Network host name conventions - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 16, 2017, 02:23:03 am
content: I've just finished re-designing my home network and just wanted to share one of the things I've been doing -- HOST NAME CONVENTIONS.Previously, they were a mess. There were devices showing up on my network that I had no idea what they were (or even where they were).I think I've finally found a standard that works (for me):GS-NN-MMMMMM-UUCode:Maximum length: 15 characters.G denotes GROUP (e.g.: C = Clients, N = Network Infrastructure, S = Server)S denotes SUB-GROUP or role (e.g: D = Desktop PC, G = Gaming console, S = Switch, W = Wireless radio, P = Phone etc...)NN denotes SITE NUMBER (for this I use a hexadecimal value which is the street number of my house, this helps identify devices on the network at other sites)MMMMMM denotes MODEL or device descriptionUU denotes UNIQUE IDENTIFIER (this field is optional; a hexadecimal value which uniquely identifies devices which are the same make/model)Some examples are:CM-7F-SONOS1-02 -- A media device (in this example, a 3rd Sonos Play 1 speaker)NW-7F-UAPPRO-00 -- A Wireless access point (Ubiquiti UAP-AC Pro)SO-7F-RADIUS -- A Radius Server, since there is likely to only ever be one at this site, the unique ID is dropped (and allows for 3 more characters if required).SN-7F-NAS-00 -- My primary NAS server.SN-20-NAS-00 -- A NAS server at another site.I went with hex values because it allows for up to 255 unique values.With a proper naming convention, I can look at a list of hosts on the network and straight away identify what it is, where it is and what it does. I hope this inspires others.

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2017, 09:31:37 am
content: Boring, sorry.Hermes Firewall and Internet connection management (God of messengers)Apollo Media PC (God of entertainment)Hephaestus Workshop PC (God of fire, metalwork and craftsmen)Hera Girlfriend's laptop (Queen of the Gods)Zeus My laptop (King of the Gods)Note that I'm not religious, it's just that Clash of the Titans was my favorite movie when I was a kid. I had to look up Hephaestus though

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 16, 2017, 10:25:11 am
content: Quote from: German_EE on December 16, 2017, 09:31:37 amI'll cop that. :-)I did try the "creative names" thing before, but I just kept forgetting what was what, especially with managed switches, firewalls etc... I'd say all up I probably have 30-40 devices on my network. I think my router/proxy back then was called OSIRIS (an old NT4.0 box).

author: paulca
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2017, 10:51:39 am
content: There has been quite a bit of research into this stuff and I recall the pros and cons between pure and impure names comes down to perspective.If you are designing a network, drawing network diagrams and managing a load of machines then impure names such as yours are more precise and informative. But, from a users perspective, they tend to associate with machines, they even anthropomorphise them. A name like Apollo or Athena is easier to emotionally associate with.The other downside with your host names is that in large networks with more than one network engineer, or hundred of them, you will need a hostname registry supporting fairly concurrent access for adding/removing hosts to prevent duplicates and namespace wastage. The solution, from the engineering people is often to add uuid hashes to hostnames or just using a unique hex entirely, giving you horrible names like: a8-fe-b6-a2.blah.blahblah.company.net. It's not very human. Note the hex is not (always) the IP address, usually isn't.A suggestion is to use aliases. For example.CM-7F-SONOS1-02 IN CNAME dionSN-7F-NAS-00 IN CNAME athenaOr you can have service based records. Consider what you care about more, the actual box that your users will probably never see or the service it provides. For example:CM-7F-SONOS1-02 IN CNAME mediaYou can then repoint the media service to a new box you get setup over Christmas and have.newbox IN CNAME mediaIf you run public DNS, mail or WWW you can have hundreds (or thousands) of aliases, they form a hierarchy which allows you to remap entire banks of servers between services, without loss of service.You can link your DHCP to your DNS to get dynamic records with UUIDs based on hardware addresses. These are handy when you don't even remember what network your server is in. If you know it's hardware address you can work it out by querying the DNS server for it's UUID alias and even reverse look up it's other aliases.

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2017, 11:37:04 am
content: One other thing. I once did some work at a place where they were running a brand-new IBM Z Series and the I.T. Manager ran a competition to name the thing. The winning name was Denzel as, quote, "the machine was big, black and sexy". Each user therefore logs on to Denzel first thing in the morning.

author: HoracioDos
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2017, 11:38:01 am
content: Boring but easy to remember names.iotp = raspberry pi iot printer.hpprinter = raspberry pi/ Hp print server.piweather = raspberry pi weather station server.piplantino = raspberry pi tweeting pot/plantModels names for notebooks/phones/tabletsU47VC = ASUS notebookVostro = Dell NotebookX1687 = Moto G5 Plus phone

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 16, 2017, 11:49:09 am
content: PeanutsPeppermintSnoopyLinusRedBaron... and at one stage...SpikeThere are some others - but they just run with an ID that doesn't follow the above schema.

author: BradC
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2017, 02:39:49 pm
content: Westley, buttercup, inigo, fezzik, max, humperdinck, vizzini and some boring descriptive stuff.

author: rob.manderson
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2017, 02:56:23 pm
content: BigBastard - our whs2011 fileserverFatBastard - our Win7 TV recorderFastBastard - my computerMusicalBastard - the computer I use for writing musicFlatBastard - my tablet (actually doesn't have a hostname that I can find but it fits the pattern)BastardToGo - our laptop (actually long since gone, hate laptops with a passion!)and my wife's computer?TheBitch - when I was doing the inevitable replacement machine I asked her what name she wanted for it - and *she* chose TheBitch, so there!

author: rdl
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2017, 04:26:04 pm
content: I assemble most of what I use myself and mostly name things after the hardware, so I have little trouble remembering what is what. I do have a pretty simple setup though.Core2Duoi5-3570KFREENASBrix1900etc...

author: German_EE
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 16, 2017, 07:13:36 pm
content: There's always the classical approachKirk Main serverSpock Science stationUhura Internet and commsScotty WorkshopMcCoy?Sulu GPS receiverChekov?

author: amspire
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2017, 02:26:57 am
content: For one company with 8 workstations, I named the PC's colours:Red, Blue, Purple, etcand I printed out big labels with the a big block of the colour using an inkjet printer. The idea was you could just look at a workstation from across the room and know the name from the colour.Over time however, the printed colours changed due to UV and probably the paper. So I had a PC for example called "Grey" that turned into Brown. Purple and Blue became identical.

author: Monkeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 17, 2017, 03:11:41 am
content: Quote from: amspire on December 17, 2017, 02:26:57 amNext time use the rattle can.