Naming your computers

[jthompson]

Although ours are named according to their asset tag, we have OUs in AD for each room/office. In terms of computers being assigned to particular members of staff, we might put their name in the AD description field for that computer, but certainly we'd put that in the inventory record for the computer as well.

 

Some of our computer rooms have number labels (1-25 or whatever) on the front of the machines, entirely unrelated to the hostname or asset tag, which the teachers will use to identify particular workstations more easily in a classroom management context. We just let the teachers do that for themselves, if they want to.

[Areku]

Asset tag, and then everything is organised in AD

[kennysarmy]

We use :

 

Room number

 

Computer number in room

 

Year and date of purchase.

 

EG.

 

8B205-2017-04

[k-strider]

IT Rooms RoomXXYY where XX is the room number and YY is the PC number in the room... when they are replaced we use the same name...

Office PCs named after LOTR Characters

Servers Named after Prime Ministers

[6Foot2]

...Servers Named after Prime Ministers

Historical, in sequence?

 

Other server naming scheme?...

[robyholmes]

We use Sitecode + Asset Number. We had room names/numbers but got sick of re-naming them when they moved around. It also doesn't work for laptops which roam around.

[6Foot2]

...It also doesn't work for laptops which roam around.

Departmental (non-staff laptops) are named for the department:

 

Technology: TLT01, TLT02,...

 

Learning Support: LSLT01, LSLT02,...

 

etc.

[korifugi]

We use SI-ROOM-XX, where SI are the two site initials (We're on a single MAT wide network), room is obvious and XX is the number of that particular machine. Makes it easy to see where they are from the office and we sort into 'rooms' in impero based on machine name.

[k-strider]

IT Rooms RoomXXYY where XX is the room number and YY is the PC number in the room... when they are replaced we use the same name...

Office PCs named after LOTR Characters

Servers Named after Prime Ministers

 

Just Random ish.... i just decomisined Thatcher so that will be avalible next <- though i wont use contravertial ones that are obviusly public facing and we use DFS so are good for fileservers...

Churchill,Salisbury,Cameron all DCs

Wellington VS Host

Perceval VS Host

Bute Primary File Server

Pell Backup DFS server

Baldwin DPM server

May DB Server

Major and Disraeli RDS Session Hosts

 

Most VS workloads have rolle related names though like ExchangeSrv2016, WebSrv2012R2...

[TechMonkey]

Does the Cameron DC cause massive issues and then flake out? The Major server never causes a fuss, tends to be forgotten but has put some good work in behind the scenes?

 

Those that use serial numbers or manufacturers, do you just have to ensure to shuffle your PCs to the correct OUs and how do you do dynamic groups in SCCM? Or are those managed manually? Just pondering that it would be good to prevent confusion when a machine is swapped out but currently we don't have to panic about moving OUs when a machine is renamed and SCCM adds machines automatically based on name for a lot of our software.

[DrBeaker]

We use SI-ROOM-XX, where SI are the two site initials (We're on a single MAT wide network), room is obvious and XX is the number of that particular machine. Makes it easy to see where they are from the office and we sort into 'rooms' in impero based on machine name.

 

Similar to what I do. In this school it's RM but IMHO their naming convention works for them, but not for me. so I'm renaming it. xxxDT255 tells me nothing about where it is. If it's been moved, if it's somewhere it shouldn't be etc.

[Primus]

Just Random ish.... i just decomisined Thatcher so that will be avalible next <- though i wont use contravertial ones that are obviusly public facing and we use DFS so are good for fileservers...

Churchill,Salisbury,Cameron all DCs

Wellington VS Host

Perceval VS Host

Bute Primary File Server

Pell Backup DFS server

Baldwin DPM server

May DB Server

Major and Disraeli RDS Session Hosts

 

Most VS workloads have rolle related names though like ExchangeSrv2016, WebSrv2012R2...

 

Just throwing this out there as I did at one time consider "comedy" server names - if you went under a bus tomorrow do you not think the names would make it harder for someone to pick up the pieces?

 

Do you never find yourself forgetting what each server does - or others on your team forgetting?

 

I don't want to be a party pooper but I do think stuff like this is why IT gets a bad name - it's all a bit silly.

[Primus]

They're also all Conservative/Tory - is this really appropriate? It's a bit overtly personally political on your part given these are school servers not your own personal servers - unless you're talking about your home lab?

[FN-GM]

Just throwing this out there as I did at one time consider "comedy" server names - if you went under a bus tomorrow do you not think the names would make it harder for someone to pick up the pieces?

 

This is what documentation is for.

[jthompson]

Those that use serial numbers or manufacturers, do you just have to ensure to shuffle your PCs to the correct OUs?

 

Yes. Different rooms/OUs have different GPOs linked to them, which covers pretty much all our software deployment and configuration. Having a solid, well maintained inventory system helps too. We have an agent based inventory, so having persistent hostnames for the life of a device helps on that front as records are not going to get confused at any point.

[Primus]

This is what documentation is for.

 

Sure but why make it harder than it has to be? Why not just give them all sensible names that relate to their roles?

[localzuk]

I used to use Futurama names for servers. Hermes was the licensing server.

[CHiLL]

Desktops

Teacher machine = Room number = RM01

Student machines = Room number + machine number = RM01-01

Department Offices = Subject code + "-OFFICE" + machine number = "SCI-OFFICE01"

 

Laptops

Staff laptops = Staff code + "-LPTP" = SMI-LPTP

Department laptops = Subject code + "-LPTP" + laptop number = SCI-LPTP01

 

Servers

Based on role, such as "SIMS", "DC1", "DC2", "STAFF", etc

Some servers have multiple roles, so they're named based on what type of things they serve, such as "MGT2" hosts various management software.

[HarryMonkey]

Similar to what I do. In this school it's RM but IMHO their naming convention works for them, but not for me. so I'm renaming it. xxxDT255 tells me nothing about where it is. If it's been moved, if it's somewhere it shouldn't be etc.

 

Ours are room name-station number so ICT1-01 to ICT1-30. Tells me exactly where it is and roughly whereabouts in the room. Machines are always where they're supposed to be. The machine's age, make, spec etc. is all contained in an inventory spreadsheet.

 

Staff laptops are all NBK-150, NBK-255 etc. in sequence, the details of who it is assigned to, dates, spec etc are all kept in the inventory.

 

Student laptops are named according to their location and a sequence number eg LIBNB-01. Again, all details are kept in the inventory spreadsheet.

 

(We are an RM school too and didn't realise that RM had a naming convention for workstations).

[Davit2005]

Asset tags allways. Edited June 11, 2019 by Davit2005

[k-strider]

I used to use Futurama names for servers. Hermes was the licensing server.

 

lol.... the dificulty i find is with the office pcs... when you tell someone there computers name is saruman...

[Primus]

lol.... the dificulty i find is with the office pcs... when you tell someone there computers name is saruman...

 

Seriously?

[jthompson]

I once worked at a school where my predecessor had named all of the PCs in a sixth form cluster after Federation ships from Star Trek. Labelled on the front and everything. Don't do that.

[6Foot2]

I once worked at a school where my predecessor had named all of the PCs in a sixth form cluster after Federation ships from Star Trek. Labelled on the front and everything. Don't do that.

 

 

[howartp]

IT Suites are CC1-00 to CC1-33 (where CC1 is the room name, 00 is the teacher PC)

 

Rooms are Roomname-01 (-02, -03 if there's more than one, but not often)

 

Off-Kitchen

Off-AHarvey, Off-HLaycock, Off-MBrook...

 

Servers are SvrRole or SvrRole1, SvrRole2...