Computer Naming in admin areas and offices

[kennysarmy]

Making a start on the computer naming templates for a brand new secondary school we're opening soon.

 

For teaching rooms, the plans is to name the teacher PC : "-" eg. 1e500-2206

 

Student PC's will then be sequentially added; 1e501-2206 , 1e502-2206

 

Admin and office areas are a little bit more tricky - what do others do?

 

I've ended up with things like:

 

recept00-2206

attend00-2206

headpa00-2206

hho1-2206

hho2-2206

 

We try and always put 00 in teaching rooms to determine it's the teacher PC - but wondering if I should drop this in offices and number from 01....or drop the number altogether if I'm certain there wont' ever be a second PC in a particular area :/

[mikes]

I always just used the job description, Office-Rec Office-Repro Office-M4 but it did backfire when one particular individual saw their computer was called Office-PITA and asked "what is PITA ???" But then we are a not a massive comp and don't go through computers that often

[DalekSec]

We tend to do job titles for admin staff and initials for teaching staff.

 

eg - < Device Type > - < initials / job roll >

[paulkerton]

"what is PITA ???"

...errr.... "Primary Information Technology Assistant"

[ConTheITGuy]

The naming scheme I use in school is slightly different as we keep a excel document of all the models and years of purchase.

 

For students we do "-" eg. RM108i-01 , RM108i-02

 

For teachers we use "-""T" eg. RM108i-34T , RM101-01T

 

With Admin we use "-" eg. REC-ABA , HEADPA-MOS

 

Works well for us but depends on the environment.

[TechMonkey]

Not wanting to pick holes, but why put year of purchase in the name? It makes it very hard to programmatically script names and if someone is rebuilding a station and didn't take note of it before they moved it, or just forgot, then it adds time to getting it built while they have to find out. Much easier to just know you are in room 1e and this is the 15th computer along.

 

As for offices, I used to do the same across the board. 4 letter location code then 2 digit number, numbered starting from the left side of the room as you entered and working clockwise round. So the IT office would be ITOF-01, the assistant head would be ASHD-01, the pool office would be POOF-01, and classes would follow the same format so English room 4 would be EN04-01 etc. Now I'm on a multi-site organization I'm going to add a 3 letter code to the start.

 

Going to be harder with Intune as you can't set a fixed name.

[Davit2005]

Always stuck with asset tag numbers myself for a few reasons. You don't have to worry about naming so much if a computer gets reimaged you don't have to think what number or name it is. Front of classroom PCs could always be prefixed with FC, etc.

 

Group computers in AD OUs or your desktop monitoring/management system, I think that is more flexible if possible and easier to manage and keep track of.

Edited May 6, 2022 by Davit2005

[clareq]

Machine name starts with a use descriptor - C for classroom (student use) T for Teacher (IWB machines) A for Admin (staffrooms, offices etc) L for Laptop. This is followed by the room number, job descriptor or staff initials depending on the machine placement or use. The last part of the name is the asset number. We end up with C-102-3456.

[6Foot2]

At my last school, one of the newly arrived Assistant Heads requested a specific station name for his computer based on what he saw his role as when working at another school.

 

He said that it should be called 'NappyWranger'

 

[kennysarmy]

Not wanting to pick holes, but why put year of purchase in the name? It makes it very hard to programmatically script names and if someone is rebuilding a station and didn't take note of it before they moved it, or just forgot, then it adds time to getting it built while they have to find out. Much easier to just know you are in room 1e and this is the 15th computer along.

 

As for offices, I used to do the same across the board. 4 letter location code then 2 digit number, numbered starting from the left side of the room as you entered and working clockwise round. So the IT office would be ITOF-01, the assistant head would be ASHD-01, the pool office would be POOF-01, and classes would follow the same format so English room 4 would be EN04-01 etc. Now I'm on a multi-site organization I'm going to add a 3 letter code to the start.

 

Going to be harder with Intune as you can't set a fixed name.

 

It really is just to help with quick checks on which rooms or areas are due for refreshes, we didn't always do it, but found it useful.

[Koldov]

At my last school, one of the newly arrived Assistant Heads requested a specific station name for his computer based on what he saw his role as when working at another school.

 

He said that it should be called 'NappyWranger'

 

 

We have a printer in the the Assistant Head's room... I have named it ASS-HEAD...

 

But on-topic for the OP we just have descriptive names:

 

Office reception

REC-PC1

 

Finance

FIN-PC1

 

ICT Suite

ICT-01

 

Family Workers

FAM-PC1

 

For laptops they are all given the school initials, a model number and unique number that is recorded on a spreadsheet:

 

XYZ-HP840G3-29

XYZ-HP250G6-03

XYZ-HP255G7-21

 

EDIT: Just to add that it wouldn't matter if we had the purchase date of the equipment as it probably won't get refreshed/replaced until it dies....

Edited May 6, 2022 by Koldov

[jthompson]

We just use asset tags, with a prefix to indicate device type: PC, LT (Windows laptop) or CB (Chromebook). Computers then have the same hostname throughout their lifetime. Anything needing to target computer rooms in AD or Group Policy is then done through the use of OUs and/or security groups. If your inventory system is good, you should be able to avoid the burden of including locations, purchase dates, etc. in device hostames.

[TechMonkey]

If it works for you, then cool. I'd use an asset register or spreadsheet though.

[Rob_D]

Our offices have room ID numbers the same as the classrooms, so we just use %RoomNumber%-%MachineNumber% for offices the same as classrooms. We've tried other things at various points, but nothing ever stuck. We do however make liberal use of the description field in AD.

