Hostnames • Hacker News Board

Re: Hostnames

#61

Post by joshfraser » Sat, Oct 12, 2013, 9:46 PM UTC

Cute naming conventions are fun when you're small and have no intention of growing the network. If you're planning to scale, you may as well start with practical names that give some context for the location and purpose of each box. Your team have more important things to remember than which country mario lives in and whether pluto is an app server or a database.

Re: Hostnames

#62

Post by cupcake-unicorn » Sat, Oct 12, 2013, 9:47 PM UTC

spindritf wrote: post #3

There's an RFC on that, too. "Choosing a name for your computer" http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1178 Shades of colours, for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Shades_of_blue , are a good, safe source of names.

Haha, nice idea - would be a nice prank to use:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Shades_of_gray

For a network of 50 computers :)

Re: Hostnames

#63

Post by lost-theory » Sat, Oct 12, 2013, 9:48 PM UTC

Theodores wrote: post #33

lost-theory wrote: post #26

Cute server naming schemes are one of my pet peeves. In my experience the only two logical choices are: sequential numbers (e.g. foo1, ..., foo100, ... if your company name is Foo Corp.), or hashes / uuids (like amazon instance IDs, e.g. i-977a24e3). If you want to give a server a memorable or cute name, use DNS or some kind of alias.

Read the aforementioned RFC - with sequential numbers you are not naming them. I can imagine how thrilled your colleagues are if they have to ssh into i-977 what was the rest of it?

The RFC seems to back me up:

    You might as well just call them "1", "2", and "3".  The only time this kind of
    naming scheme is appropriate is when you have a lot of machines and there are
    no reasons for any human to distinguish between them.  For example, a master
    computer might be controlling an array of one hundred computers.  In this case,
    it makes sense to refer to them with the array indices.

When you're starting off with your cute naming scheme, how do you know how many machines you'll manage in the end? Most places I've worked at have hundreds of servers. Using a simple, easy to follow, don't-make-me-think standard from the beginning is the only thing that makes sense IMO.

To give a server a meaningful name, use DNS.

edit: Also, to take your complaint about "i-977.. what was the rest of it?" and turn it around - imagine this scenario: provision 20 new app servers named foo40..foo59 OR provision 20 new app servers and think of 20 cool names to match our existing cool naming scheme of leonardo donatello michaelangelo raphael master-splinter shredder blah blah blah :)

Re: Hostnames

#64

Post by aclevernickname » Sat, Oct 12, 2013, 9:48 PM UTC

Transformers.

AlphaTrion is the PDC, A-3 is the BDC/SDC. Iacon is the SQL machine (VectorSigma is the name of the LVM pool). OmegaSupreme/Metroplex/FortressMaxiums are the gateways. Gestalts (Defensor, Computron, Superion) are used for the SANs and any other clusters.

Considering we try to be good guys, we only allow Autobot names for workstations. Starfire, Starscream, Punch-Counterpunch, and other fence sitters are not allowed. I lobbied for Wheelie to be included in that list, but was overruled by others.

[EDIT] I could see how this might have limitations on scale, but we haven't hit those limits internally, so it doesn't affect me yet. :)

Re: Hostnames

#65

Post by lost-theory » Sat, Oct 12, 2013, 9:48 PM UTC

binarymax wrote: post #16

Sweet list. Phonetic Alphabet is a good one - it has the typing superpower of striking first letter then for instant autocomplete.

Until you have 27 hostnames.

Re: Hostnames

#66

Post by saint-loup » Sat, Oct 12, 2013, 9:51 PM UTC

spindritf wrote: post #3

There's an RFC on that, too. "Choosing a name for your computer" http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1178 Shades of colours, for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Shades_of_blue , are a good, safe source of names.

There's even a website collecting naming schemes. http://namingschemes.com/

Re: Hostnames

#67

Post by alexkus » Sat, Oct 12, 2013, 9:52 PM UTC

Viruses were a favourite for a while (Hanta, Ebola, ...)

We had a 'bad idea' theme once which included:-

    port23
    dotat

But my favourite for one of our build machines and appeared in -version output of our product was sigsegv.

I've settled on the elements with atomic number as last octet and the handy shorthands, but that's for home dev network.

For company stuff they get named by function/env/counter.

Re: Hostnames

#68

Post by rajington » Sat, Oct 12, 2013, 9:52 PM UTC

we use periodic table elements for releases, we even have "isotopes". version numbers perfectly match to atomic numbers, and they all have abbreviations. it's a great way to learn the periodic table as well.

Re: Hostnames

#69

Post by tzs » Sat, Oct 12, 2013, 9:53 PM UTC

peckrob wrote: post #30

We used to use Marvel characters until our setup got too big. Now it's (datacenter)-(type (web, proxy, db, etc))(number). So, sfo-proxy1, for example.

Outgrowing Marvel characters is a sign of good growth. Marvel says they have 7000 characters, and that count might exclude characters that just had one minor appearance.

Re: Hostnames

#70

Post by kordless » Sat, Oct 12, 2013, 9:53 PM UTC

My ISP in the 90s had fruits for hostnames. The main Cisco router was called 'passion'.

Shortly after setting it up, I pinged it from a Solaris box. The response was 'passion is alive'.

I tell this story every time there is a 'what do you call your hosts?' discussion!