Computer Names
 

So I'm in the process of renewing our office's computer network of 20 or so PCs and server.

I could be boring and give computers a name of "accounts 1, accounts 2" and so on. No point in naming them after their prime users as these change too often.

More fun is to name them by another system. Previously I've used bird types i.e Vulture, Magpie ..... If you can tie the name of the computer to a user's personality it can cause a little amusement :D

Any thoughts on other naming systems I could use?

Re: Computer Names
 

I worked with a company that used famous composers. Or you could have artists ... DaVinci, Raphael, you get the picture. :D

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All the networks I've set up here and for family / friends / people are starships...

Re: Computer Names
 

When I was at University they used food for computer names such as tomato, leek.

They then got some upgraded computers and named them after kitchen items such as over, spoon, kettle, trivet.

The system administrator got two new computers and called one Riff and one Raff.

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Interesting. The more obscure the system, possibly the better. I've heard of someone naming their server farm after curries. I wonder if cocktails would send the wrong message?

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Rivers, lakes, lochs, mountains ... clans and tartans? Endless avenues to explore.

Trees ...
Fruit ...

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hmm, we have two bosses. I wonder if I'd still have a job if I called their laptops Riff and Raff :erm:

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I'm naming our university computers after internet cats at the moment, maru, nyancat, chundercats, etc. When I run out I'll be moving onto other "internet phenomena" like "imonaboat"

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Characters form a favourite book or series (match the characters to the staff) ;)

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I worked for a company and they had servers named after trees, but my favourite ones where the Page three girls (Sam Fox, was one of the servers)

Why not ask for opinon

Or stuff the lot and go for TV shows/film titles:D

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Doesn't seem very PC to me :D

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You could name them after the many steam engine names there were in the old days or after famous racehorses in which there are many different names as well.

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Shakespearian characters have a good range.

Non-UK place names and there are some really odd ones out there.

Get's a bit odd - "cockburn has lost connection to dingdong".

I've also used some lovely African names, polokwane, tshwane, belabela

(Names in lowercase because that's how we use them).

You can then alias function onto the name (CNAME in DNS) so
webserver -> cockburn -> IP

That way if you want to move the webserver to dingdong the only change in DNS needed is the CNAME.

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I named mine after planets (with a few taken from various sci-fi programmes).

I also had a some greek gods, and Simpsons characters.

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I much prefer standardised names - very boring I know but when there is over 100 servers and god knows how many client devices it is handy to know at first glance the location and function of a device.


Client devices
Division - ABC
Location in Division - DEF
Type of machine - wst (workstation) ldp (laptop) prt (printer) wbt (windows-based terminal)
Unique ID - 123
e.g ABCDEFWST123

Servers
Division - ABC
Type of server - DB (Database) exc (exchange) bes (blackberry enterprise)
Type of machine - SVR
Unique ID - 123
e.g ABCDBSVR001

Re: Computer Names
 

The name I choose will need to sort of correlate with it's intended department location, so for example the bookkeepers machines would all have to have a B as the start of their name. Servers would begin with A, simply so they are at the top of the list when someone is browsing the network. In my previous bird name convention that means blackbird, albatross, etc. But with only 20 machines to worry about I don't need to be much more precise than than. In any case I do have the computer description bit I can add to the machine's properties.

Re: Computer Names
 

Use of standardised names when the location and function is fixed and directly linked to what that machine is for so a switch in Dundee may be called dundee1 but where a server could move location or function it is "better" to give the server a silly name and alias function/location.

Some companies don't like humour and/or have such huge estates that they really rely on formal naming systems, especially if there is any automation that may "construct" names to perform tasks but again an alias would solve the latter issue.

The OP though has a small estate so more "friendly" names could be easier than a standardised scheme.

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That could be a good idea - I like the idea of being able to tell users they are literally on another planet :D

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Well yes there is no fixed method, it is what works best for each company. The less devices and fewer people managing/creating said devices the less important naming structure is, as these increase the benefits of a standardised naming structuire also increase.

