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Computer naming standards
By Gravity Internet Hostmaster of Gravity Internet
Many administrators don't put much thought into choosing a standard naming convention for the various servers, workstation, and shared printers when they start a small to midsize network. But as your network grows, the lack of continuity and usefulness of a random (or bizarre) naming scheme can turn into an administrative nightmare. A computer name must be unique, but should also be somewhat descriptive or useful to users and Administrators. Guidelines for computer naming standards Within a computer network, each computer must have a unique name that identifies it to other computers using WINS and DNS, and to Administrators and Users on the network. It is generally recommended that computer names by under 15 characters for convenience and compatibly with NetBIOS and WINS. The computer name can use a mix of letters and numbers, but you should avoid hyphens, underscores, or using all numeric characters. Best Practices * Use only letters (A-Z) and numbers (0-9) in your computer names. Hyphens, underscores, and other characters may cause problems with your DNS Servers.
* Do not start your computername with a numerical character. Not all DNS Servers expect to see a DNS name that starts with a number, and may interpret it incorrectly.
* Avoid names consisting entirely of hexadecimal digits as they can be interpreted entirely as hexadecimal numbers as well as alphabetic strings. The hexadecimal digits are the ordinary, base-10 digits '0' through '9' plus the letters 'A' through 'F'. In the hexadecimal system, these digits represent the values 0 through 15, respectively.
* Try to keep your computer names under 15 characters in length to make them easier to remember and type. Avoid using terms and words that are difficult to spell, or sound like other words. (i.e. Check and Czech).
* If you specify a computer name longer than 15 characters and you want longer names to be recognized by the Active Directory domain, the domain administrator must enable registration of DNS names that are 16 bytes or longer
* If you are using a technical theme for your naming convention, use one that is understood by your entire organisation and can scale as your network grows. After all, not everyone is a die hard Star Trek fan.
* Avoid using usernames as the computername, as this creates an Administrative nightmare when you replace a users PC, or if you give the PC to a different user. Try using a simpler and impartial naming scheme based on location and serial number.
* Avoid alternate spellings. Hackers and computer geeks love to use mixed characters in naming themselves or their equipment. (Substituting "zero" for "O", and "3" for "E") Get a grip on your staff before this starts.
* Place a small label or tag on the front of every server to identify its computer name for Administrators working in a server room. On workstations, place the stickers on the sides of the computer case and out of view from the users, you may tempted to peeling them off. Common practices for small organisations Home networks and smaller organisations frequently choose informal or humorous naming conventions that can be based on obscure historical, literary, mythical characters, or cartoon characters. Some of the more interesting themes include cheeses, wines and other alcoholic beverages, satellites, planets, Science Fiction (Star Wars/Star Trek), muppets, musician/band names, celebrities, cars, mountains, rivers, and even bizarre medical disorders. While several of these may be fine for home use or small isolated networks, administrators quickly discover that this doesn't scale well when your network grows. Unless your entire organisation is dedicated to astronomy, naming your servers after galaxies, and your workstations after planets will simply confuse users and Administrators alike. If you decide to use this method to name your servers, choose a theme that is easily understood by both your users and administrators, and that still has room to grow. If you think your organisation will grow past 10 servers and 100 workstations, you may want to choose a naming scheme that is more descriptive. Common practices for large organisations In large organisations that manage thousands of workstations and servers, a logical and standardised naming scheme is a must. Not only can this quickly identify the appropriate support personnel for that server/workstation, it can also be used as a security tool to identify the location of internal security threats without having to tear through the subnet tables. A common naming practice revolves around choosing a theme that rapidly identifies the location and function of a network device. The scheme usually consists of a standardised location identification code, followed by the department code, a description of function, and a numerical sequence. Common coding abbreviations SV Servers
WS Workstations
PR Printers
TS Terminal Servers
DC Domain Controllers
IIS Web Servers
MSX Mail Servers
SQL SQL Servers
SMS SMS Servers
APP Application Servers Alternate Sources for Computer Naming Schemes The Encyclopedia Mythica
An online encyclopedia of mythology, folklore, and legend with over 5,700 definitions of gods and goddesses, supernatural beings and legendary creatures and monsters from all over the world. Makes a great reference for generating computer/server names, project codenames, hard to guess passwords, and a unique test user list for computer labs. Satellite Names
Still can't figure out what to name your new server? This page lists the names that have been given to satellites and rockets. Names that are merely acronyms or descriptions of the satellite's function (e.g. Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) are not included. NASA has named a number of its scientific satellites, and other space agencies have also used up some names.
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Contributor's Note
IPinfinity.com is a technical resources website for IT and communications.
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This intel first appeared on: http://www.ipinfinity.com/index.php/Computer_naming_standards
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highly informative i never knew anything about computer naming before this
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