worked in administration, his desktop would be Admin-JB

If he was a student using PC 16 in computer room 1, the PC would be CR1-16

[TwistedHelixis]

I stopped using location / person years ago. I simply use the serial number or other static number ( service tag) that is printed on the computer. That way if I need to find the missing computer I now what is printed on it, if I need to relocate it, its simply a case of moving it in AD. Edited May 23, 2017 by TwistedHelixis

[LeMarchand]

Primaries, so nothing too complex

 

Desktops:

3LC*-CLASS-FS* (Teacher desktop)

3LC-Y#*-RN*-## (Student use)

or

3LC-Admin-##

3LC-Suite-##

 

Laptops:

3LCLPT-4CMM*-FS

These tend to be issued to people, but those that aren't have the FS replaced by another suitable identifier of where they should be found.

*

3LC = 3 letter code identifying school

FS = Firstname Surname initials

# = Number

RN = Room Number

4CMM= 4 character Make/Model identifier

[atr]

Thanks for all the great suggestions guys. I do like the idea of a lifetime asset tag. I've got asset tags on computers but have not really thought about using them for the PC name.

[jthompson]

For me it depends on size of network, big networks 500+ machines I'd name by asset tag, setup BGInfo to give the user the DNS name of PC.

 

From my experience, things can get in a right mess if PC's start getting moved around rooms then you have to re-image one and lose track.

 

I agree. In recent years we've had a few room numbers swapped around due to new classrooms having been built, or rooms changing over to different departments. Just having asset tags in computer names meant we didn't need to do anything other than rename the relevant OUs in AD, rename the relevant printer shares and update the location names in the inventory.

 

I also think that you want to reduce the amount of duplicate data wherever possible to avoid conflicting information: if you have the location or staff member recorded against a computer in your inventory, you shouldn't need/want it in the computer name.

[IrritableTech]

We apply a unique 5-digit asset tag to all computers, and use that as the basis of the computer name for it's entire life. We also differentiate between laptops and PCs (so LT01234, PC01289, etc.). Staff just need to give the number (visible on the desktop wallpaper or somewhere obvious on the hardware) when reporting issues. Most rooms have machines arranged in numerical order to help find particular machines more easily, but it's not necessary.

If we want to know where a machine is, we search our inventory using the tag and that gives us all we need. I've found that using the same machine name for the life of the hardware helps give it a clearer history (easier to dig out old helpdesk tickets about it from years back, etc.).

 

Yeah we take this view here too. If your AD is well structured you can quickly find where a machine is without the need for the room in it's name. I just can't see the advantage of naming them on a location basis. You potentially loose a lot of history for each machine each time you rename them.

 

In a IT room we place consecutive numbered machines in a sensible pattern to help the teachers find the machine in classroom management software - but more often than not it will list by username anyway.

 

I find naming office machines after people or even roles soon causes confusion - people tend to move on and job titles change more frequently than machines rotate!

[Passat1983ICTech]

try this one out room number L1 then the assesstag number then a T for teacher

 

the for the pupil pc same again but with out the T

 

then for laptops LTP frisat let of there name and there Surname as well then there tag number

[RLR]

We apply a unique 5-digit asset tag to all computers, and use that as the basis of the computer name for it's entire life. We also differentiate between laptops and PCs (so LT01234, PC01289, etc.). Staff just need to give the number (visible on the desktop wallpaper or somewhere obvious on the hardware) when reporting issues. Most rooms have machines arranged in numerical order to help find particular machines more easily, but it's not necessary.

If we want to know where a machine is, we search our inventory using the tag and that gives us all we need. I've found that using the same machine name for the life of the hardware helps give it a clearer history (easier to dig out old helpdesk tickets about it from years back, etc.).

 

This is what we do. Our asset tags have a 5 digit code which we name the machine with. We then update the asset system (parago) with all the details of the user and location.