We have centralised datacentres so don't have an issue with servers moving location plus servers don't change function if a server is no longer required it will be archived off (the benefits of being virtualised).

Yes you can assign an alias, but if you looking in logs etc you will see the "silly" name and then have to do a lookup to find out information about that server unless you have knowledge of what that name correlates to.

Re: Computer Names
 

You can get some great names from local areas and villages.
Near Plymouth is a good example:
Mutley
Peverell
Coxside
Mannamead
Efford

to name a few

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Yes l agree as l know all these places.:)

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I use names from mythology.

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Names of Beers and Ales :-)

Bishops Finger lol

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We probably have enough alcoholics in our office without giving further encouragement :beer:

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Our servers are named after planets, with attached printers named after - well, it started as trees so you got "Beech on Earth" but quickly wandered off, so we've got "Carrot on Pluto".

Perhaps I shouldn't think too deeply about it.

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I've never heard of a carrot tree. Or was the user a red head :p:

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Use Dickens characters, broadly relating to the office functions but only recognisable to those who've read the novels. You can see how long it takes the payroll people to complain about logging on to Littimer :)

Re: Computer Names
 

At Bolton Institute (now University), the minicomputers in the VAX/VMS cluster were named after Fawlty Towers characters, so we had Basil (VAX-11/750), Sybil (ditto), Major (MicroVAX 3000), Manuel (ditto), and even Polly (PDP-11). Later they got a DEC Alpha, which they named Spock owing to its immense computing power.

And then they began putting in NT4-based PCs. Don't even get me started...

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But would you really want to connect to Uranus?

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I'd have to read the novels too before I could start down that route. Although it might not be best to name the boss's computer "Scrooge" :dozey:

---------- Post added at 19:12 ---------- Previous post was at 19:10 ----------

I'm beginning to think more along the lines of Star Wars Planets. After all most of our people create so many works of fiction that they try and back up with out of this world space age scientific arguments.

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how about themes for subnets?

Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Guillane

Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, Little John

Roy Rogers, Gene Autrey, John Wayne, Lee Marvin

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I use Herman Hesse novel titles/characters at home:

Narziss Goldmund Steppenwolf Knulp Siddhartha

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Some good sugestions there - surprised nobody has mentioned good old Lord of The Rings yet....

Gandalf, Bilbo, Frodo etc...

Star Wars characters?

Personally I prefer more meaningful ID like DB, Exch, CTX, DC etc.

For workstations in the past I have used the serial number...

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Name after what animal their users most resemble :D

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Porn star names :D

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Then you need this...

Re: Computer Names
 

At work, we have rather a lot of PCs so we had to switch to a standardised naming system.

Previously, only the PC servers had standardised names. Our Unix admin named all the machines he managed after Disney or Red Dwarf characters. Staff were allowed to name their own
pC_
Now, all the staff computer names begin with their "owner's" surname, followed by their initial and an optional suffix (eg "-laptop" for a laptop). Staff computers that are not assigned to a particular person are named with a one word description of the computer's function.

Lab computers have a different naming scheme. This consists of a two digit code for the building. Following this, there is a 3 digit room number, a - and finally a computer number.

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Precisely why I have "ceilingcat" so that when it isn't working people complain "Ceiling cat is down!" xD

---------- Post added at 00:08 ---------- Previous post was at 00:07 ----------

Well that's boring. How many would you consider too many for individual naming?

Re: Computer Names
 

Greek Gods.

Poseidon
Zeus
Achilles

etc.

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once used characters from MASH - Hotlips always caused amusement

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Today, I got an email complaining nyancat (the machine) was flip-fopping and to have it's owner make it stop.

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There were shed loads of Roman emperors, even discounting those who shared the same name (I II etc). Always a good bet

http://www.roman-emperors.org/impindex.htm