I Name My Servers After:

... in case it is a Server/Desktop.

After Goddesses if it is a Laptop. My mobiles are called Tricorder and get a number ;D Next will likely be an iPhone called Tricorder III.

At my current job, its domain/sitecode/type/### (e.g DKLWNAVMH200). The three digit number corresponds to what its purpose is - e.g. servers in the 100 range are email servers, 200 = file/print, 300 = citrix, etc. Its nice having a decent convention

Previous places of employments used sitecode/windowsedition/###. It was pain in the ass when they switched to 2k3 and 2k8 but didnt update the naming convention to cope (it was written when 2000 server was king). The windows edition was specified as '2K', which could mean 2000,2003,2008. That coupled with the numbers having no significance other than incrementing with each new server rendered it useless.

Another used planet names (not an issue as long as you dont have many servers).

My own PCs/Servers use stone/mineral names e.g. Obsidian, Amethyst, Malachite, etc

For a while it was the Muses (Terpsichore, Thalia, Melpomene, etc.). Ran out of those and used the Fates (Ariadne, Atropos, Klotho). Now it's on to others in the pantheon (Pandora, Psyche, Hestia...).

If I have to name a windows server I'll probably start on the Furies. :)

Any of my personal Linux boxen (server or desktop) have been named after breeds of penguin, for what should be fairly obvious reasons. So far, I've used macaroni, emperor, humboldt, and littleblue, with rockhopper next up. Ignore the fact that emperor was a FreeBSD box.

Although I got disillusioned with them after only one, I decided that all Macs I had would be named after fruits that are NOT apples. Hence, my (only) MacBook was named pamplemousse, French for pineapple. Er, grapefruit. I mean grapefruit.

Now, at work, where I'm the only one who actually cares enough to assign DNS names to development printers (we usually address them by IP during development), everyone else is at the mercy of whatever was on my mind at the time, resulting in printamaphone, rimshot, soapbomb, xyzzy, peyton, and rumack. Though I've seen siren, bahmut, and masala around the labs, and those weren't mine.

Here are our colocated server names:

archon
broodling
colossus
darktemplar
evochamber
fenix

The pattern will continue as we expand, though some letters will be tougher than others =/

I guess they're all "fictional people" - Bugs (Bunny), Daffy (Duck), Marvin (the Martian) ... Taz (oh, that's a Tasmanian Devil). OK so they're not people.

Wait! I forgot Elmer (Fudd). HE'S people!

Really pathetic options there, guys.

I name my machines (servers or otherwise) after people, but I really don't think I am ever likely to know Alan or Grace, what with them being dead and all, and even getting to know Ken, Dennis, or Brian seems fairly unlikely even if they are still alive.

So we get: Quake, Quake2, Jitter, Shudder, Tremble, Fibrillate, Oscillate ..
along with:
Whirlwind, Tornado, Hurricane, Tempest ..

I seriously believe that the first midrange server 'quake' was named that for the.. ahh.. alternative.. application running on it.. apparently the joke continued when the second midrange server came in.. but went downhill when 5 servers later general managers were getting upset with reports stating that "Jitter and Shudder had to come down and there is a concern that Fibrillate will follow soon... '

Now they are all named after where they actually physically are... except that causes interesting problems when servers are moved between datacenters...

Before they imploded, the main theme my employers used was names of cars. My first workstation was model-t (yes, an editorial comment there... :-), but when I got a new faster box I named it twingo. When I started playing with Linux I cleared tatra with a formerly Czech colleague. Our powerful new server was the fastest car the sysadmin could think of, veyron. My main development box is crude and simple, but powerful. The obvious choice was monaro.

...laura

Since I love ants, I use ant species names. Mostly common names and not scientific names. :)

I started off with waste, fraud and abuse since my first job was with a DoD contractor. I then added more boxes with names of bend, fold, spindle and mutilate. When I boot my laptop to Windoze, it takes the name fubar, the normal CentOS boot takes spindle (see above) and when I boot from the external hard disk to Backtrack, it takes the name petard.. I recently set up a six core box for running multiple virtual machines and christened it snafu. The VMs get named by the OS since I just use the collection of VMs for exploring IPv6.

Cheers,
Dave

nope - for me, each machine gets its own name based on the personality it exudes as it gets configured and loaded...

major IBM server for a customer ended up as "rock" - it was big, fast, solid.

another customer simply wanted huge storage and didn't need fast - theirs ended up as "behemoth"

my workstation is the first of many to have an AMD chip in it - so it is "amd"

my laptop is "portapitt" - seems to be a portable extension of me - and several machines have worn this moniker now

others have been "slug" (not my choice of hardware, but the name fit the performance) and "behemoth" (big, ugly brute with rows of disks) richard

I've tended to name all my machines after characters in television shows that I like. Unfortunately these shows tend to get cancelled rather quickly, so people don't usually get the references.

I name my machines *mostly* according to their function, although some are now dual or triple boot, I name them according to the OS they were first used with.

-Network is TRANSFORMERS

-Windows machines are Decepticons (Main rig is STARSCREAM, Media Center 2k5 is SOUNDWAVE, file server is DEVASTATOR (multiple drives), The PC running my security cameras is called REFLECTOR, Win98SE PC is SKYWARP)

-USB keys are LASERBEAK, RUMBLE, FRENZY & RAVAGE (Soundwave's cassettes), although formatted in NTFS.

