Naming conventions for servers/workstations/notebooks/thinclients/printers/etc

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aronesz

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 17, 2011
Messages
389
Greetings,

What naming conventions do you use for devices such as servers (srv), workstations (wks), notebooks (nb), thinclients (tc), switches (sw), routers, wireless access points (wap), printers (ptr), and print servers (pts)?

At my workplace the formula is <type><location><#>, where <type> is any one of those abbreviations I wrote in parenthesis in my first paragraph, and then location is the abbreviation of a branch, and # from 0 to 999.

Just doing some research to find out what other people are doing. I work at another company for which I will be setting up an AD for the first time on their network, so I am trying to figure out naming conventions and structure (plan and write things down before doing anything). I think I will use <###><location><type> because it makes more sense and is easier to sort, and is kind of like YYYY/MM/dd format and military time.
 
workstations
Site code - dash - room number
(ex. BAL-506)

servers
site code - dash - server role
(ex. CRK-DC1)

switches
site code - dash - IDF - dash - switch number
(ex. ORN-700IDF-SW1)

laptops
site code - dash - asset tag
(ex. CRK-108444)

access points
site code - dash - function - dash - room number
(ex. BRN-AP-RM314)

printers
site code - dash - room number - dash - model
(ex. BAL-RM213-LaserJet 4100)
 
Well. when I first started were just using the company name - type- start number (just for servers)..

So..

company-dc1
company-dc2

Since we not have multiple locations we've started to add in the location

company-ca-dc1
company-ca-dc2

For the desktops and laptops we just use the dell serial number
 
calvinj said:
For the desktops and laptops we just use the dell serial number
Click to expand...
Not saying your way is not as good, but I like our way because we can look at a machine inside active directory and we know what type of machine it is just based on the name.

If we see site code plus 6 digits we instantly know its a laptop. this helps in troubleshooting things before we even have to call the user.
 
Stop trying to shove kilobytes of information into your hostname and start looking at asset management solutions
 
Servers contain and abbreviation of what they do.....PRT is printer, DC is domain controller, FS file server, SP is sharepoint, EXC is exchange, CLS is a cluster machine, RAD is a Radius machine

Workstations are laptops, PCoIP clients, Desktops...
site code - department - domain - asset tag - machine type
0101C123456L (Bristol, IT dept, Corp domain, Laptop)
14SCC123456D (Miami, Studio C, Corp domain, Desktop)
1413C123456P (Miami, Sales, Corp domain, PCoIP device)

we use the 3rd and 4th characters to distinguish between production and non production areas...
numbers are non production, letters are production
 
Keep in mind that no matter what you include in the name you also want to maintain a good OU structure which will make finding an actual resource much easier.

For instance, no matter how the laptops and desktops are distinguished, you can put them in seperate folders for laptops and desktops so that you won't need to sort through a big list.

If I were to start fresh.....

Laptops/Desktops
<Site>dash<<wks>or<nb>><asset tag>
Bos-wks123456

Servers
<Site>dash<Service Abbreviation><#>
Bos-fs01 (fileserver)
Bos-ps01 (printserver)

Printers
<Site>dash<Brand Abb.><Model>
Bos-HPLJ4015P
Bos-HPCLJ2605dn

Avoid naming computers with usernames or anything that would change frequently during the life of a machine (redeployments, etc).
 
Last place I was at it was a 4 letter city code - function - two digit number for servers. Workstations and laptops had their serial number. Though I had one site that liked to add in a ton of extra stuff, it was really annoying.

Server example: detr-dc-01
Site with the issues: cham-fs-ilp-01

Current place I am at servers are OS (W windows, L - Linux etc), function, physical or virtual, number.

Example: wdcpv09
 
We just name the workstation with the user's name, normally last name first to keep it different from the AD username. Sometimes SolidWorks gets funky when you change a workstation name though.
Label on the front with the IP address.
 
cyr0n_k0r said:
Not saying your way is not as good, but I like our way because we can look at a machine inside active directory and we know what type of machine it is just based on the name.

If we see site code plus 6 digits we instantly know its a laptop. this helps in troubleshooting things before we even have to call the user.
Click to expand...

That works great except we have stuff cross sites all the time. So instantly it blows up. We are small enough we all have a pretty good idea what is what. Plus we do have asset management software that we can assign AD users to specific hardware.. Search for their username and you can find what machine they use. Not instant, but everyone is pretty forgiving about it
 
jeffmoss26 said:
We just name the workstation with the user's name, normally last name first to keep it different from the AD username. Sometimes SolidWorks gets funky when you change a workstation name though.
Label on the front with the IP address.
Click to expand...

oh dear
 
jeffmoss26 said:
We just name the workstation with the user's name, normally last name first to keep it different from the AD username. Sometimes SolidWorks gets funky when you change a workstation name though.
Label on the front with the IP address.
Click to expand...

Oh my lanta...

