Educause Security Discussion mailing list archives
Re: Server naming conventions
From: "Stucky, David" <dys5 () PSU EDU>
Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:02:11 -0500
I guess I will chime in about server names. I had a group of servers that where named after things found in a garden. One of them was originally named "weed" without too much thought put into it. I renamed that server before it was put into production. I also named a server "crystal" once as a reference to using a crystal ball to see into the future. One co-worker kept asking me if it was the name of old girlfriend, even though I kept explaining to them it was chosen very loosely based on what the application was being used for; future optimization of scheduling/utilization for resources. I now think a little more about how I name servers. I also named another group of servers after the Noble Gases (low chemical reactivity) from the Periodic Table of Elements. Actually there are several groupings of elements in the table with a number of names. The six noble gases gave me just enough names with a couple extra for future growth. Imagine using a periodic table of elements as part of your network documentation. These were all internal names; not necessarily the names the users knew their applications by. Thanks... David Stucky, CISSP, GSEC Systems Security Analyst Office of Human Resources The Pennsylvania State University 503 James M. Elliott Building University Park, PA 16802 Office: 814-865-4049 E-mail: dys5 () psu edu http://www.ohr.psu.edu From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Sherry Horeanopoulos Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2010 8:52 AM To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Server naming conventions Thank you all - you have provided me and my officemates with a sidesplitting morning. I'd give my cashew stash to be a part of the .nuts network! From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Woodruff, Daniel Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2010 8:46 AM To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Server naming conventions This has been a fantastic thread, thanks for all the input and creative naming scheme ideas. With new servers hosted by University IT here, the Windows Systems group has settled on the 'its-service-p##' type style, where 'p' stands for production, 't' would be test, etc. It seems some other institutions do similar and even add more information such as location, and you brought up a good point about a nmap scan can easily enumerate the services on a box, so I feel more comfortable with that now. And segmenting DNS into different zones is a great idea too. Thanks, Dan Woodruff University IT Security and Policy University of Rochester Woodruff, Daniel wrote:
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.
For some servers, which are for internal ITS use only, there is really no naming convention in place. Mythological figures and horrible puns tend to be the norm. For user-facing servers, the DNS name generally reflects the purpose or service of the server. For example, our domain controllers are named "ad-canisius" and "ad-canisius2", our Exchange mail stores are "store01" and "store02", etc. There's probably a slight risk of revealing information by putting a service right in the name, but frankly, it's no more information than a simple nmap fingerprinting scan would be likely to provide. -- Matt Gracie (716) 888-8378 Information Security Administrator [log in to unmask]<http://listserv.educause.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?LOGON=A2%3Dind1002%26L%3DSECURITY%26D%3D0%26P%3D45691> Canisius College ITS Buffalo, NY http://www2.canisius.edu/~graciem/graciem_public_key.gpg<http://www2.canisius.edu/%7Egraciem/graciem_public_key.gpg>
Current thread:
- Re: Server naming conventions, (continued)
- Re: Server naming conventions Bob Bayn (Feb 10)
- Re: Server naming conventions Neil Gaede (Feb 10)
- Re: Server naming conventions Stanclift, Michael (Feb 10)
- Re: Server naming conventions Sherry Horeanopoulos (Feb 10)
- Re: Server naming conventions Valdis Kletnieks (Feb 10)
- Re: Server naming conventions Laurie Zirkle (Feb 11)
- Re: Server naming conventions Childs, Aaron (Feb 11)
- Re: Server naming conventions Woodruff, Daniel (Feb 11)
- Re: Server naming conventions Sherry Horeanopoulos (Feb 11)
- Re: Server naming conventions Gene Spafford (Feb 11)
- Re: Server naming conventions Stucky, David (Feb 11)
- Re: Server naming conventions Cal Frye (Feb 11)
- Re: Server naming conventions Steven Tardy (Feb 11)
- Re: Server naming conventions Stanclift, Michael (Feb 11)
- Re: Server naming conventions Michael J. Wheeler (Feb 11)
- Re: Server naming conventions Timothy Fairlie (Feb 11)
- Re: Server naming conventions Derek Diget (Feb 11)
- Re: Server naming conventions Michael J. Wheeler (Feb 11)
- Re: Server naming conventions Julian Y. Koh (Feb 11)
- Re: Server naming conventions Sandra Barclay (Feb 11)
- Re: Server naming conventions Andreas Paulisch (Feb 11)
(Thread continues...)