said by tomkb :

We are bringing our first cluster servers online shortly. Need to name them, but not sure what to call them.

My thinking is the name should be able to support 2 things. One, you may have more than 1 cluster. Two, you may have many nodes inside the cluster.

said by tomkb :

We are bringing our first cluster servers online shortly. Need to name them, but not sure what to call them.

My thinking is the name should be able to support 2 things. One, you may have more than 1 cluster. Two, you may have many nodes inside the cluster.

Any advice or opinions?

said by dave :

I prefer 'cutesie' - I can remember bob, carol, ted, alice better than I can remember ussrv01a, ussrv512, ukeng21, etc.

said by jmirabella :

we try to keep some comical, so if a service dies at 4am and our noc calls us, we can laugh while trying to wake up when told ' dhcp is down on yourmom '

said by nixen :

I named a four-node cluster after The Young Ones.

said by benyto :

Nice. Not many fans out there.

said by sybille :

How about "fruit"? Then the clusters could be names things like "apple," orange," grape," etc. and the nodes in the clusters could be "seeds," "pit," "pulp," "peel," etc. Lol.

Or maybe you could choose a building or house name, and then the clusters could be different rooms and the nodes pieces of furniture within them.

Or "forest," with various "trees," each having different "leaves," "needles," "cones," "sap"...?

said by tomkb :

No, the cutsie naming is out.

said by yock :

Within our organization they're named line this:

Production: [Application Name][Scope][Node Number]
For example, the main web server might be named: IISPUB01

IIS = Internet information Services, PUB = Public, Node 01

Dev/Test: [OS][Landscape][Node Number]
Example: AIXTH01

AIX = AIX 5/L, TH = Test, 01 = Node

This works well for us, but our NOC is small compared to larger companies.

said by yock :

This works well for us

said by dave :

Wouldn't work well for me - I'm a lousy typist, and there's only one keystroke between 'scheduled shutdown of intended system' and 'ohhhhhhh CRAP !!'.

said by Smitedogg :

Use polyhedrons. "Can you check the drives on Great disnub dirhombidodecahedron?"

...at least that's what I would do.

said by powerhog :

LOL- once upon a time we named our systems after elements in the periodic table. There was a particularly annoying VP who brought in an application against our recommendation. His systems were promptly named yytrium, ytterbium and protactinium. Of course we had DNS aliases set to the elmental symbols so us admins didn't have to type all that. Never told the VP about those aliases though.

said by powerhog :

yytrium, ytterbium and protactinium

said by Steve :

Misspelling Yttrium was a particularly nice touch

said by odeonkreel :

try this, it works for us.

PKDACC01

P = Production (can use a T for test or D for development)
KD = Location (Kansas Data center in this case)
ACC = application name or abbreviation
01 = server number in application cluster

Works for us very well. We know exactly what type of server it is, where it is, what it does.

said by DSLGuy :

go greek mythology

(Hercules, Zeus, Morpheus, Apollo, Icarus, Cerberus - the firewall, Atlas, Hypnos) are in my digital sandbox

said by No_Strings :

Old girlfriends?

said by FLea973 :

I'd reserve those names for those that are a PITA

said by yock :

Perfect for an Exchange server, perhaps? =)

said by No_Strings :

Let's just say that some went down a lot more than others.

After all this great advice
We all are waiting now to hear what you picked

said by raw :

I named the boxes in my lab at the office after knights of the round table. I also threw in Killer Rabbit and Holy Hand Grenade when I felt unusual.

said by yock :

Personally, I use baseball terms.

said by Daniel :

I am a big fan of the greek mythology theme, but as mentioned above, it's a bit played at this point. I'm considering going with a new theme now -- Tool song names.

said by turbonium :

I've used the following:

1. Type of big cats (tiger, ocelot, etc)

said by turbonium :

2. Elements (hydrogen, helium, etc)
3. Trees (elm, oak, pine)

said by turbonium :

4. Words that start with "g" and ends in "o" (go, goo, guano, etc)
5. Planets (and yes, uranus too)