Server Names

[irsprint84]

Yep all virtualised

 

Alot easier to seperate than restoring domain services and file shares.

 

Enterprise gives you 4 VM for one physical so worth it as RAM is cheap

[Hightower]

Yep all virtualised

 

Alot easier to seperate than restoring domain services and file shares.

 

Enterprise gives you 4 VM for one physical so worth it as RAM is cheap

 

Well, I can see where it makes sense in your case, but when you have a server that is the jack of all trades how can you possibly give it a meaningful name? XXX-DC-FS-PS-AV-SQL-001

[timzim]

What say's you Bert?

 

Aaawwwww leeeeve it arrrt I eeze jus gointo cleen these ere chimmiinnies

 

I never knew that Bert was from Eastern Europe...I suppose he would be nowadays.

[irsprint84]

So do your DC's only do DC work?

 

If I didnt find file servers I would look at the DC's because people still use them as file servers

 

If standardised you can easily work down sturcture but when I had stretford-03 I hadnt a clue what it did (Though there should always be documentation but 75% of my jobs there hasnt been, even admin passwords!) I found out stretford-04 did absolutly nothing!

[K.C.Leblanc]

Physical servers are local place names. When we went virtual I changed to functional names, it would have got silly otherwise.

 

At my first school the servers were called Daisy & Buttercup.

[irsprint84]

Well, I can see where it makes sense in your case, but when you have a server that is the jack of all trades how can you possibly give it a meaningful name? XXX-DC-FS-PS-AV-SQL-001

 

If it had domain services on them I would always call them dc-001, 002, 003 because you want ot reference they do domain work at the least and work from there but cases like that are rare these days and sql, exch, web on a dc I would have heart failure!

[webman]

yeah, but could you come here and tell me what my zimbra server is called without looking?

 

No, because you use silly names. ( ) Ours is called BBS-ZCS-001, not Pat.

 

likewise, could you come here and tell me which DC lexia is installed to, without looking at documentation.

 

No, but I don't really think Lexia is big enough to dedicate to part of a server name to anyway.

 

Tom

Dick

Harry

Thomas

Edward

Henry

 

Which one of those is a file server of some sort? No idea.

 

schooldc01

schoolfile01

schoolfile02

schooldb01

schoolweb01

schoolmail01

 

Which one of those is a file server of some sort? I'd guess schoolfile01 + 02.

Edited February 8, 2011 by webman

[pantscat]

I hate to say it but I absolutely abhor non-structured names. For everything.

I really strongly believe in fixed naming conventions for everything... for example, most people would be able to tell me what role these servers did or at least have a bloody good guess:

 

XXX-DC1

XXX-Print1

XXX-MIS1

XXX-ISA1

XXX-SEC1

 

I use fixed naming conventions for everything - GPOs, Printers, Users, Workstatons, switches, APs... everything. I always think a name should be purposeful and explanatory.

 

I'll get off my soapbox now and get m'coat.

[Hightower]

All valid points, taken onboard.

 

Our servers are now going to be called:

 

XXX-Thomas-001

XXX-Thomas-002

XXX-Edward-001

XXX-Hank-001

 

[irsprint84]

I hate to say it but I absolutely abhor non-structured names. For everything.

I really strongly believe in fixed naming conventions for everything... for example, most people would be able to tell me what role these servers did or at least have a bloody good guess:

 

XXX-DC1

XXX-Print1

XXX-MIS1

XXX-ISA1

XXX-SEC1

 

I use fixed naming conventions for everything - GPOs, Printers, Users, Workstatons, switches, APs... everything. I always think a name should be purposeful and explanatory.

 

I'll get off my soapbox now and get m'coat.

 

Agreed I do this with gpo as well like installOffice2007SP2 , policyStaff , configPowerManagement I do this from programming days lower case start to state what it is ie 'install' then Caps for what is like PrinterColourICT2

[webman]

All valid points, taken onboard.

