171–180 of 187 posts
python -c "import random; print random.choice(open('/usr/share/dict/words').read().split())" Nerd factor: really, really high. P.S. you're still allowed to exercise the power of veto. I've managed to convince others to let me use this technique to form a team name in a couple of Uni projects.
"protonymphal" -- I think I want to call my new band that.
Periodic table: hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon... and shorthands... h.yourcompany.net, etc... :)
After working in a few pretty large environments I have some pretty strong opinions about hostnames. I've seen everything from cute theme based names to function/role based names to meaningless uuid based names. Usually you see the theme based names in much smaller environments, though I've seen it up to hundreds of machines. One problem I have with this approach is that people begin to personify machines, excusing t…
Our naming scheme for the servers is similar to how you describe dropbox - there is a generic prefix and then a rack+uposition number (ie: gen0112). This has worked out pretty well. When we build a site or replace a server, we record the mac address. Then we can assign role-based child hostnames to the physical server name, update the cobbler config, and everything gets built accordingly.
Of course, there is a nice host database to track all these mappings as well as scripts to generate and push those cobbler configurations.
After working in a few pretty large environments I have some pretty strong opinions about hostnames. I've seen everything from cute theme based names to function/role based names to meaningless uuid based names. Usually you see the theme based names in much smaller environments, though I've seen it up to hundreds of machines. One problem I have with this approach is that people begin to personify machines, excusing t…
It can only get error prone if you have two hosts with similar names in the same project (made up example: lnx4739p34 vs. lnx4793p34) in the same project, i've seen hostnames getting reassigned because of regular mix ups.
If you happen to do ssh logins and manual troubleshooting, to make sure you're not messing with the wrong machine it's great to have puppet maintain CMDB data like service level, machine purpose, owner and open tickets etc. in a nicely formatted /etc/motd file, along with a autmatic "who" output in .bashrc to see who else is logged in.
Another question regarding hostnames is the use of (sub)domains. I find it highly annoying to deal with hosts like "mysql04.customer.vlan33.berlin2.intranet.my-company.com" instead of "lnx4739p34.myco.net", regardless of the global location.
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!
Periodic table: hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon... and shorthands... h.yourcompany.net, etc... :)
This is my favorite one. For extra awesome, you can use the atomic mass of each element as the last octet of the device's IP address.
First rule of running a farm: don't name your animals. You'll get too emotionally attached when it comes time to put them down. Yes it's funny and cool et cetera. But, and I say this with love and twenty years' experience, for fucksake: take the time to plan a sensible ontology and stick with it. Hostnames should describe the purpose, capabilities, and disposition of your assets. Nothing more and nothing less.
This approach "Hostnames should describe the purpose, capabilities, and disposition of your assets" requires you to rename your servers when you repurpose them. And that's an equally bad idea.