[CHiLL]

For classrooms, we try and go off the name from the timetable. The teacher machine is just the room name and student machines are amended with the PC number. So RM02, RM02-01, RM02-02, etc.

For offices, we either go off the use of the office or the name of the person who's in there. So REC-01 for reception, Office-01 for the admin office. Staff like SLT with offices, they just get named with their three letter code.

It's not perfect and can be a pain to learn what's where at the start, but once you've been here a while, it sinks in.

[kennysarmy]

For classrooms, we try and go off the name from the timetable. The teacher machine is just the room name and student machines are amended with the PC number. So RM02, RM02-01, RM02-02, etc.

For offices, we either go off the use of the office or the name of the person who's in there. So REC-01 for reception, Office-01 for the admin office. Staff like SLT with offices, they just get named with their three letter code.

It's not perfect and can be a pain to learn what's where at the start, but once you've been here a while, it sinks in.

 

We tried to remove initials as the PC's ended up getting renamed too often...

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Are there any pros and cons to having the asset number in the name?

[CHiLL]

We tried to remove initials as the PC's ended up getting renamed too often...

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Are there any pros and cons to having the asset number in the name?

We've thought about that, but we never implemented it, mainly down to convenience when looking through AD, MECM or something.

 

As for asset numbers, we don't utilise asset numbers on devices. The main reason I like using numbers for machine names in IT suites, is that I can more easily identify say RM02-17, because I know it's the 17th student machine in the room (given I know the numbering order direction). The only other downside that I can think of is when re-imaging the room and naming machines. I can easily name the machines based on numbers in a short amount of time. But if I have to find the asset ID and type that in, it'll be more time consuming (not a lot though).

[thebatman]

We use room number then two letter discription of what the item is then a item number (L10WS02 L10 is the room number WS stands for workstaion and 02 is the pc number in the room). For a teacher pc we put teach at the end insted of item number.

For office PCs put the office type then item type and then number (AttendanceWS02). For knowing anything ells about the PC, when it is imaged we have a script that updates the description in AD with "Imaged on: SN: Make: Model:" This allows us to keep track of PCs very easly.

[clareq]

The asset number is stencilled or stuck onto the front of every PC. If someone is reporting an issue they can easily give me the asset number, and I can then search for the machine in AD or Impero. It's a constant - if the machine is moved and renamed I can still use the asset number to search the helpdesk and see if there is a recurring issue with it.

[jthompson]

Are there any pros and cons to having the asset number in the name?

 

Machines can be provisioned ahead of their eventual deployment, with no renaming needed at any point. Everything else after that is going to be based on AD moves and GPO. Machines can also be swapped in/out/around to allow for office moves, repairs, room name changes!!!, change of personnel etc. without any machine renaming needed as a followup. It also means you don't have to work out what to name a machine, especially useful if it's in line for a "not culturally neutral" name (e.g. P00HEAD).

 

Use an inventory system or the AD Description field to store info like whether it's Annie Admin's office PC, or whether it's in the Finance Office, Room 12B, or the lefthand booth of the Gregson Performing Arts Centre mezzanine learning zone study pod 2 (or whatever other wacky location names your school has invented this year).

Edited May 6, 2022 by jthompson

[DrBeaker]

Next time I'd just use serial number to be honest.

[jthompson]

Serial numbers wouldn't necessarily give you a consistent format for hostnames like an asset tag can. Different brands, etc. Also, the level of information they're designed for is going to far exceed your needs, where a 5 or 6 digit number is going to be far less cumbersome to transmit via verbal communication, Post-It note or mental recall.

[slugshead]

I always just used the job description, Office-Rec Office-Repro Office-M4 but it did backfire when one particular individual saw their computer was called Office-PITA and asked "what is PITA ???" But then we are a not a massive comp and don't go through computers that often

 

 

We used to have one.... HRASSH013

 

HR Assistant - H (year we bought computer) - 013

[DrBeaker]

Serial numbers wouldn't necessarily give you a consistent format for hostnames like an asset tag can. Different brands, etc. Also, the level of information they're designed for is going to far exceed your needs, where a 5 or 6 digit number is going to be far less cumbersome to transmit via verbal communication, Post-It note or mental recall.

Yeah either serial number or asset tag is the other one.

 

However we've had times where they've pulled the asset tags off, pulled off or scratched out the label with serial number so we have no idea/info on the unit.

[Chris_Cook]

It depends how you are using the host name.

 

We often connect to devices remotely, so being able to work out the host name by knowing the location, type of device, device user etc. means we don't have to look it up.

 

We have a complex scheme, but it makes sense once you know it.

 

2 letter school code (eg CG - Coombe Girls, CB - Coombe Boys)

 

1 or 2 letters for device type (R for class room/network room desktop, L for laptop, O for Office PC, P for printer, PO for Office Printer, S for server, SW for switch etc)

 

Room number for Classrooms, Room name/number for devices or User Name for office PC.

 

ends WB for teacher PC or manufacturer + a device number for network room PCs

 

 

so we might have CGR01WB, CBR02VIG01, CGSWServerRoom, CGOJBloggs

 

The issue with staff changing rooms is a bit of a pain, but then I think PCs and laptops should probably get a refresh at that point, and renaming it only takes a minute or so. If I find devices with old names, then it's a good hint that it might not be set up for the new user. We've done variations like CGOScienceHOD before when we don't know the new name, or it's changing regularly. Works just as well really.