We have ours by OU's depending on location of facilites. All servers are in one OU. We then have our printer groups through AD. Our Workstations are split up by Rural/In City and then further seperated by location. Computer names are ex; RHO-HR008. Site, department, computer number. Then in AD we move them to the CHR - Workstations - RHO OU. Then we GPO each location as necessary. Printer names are location IE Toshiba Lower North RHO. Server are domainnamefunction ex: CHREX for our Exchange server and CHRAD01 for our AD controller number 1.
 
I work in a school;

Classroom computers are RoomNumber-ComputerNumber

Example: CF01-17.

Classroom Laptops are LTDepartment-ComputerNumber

Example: LTMath-03

Teachers Laptops are L-TeacherName

Example: L-ATeacher

Servers have the school mnemonic and their role

Example: mnemonicfile1

Printers are the room number followed by the model.

Example CG04-M110
 
dashpuppy said:
WOW! thats looking for disaster...
Click to expand...
We recently just converted from a static IP environment, so heh, yeah, I know what that's like. :D

The particular scenario that I will be setting up an AD server for is for a very small business consisting of five employees (CEO, sales manager, sales, shipping, IT [me]). I rescued them from shutting down a year ago due to severe problems their servers were having. We're in progress of migrating to an in-the-cloud business system, and once that is complete we will ditch all the old servers. I've already migrated their e-mail systems and LAN Jabber to Google Apps, webhosting to DreamHost, fax to MetroFax, comgobulated multi-server squid-powered Linux setup replaced by a single dedicated pfSense server, upgraded from DSL to Cable (plus an SB6120 thrown in), ... next step will be to upgrade their workstations+monitors, and/or the analog phone system. Will also setup some sort of backup solution to DreamHost/Amazon CDN/other dedicated online backup service. In the end this network will require almost no maintenance. :D

Once that happens, we will only have 2 active servers -- one of them is presently a pfSense box, and the other I managed to find enough time to setup Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Standard on a new used DL 380. Trying to plan and design for the future.
 
dashpuppy said:
WOW! thats looking for disaster...
Click to expand...

Why? In small businesses...where there is just a handful of people, relatively small staff turnover, all know each other and probably each others passwords....what's the big deal?

When you really think about it..if someone want to do damage to a workstation, they'll know what they're doing...and if it's named \\workstation23\c$ or \\johnbrownsrig\c$...they'll drill into c$ and do their damage no matter what the name is.

My naming conventions vary according to client.
Server names sometimes something as boring as "Server1" or "Host-15". Other times...more often actually, I'll name the server is some fun way based on the business name...like "Headnurse" for a healthcare agency, or "Tanker1" for an oil company, or after call letters like "Tango or XRay" for some sites, or after animals for other sites..."Rabbit, Fox, Hound", I've done astronomical for larger sites with many servers..."Jupiter, Pluto, Io".

Some workstations I have named after permanent employees names, others I name for position..like "reception", or "frontdesk1", or laptops...Roadwarrior23.
 
I forgot to mention our printer names.....they are based on sports.......LineDrive, Tackle, Sports_1, Soccernet
My last job was all character based printer names....Batman, Pluto, Mickey, Goofey
 
dbwillis said:
I forgot to mention our printer names.....they are based on sports.......LineDrive, Tackle, Sports_1, Soccernet
My last job was all character based printer names....Batman, Pluto, Mickey, Goofey
Click to expand...

Brilliant! Please tell me you named the crappy printers things like Joker and Vader.
 
Jay_oasis said:
we have asset sticker so we use asset sticker number - OS
Click to expand...

We also used the asset tag for our workstations, but also lots of other data

[group/department] [PC manuf] [(D)esktop or (L)aptop] [Asset]

So it would be something like SLSHPD123456, and you know its HP desktop belonging to someone in sales with asset 123456. This was a large company, so tying workstations and laptops to a single location was useless.

Server/other device names were named differently depending on what department managed the equipment. Most were either named solely on it's purpose, or with location+purpose (MNExchange01, IA-AD01, etc).
 
Sorry, guess I should have mentioned that we are just one location, around 100 workstations. Not a large enterprise.
I've been here 4 months, this is what has been in place for several years. I agree it's not the best but it works for us.
 
For Desktops and Laptops:
Three letter abbreviation for Business Unit name, Equipment type, Manufacturer, Asset Tag (example might be TSPDSKHP255).

For Servers, they are alcohol brand names:
Martini, Rossi, Kahlua, Bombay, etc....so many names to choose from here.

Networking equipment is named:
city (if in the US) - stock ticker - model - location - closet - #
so LAX-CSCO-1231G-RECEIVING-IDF-1
 
At my last job, we supported over 11,000 CPUs (workstations, laptops, servers, etc), as well as several thousand printers, and naturally we used an asset management system (LANDesk).

Naming convention was 2-digit department ID followed by asset tag number.

Due to the sheer number of devices, any other naming convention was not very practical, and all the information you could possibly want (and much more that you'll never need) was contained within LANDesk.

Users could read the asset number off the label on the device, get it for us via computer name (if a workstation) or LANDesk allows for search by IP address, workstation user name, etc, and the same tool could allow us to provide remote support, push software updates, administer accounts, pretty much anything short of physical repairs and LAN connectivity issues.
 