-Macs are Autobots (re-capped & silenced 2Ghz iMac G5 ALS is BLASTER (iTunes machine in the kitchen, wall mount, streams music to the living room via Airport Express), Silenced Powermac G4 Gigabit Graphite tower with hacked nVidia 6200 is PERCEPTOR, running Leopard for Time Machine backups for my macs.

-My DOS/3.11/ (64HDD) is SPIKE

-Linux router/gateway/IMAP/ is UNICRON

-Airport Express (AP/remote speaker) is CYBERTRON

2 exceptions,

My Netbook (7/Snow/Natty) is simply called eeeMAC, My Time Machine drive is called DeLorean.

-My portable HD containing all my music, no idea, it's called Ziq for now.

-Printers are using generic names (LASER and MFC)

karma, misery, and serious are all found on my network. And at one time or another, each had a role in my life :)

I used to name servers after Australian mountains. But i'm pleased to say i don't have to name servers any more.

...such as buddha, jesus, muhammed.

Fictional people in other words ;)

/Hans

Server = Howard (from the Mighty Boosh days)
Laptop = Bollo (again, Mighty Boosh)
New server = Leonard (The Big Bang Theory)
New PC = Sheldon (same)

Originally I had all surnames from The Simpsons but got sick of trying to spell Nahasapeemapetilon.

I don't have any server to name, but if I did I would start with the planet and ship names from Master of Orion.

• brunello
• malvasia
• gewurtztraminer
• barolo

Now I just bought a new network printer, and I have to find a new wine for naming it. For sure it will be easier than selecting the printer to buy...

In my home LAN, my 'computers' are named "server", "desktop", "laptop", "phone", "htpc", "ps3", "wii" etc. My various virtual machines on the server are named after the apps they are running, for example "p2p" (running sabnzbd and deluge), "web" (running a simple web server) and similar.

Previously I used to name them after C64 games and once they were all named like good, evil, mediocre, stupid, fancy, bad, cute, and so on. A few years ago I settled with simple, descriptive names. Made my life easier.

Where is the other?

This is discrimination against people who have other.

This might be the first /. poll I've seen that I can't vote for.

Our servers are named after rivers in Ontario. Welland, Niagara, Feeder, Don, Grand, etc.

Servers at work always get functional names - domain/site component, role component (code detailing either it's sole function or group of functions) plus number, and then a virtual/physical/cluster indicator. Only way to name things if you have to deal with a large team of people, most of whom probably don't know as much about $sci_fi_reference as you and your team-mates.

My home machines are always named after various Shakespeare characters, and the role of the character usually has some (often oblique) reference to the machine function. The router is called ariel (eyes and ears of prospero the magician), the main file server is called falstaff (big and fat) and tybalt (fast, warlike and mean) as my gaming rig. You'd be amazed at the amount of normal people - including girls, shock horror - who are surprised that I firstly called them something at all (most people don't have to juggle any more than one computer) and secondly that I chose Shakespeare, and mostly male characters at that. But Shakespeare's probably the only literature I've read with enough breadth of characters to make a stab at functional naming, a pretence of elitism and a healthy smattering of dick jokes ;)

at one place I worked. Every morning we logged into the Korurangi domain server. I gave my workstation the faux god name of "Weewee." Seemed to fit.

I name all mine after female anime characters. At the moment I have Doremi, Mahoro, Ran, Fate, Rei. Have had dozens of others over the years since I use a new name when I replace a server.

At my previous work we inherited a bunch of old servers in a buyout that were named after radioactive elements, and I continued that naming convention there.

US aircraft carriers for mine, Axis capital ships for family.

The first two letters are the country (e.g. UK, FR, IL, IE), the third letter is the class (S = Server, D = Desktop, L = Laptop), then there's either a unique ID or a role or a combination depending on the mood of local IT when they name it and optionally a location. So, we might call a file and print server in Ireland IES001FP.

The key thing is the first three letters.. why? Well, simply because if you are using lists of machines it makes it dead easy to pick out classes of machines when sorted into alphabetical order.. so if I want to find all the laptops in Russia, it's just a question of sorting the list and looking for machines beginning with RUL.

I know I'm not supposed to complain, but can I at least make fun of the idiot who came up with this ridiculous set of options? I mean, seriously, "people I know", but no historical figures (scientists, artists, kings). No astronomy (stars, constellations, planets)? No geography (cities, rivers)? No fictional places (barsoom, narnia, mordor)? Has the person who created this ever met a nerd or sysadmin? :)

The scheme I'm currently using at home is: one-word song names by a particular band, e.g.:

* starless (currently typing from)
* red
* thrak
* exiles
* neurotica

Fifty Cowboy Neal Genitalia points to the first person to name the band. :)

Enchilada
Tortilla
Nacho
chimichanga
Taco
Tostada
burrito
fajita
tamale
etc.

Um, gotta go, suddenly I'm hungry.

I have a simple naming convention. 3 letter company name abbreviation + 3 letter functional abbreviation + 3 digit number. For example XXX-SQL-001, XXX-WEB-001, XXX-VM-001, etc.

The guys in the cage a few cages down from us seem to name all of their servers based on Simpsons characters (Milhouse, Nelson, Krusty, etc).

As cool as random character names are, I think naming servers like that shows a lack of professionalism. If I get hit by a bus, I have good documentation and I want whoever has to replace me to be able to look at the server names and have a good idea of what function the server provides.

Starting with alanine.