Re: Server naming conventions

["Sauvigne, Craig M" <sauvignec () WINTHROP EDU>]

I name our servers after cities around the world. I look to Weather
Underground for the city list (http://www.wunderground.com/CI.asp?L=A).
Sometimes, I will choose a city name whose first letter is the first
letter in the purpose of the server. For example, if a server runs SQL,
the server name might be Sydney. When we moved into virtualization, I
named the ESX hosts after states since they contain lots of cities.

 

We try to have fun with this, too. Whenever a server has to have a
semi-public name (hosts network shares or something like that), we use
an easy-to-spell city name like London or Miami. But when you have a
network guy who needs servers and he has a good sense of humor, we only
give him city names starting with X. J Also, my server that I use for
management tasks (monitor HD space, use ADUC, etc) used to be called
Langley, home town of the CIA. I have another name for that server now
but it is along those lines.

 

====================

Craig M. Sauvigne

System Administrator

Winthrop University

Rock Hill, SC 29733

sauvignec () winthrop edu

 

 

 

From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv
[mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Kevin Kelly
Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 2:55 PM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Server naming conventions

 

Hi,

We name our servers according to bodies of water (e.g.  Stream, Draw,
Moat, etc.) or things related to water or the weather (e.g. Tide, Wind,
Storm, etc.).  Given the number of servers that we have (approx. 40 -
45), we can follow this naming convention fairly easily.  Best of all,
this naming convention does not provide any sort of clue as to what
services are provided by the individual servers.

Some other naming conventions that I have come across include:

1.  Capital cities across the world (a list is available at
http://geography.about.com/od/countryinformation/a/capitals.htm)
2.  Crayola Crayon colors (a list is available at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Crayola_crayon_colors)
3.  Greek Gods (e.g. Hercules, Zeus, etc.)
4.  Items that make up the universe (e.g. Star, Jupiter, Mars, etc.).

We have a different naming convention for our client workstations.  I'd
be happy to share that with you offline if you are interested.

Thanks,

Kevin Kelly
Institute for Advanced Study
Princeton, NJ
USA

-----Original Message-----
From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv on behalf of
Woodruff, Daniel
Sent: Wed 2/10/2010 2:17 PM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: [SECURITY] Server naming conventions

What kinds of naming conventions do everyone follow when building new
servers?



Currently, our Windows hosts are named following the pattern 'its-w2ks#'
or similar, where the # is the next in the sequence, and the names are
published in DNS. What are the potential drawbacks or using a scheme
like this? Do you think it is any better or worse from a security
perspective than using something like 'its-oracle-1' which has the
service right in the name? We're concerned about disclosing the purpose
of the machine via its name, and are trying to get an idea of what other
schools do for their machines. Thanks in advance.



Dan Woodruff

University IT Security and Policy

University of Rochester