Last edited:
Electrofreak said:
At my last job, we supported over 11,000 CPUs (workstations, laptops, servers, etc), as well as several thousand printers, and naturally we used an asset management system (LANDesk).

Naming convention was 2-digit department ID followed by asset tag number.

Due to the sheer number of devices, any other naming convention was not very practical, and all the information you could possibly want (and much more that you'll never need) was contained within LANDesk.

Users could read the asset number off the label on the device, get it for us via computer name (if a workstation) or LANDesk allows for search by IP address, workstation user name, etc, and the same tool could allow us to provide remote support, push software updates, administer accounts, pretty much anything short of physical repairs and LAN connectivity issues.
Click to expand...
I hope by CPUs you are meaning the total collective sum of all Central Processing Units inside each machine, including any second physical CPU in servers. ;)
 
We just let our users name them whatever they want. :D

Servers and VMs are named by me. It's named after whatever I happened to be watching/reruns, a random wiki I'm reading or just whatever stupid thing a co-workers done or said the day new hardware is delievered. :D:D

Haha... I'm joking (but not really). This just happens to be in a very small office-type environment. It was like this way before I started so there's not any rush to spear a change. But something like this would NEVER fly if it was any larger then a handful of people. Be damn sure I'll be leading a drive for change if so. :p:p:p
 
Ours is regulated by the goverment. Basically 3 letters for the site name 3 letters for the department a letter for the type (d for desktop, n for laptop/portable, l for printer etc) then 3 numbers for the unit number.

So EX: TOR-FNC-N-002 without the dashes would be computer 2 in finance at the Toronto site. (I made that name up). As a tech you don't have to worry about knowing the first 3 letters, and if it's an ongoing issue you are working on, you don't have to remember the next 3 letters either, and you know it's a laptop so you are left with 002 to remember. So if you are typing this all the time in a day you are not referring to the ticket all the time.

It's actually a half decent convention as it's short yet informative. With the computer number you know what department to go to if you need to physically access it.

For our servers they are site abbreviation, function, and then a number. So EX: TORDC2 would be the second domain controller. The nice thing is everything follows this convention, even printers. Before they regulated it, it was a mess. The printers had all these weird random names and crap, was a pain.

I also hate environments that use the asset tag. Trying to have the user recite 10+ characters over the phone is not fun for the customer, and the tech, and there is lot of room for error in translation especially if it's someone who has an accent or is just not clear. Conventions that are separated into "units" are easier as it gives you some "error control". Ex: for the type, if you heard M instead of N, but you know there's no M type, then you can assume they meant N. Try listening to a number like 8QSFDENMMM009TPLN over the phone. :D
 
Red Squirrel said:
Ours is regulated by the goverment. Basically 3 letters for the site name 3 letters for the department a letter for the type (d for desktop, n for laptop/portable, l for printer etc) then 3 numbers for the unit number.

So EX: TOR-FNC-N-002 without the dashes would be computer 2 in finance at the Toronto site. (I made that name up). As a tech you don't have to worry about knowing the first 3 letters, and if it's an ongoing issue you are working on, you don't have to remember the next 3 letters either, and you know it's a laptop so you are left with 002 to remember. So if you are typing this all the time in a day you are not referring to the ticket all the time.

It's actually a half decent convention as it's short yet informative. With the computer number you know what department to go to if you need to physically access it.

For our servers they are site abbreviation, function, and then a number. So EX: TORDC2 would be the second domain controller. The nice thing is everything follows this convention, even printers. Before they regulated it, it was a mess. The printers had all these weird random names and crap, was a pain.

I also hate environments that use the asset tag. Trying to have the user recite 10+ characters over the phone is not fun for the customer, and the tech, and there is lot of room for error in translation especially if it's someone who has an accent or is just not clear. Conventions that are separated into "units" are easier as it gives you some "error control". Ex: for the type, if you heard M instead of N, but you know there's no M type, then you can assume they meant N. Try listening to a number like 8QSFDENMMM009TPLN over the phone. :D
Click to expand...

You're in BC, no? Do you work for a health region or what?
 
I'm in Ontario. I just pulled that name out of my ass :p. Did not want to post actual names "just in case".. can't see why it would be a big deal but best to be safe.

But yeah I work at our local hospital as a contractor.
 
Red Squirrel said:
Ours is regulated by the goverment. Basically 3 letters for the site name 3 letters for the department a letter for the type (d for desktop, n for laptop/portable, l for printer etc) then 3 numbers for the unit number.
Click to expand...
wtf?

d for desktop
but n for laptop?
then l for printer?

why not
d desktop
l laptop
p printer
??
 
cyr0n_k0r said:
wtf?

d for desktop
but n for laptop?
then l for printer?

why not
d desktop
l laptop
p printer
??
Click to expand...

Yeah it's kinda odd but basically

L for laser
T for thermal
P for multi function printers / photocopiers
N for notebook

If it was up to me it would just be P for all types of printers, L for laptop, and I would add C for cow. Most of the notebooks are actually cows. (computer on wheels) so it would make sense for them to have their own "type".
 
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