 

Our servers are now going to be called:

 

XXX-Thomas-001

XXX-Thomas-002

XXX-Edward-001

XXX-Hank-001

 

 

Which one is Lexia on then?

[Hightower]

That would be XXX-Lxeai-001

[Sylv3r]

Our non essential servers are named after alcoholic beverages but I still stick with a prefix so I can identify straight away that they are servers.

 

STB-SVR-CORONA

STB-SVR-BACARDI

STB-SVR-PENKA

STB-SVR-STELLA

etc...

 

As above, without documentation if I was to get knocked over by a bus the roles of the servers are not obvious, but just as well the documentation is in place.

 

General servers take the layout of:

 

STB-SVR-001

STB-SVR-002

STB-SVR-003

STB-SVR-004

STB-SVR-MANSRV1

STB-SVR-SQL

STB-SVR-SBLG

STB-SVR-ISA

 

etc

Edited February 8, 2011 by Sylv3r

[maniac]

Structured server names here, in my mind it makes it much easier.

 

SA-DC01, SA-DC02, SA-ST01, SA-EX01, SA-SIMS, SA-SV01, SA-SV02, SA-SV03, SA-FOG, SA-XIBO and a few more.

 

SV01 and SV02 are multi purpose servers for things like virus checker management, WSUS etc.

[chazzy2501]

I've always hated obfuscation, my servers are called, server, exchange, nod32, ISA. yay simple! I've renamed all staff laptops to their name also mines 'cwoodward' just saves having to use a conversion table!

[Hightower]

On a slightly different note, a lot of you have three digits in their server name like 001. Can I ask why this is? Is it choice, is it an RM thing, or is it just something that has always been?

[Advocate]

How servers until recently were all named after trees did you know there is a Milk tree! now we have just started on using planets, and obviously we now have an Uranus lol.

[pantscat]

Uranus... lol.

 

Teacher: I'm looking for the photo library.

IT-Bod: It's in Uranus...

 

I can see that going well.

[Sirbendy]

We have 6 physical boxes called MA1-6. All of these are VMWare ESXi boxes.

 

Server wise, the Vservers are referred to as MA-DHCP, MA-WEB, MA-SQL, MA-AD1/2/3, MA-PRINT, MA-DTOX (Sophos), etc.

 

The only one not referred to by name, but by IP is the Cisco Callmanager and attendant unit. I've documented those. Does make life easier if you're having one of those days and have a brain fade..."which one of the sods is it NOW?..AH, yes..him..".

[irsprint84]

I've always hated obfuscation, my servers are called, server, exchange, nod32, ISA. yay simple! I've renamed all staff laptops to their name also mines 'cwoodward' just saves having to use a conversion table!

 

I do this the laptops were sgs-lap21 so I d have to find on spreadsheet who had it

 

But I changed them to WOOD, CHADBOND so when I remote assist its quite easy

[Jamman960]

I've gone for role based names ie prep-fsapps1, prep-ad01, prep-exch01 etc

 

In order to differentiate between physical and virtual I've added zero's to virtual server names ie prep-ad1 would be physical while prep-ad01 would be virtual

 

Originally our server names were win2k3srv, win2k3sims etc, I figured I really didn't need reminding what OS each server ran and it also made remembering names after upgrades a pain

[irsprint84]

On a slightly different note, a lot of you have three digits in their server name like 001. Can I ask why this is? Is it choice, is it an RM thing, or is it just something that has always been?

 

Well my manager was a RM guy so prob but also enterprise like because the number of servers be quite high and incase I want to cheat numbers and put in a -04 server for some reason

[bladedanny]

I think it depends on how many servers you have. From the sounds of it most people on this thread are from secondary schools (hense many servers). I'm at primary schools so have one server per school that does everything so to me it doesn't matter what I call the server. I do however use structured names for clients (Room1-IWB, Room2-01 etc.).

[localzuk]

Let's just raise this thread from the dead with today's XKCD.com comic:

 

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/permanence.png

[webman]

Nice one localzuk, love it