Re: Server naming conventions

[Sandra Barclay <ansed () UAA ALASKA EDU>]

In my department We name our machines and our servers after towns and
villages in our state.  Gets fun when we run out of known Alaskan places
like Anchorage and Sitka and move on to some of the remote villages like
Akiak, Chitina, Eek, and Kipnuk.

Sandra Barclay
IS Network Technician 
University of Alaska Anchorage
Center for Human Development
ansed () uaa alaska edu

-----Original Message-----
From: The EDUCAUSE Security Constituent Group Listserv
[mailto:SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU] On Behalf Of Steven Tardy
Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2010 7:15 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] Server naming conventions

a wise man long ago decided to decouple the server purpose from the
server name.
physical servers get retasked confusing inventory and tracking and
management.

physical servers use tree names...
   fig / elm / oak / catalpa / pine / cedar / ...
then DNS CNAMEs pointing the purpose to the host.
   smtps -=> catalpa

our sister group used to use rocks/mineral. oak is easier to spell than
tsavorite. (:
other groups on campus use cartoon characters and movie characters.


today with virtual servers, virtual servers are named based on purpose.
... a VM wouldn't be retasked. you'd simply create a new VM.

distinct names makes things easier to remember:
   catalpa is part of smtps
as opposed to:
   srv## is part of smtps

can't remember what this server does?
we have a file on each server with it's purpose.
login and cat a file.


Daniel Woodruff 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.

-- 
Steven Tardy
Systems Programmer
Information Technology Infrastructure
Information Technology Services
Mississippi State University
sjt5 () its msstate edu