Naming Convention Header2

Naming Conventions and Standards for Systems and Devices

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.

 

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;

Naming Convention Breakdown 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;

Naming Convention Breakdown

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

Naming Convention

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

Name Conventions Function Examples with shortcode

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

Regards

Dean

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