We all know how important it is to have a naming standard for our systems and devices that means something, rather than a number of Greek mythological names that ultimately mean nothing to most.

A quick google of “Server naming conventions” will lead you to actual help, or polls from slashdot on this subject, or even lists of the best and worst naming conventions in vendor blogs whilst they hammer you to buy their warez (<<< That link may have a massive popup from GFI trying to push you something). Or you can always fall back on reddit to get to heart of the action.

The master server’s name is Sansa, because we all love it but bad things are always happening to it & we get mad/sad https://t.co/n3L3LIbX2L — Michael Graziano (@voretaq7) June 12, 2015

Here I am sharing the naming conventions we designed and implemented whilst I was working as a consultant. Please feel free to use, adapt or ignore as you please.

Name Convention Examples

For a good clean and clear name we defined the following;

Identify the client or site 2 Letter Abbreviation

Site/Location Identification 2 Digit Number

Primary Role or Function of the Service/Device 3 Letter Abbreviation + 2 Digits for numbered instance

Identify the deployment type, such as Production/Test/Development/Staging 1 Letter Identifier

Identify the service characteristic type such as Physical/Virtual Machine/Container 1 Letter Identifier



Below I’ve drawn out a breakdown of such as a table;

Sorry for inserting the tables as images, but its the one lacking function of wordpress!

Or if its easier, here is a nice colourful diagram;

And then here is what the server name means under this convention;

The tables below provide is a short list of main functional abbreviations that I used over my time deploying systems;

I hope this may be useful to yourselves. I’ve already had some great feedback to possible alterations such as;

I find a three-digit site code is the most helpful, and for that, I could not be without the UN/LOCODE Database https://t.co/n3nX7ZcPlx — Mark Brookfield (@virtualhobbit) January 16, 2020

Regards

Dean

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