Answers
Jul 23, 2019 - 01:01 AM
I don't think there is a right or wrong answer here, whatever suits the organisations and your requirements should be adopted.
I've seen a few varieties, XXXXX = a seqentual number sequence.
ITCWSXXXXX - for workstations/desktops
ITCNBXXXXX - for laptops
ITCDCXXXXX - for datacentre related items, switches, servers, storage etc.
Other places have used RIASPXXXX for mobile devices and RIWCLXXXXX for laptops and something similar for infrastructure equipment.
Having a prefix at the beginning can help identify the type of asset you're dealing without having to see it or look in the CMDB to get the answer. Ultimately as long as they're all unique and tracked accordingly you'll be off to a good start.
I've seen a few varieties, XXXXX = a seqentual number sequence.
ITCWSXXXXX - for workstations/desktops
ITCNBXXXXX - for laptops
ITCDCXXXXX - for datacentre related items, switches, servers, storage etc.
Other places have used RIASPXXXX for mobile devices and RIWCLXXXXX for laptops and something similar for infrastructure equipment.
Having a prefix at the beginning can help identify the type of asset you're dealing without having to see it or look in the CMDB to get the answer. Ultimately as long as they're all unique and tracked accordingly you'll be off to a good start.
Jul 23, 2019 - 01:25 AM
From a SAM providor point of view naming conventions are brilliant and help identify all sorts of things (be aware - with some vendors use this to create worst case positions at Audit so never provide real server names). However you are focusing on the desktop - on that side of things the really useful things are dept or country codes. Virtual and Physical is determined by Serial Number. From a SAM point of view "how many" is generally the bit I need to know - not much else. However for your tracking purposes Dept/Country codes are very helpful.
Its much more useful on the server side. Especially between Production / Dev / UAT - so again with the country code - some customers just add a straight "DEV" or "UAT" into the server name, others use a -1 , -2, -3 etc to denote its function. Clusters tend to be 123456A and 123456B - again easy to spot. But then others to -1 and -2 for their clustering.
Overall, the consistant message from all our customer base is the hardest thing to do is maintain the rules! So keep them clear and simple and good luck!
Its much more useful on the server side. Especially between Production / Dev / UAT - so again with the country code - some customers just add a straight "DEV" or "UAT" into the server name, others use a -1 , -2, -3 etc to denote its function. Clusters tend to be 123456A and 123456B - again easy to spot. But then others to -1 and -2 for their clustering.
Overall, the consistant message from all our customer base is the hardest thing to do is maintain the rules! So keep them clear and simple and good luck!
Jul 25, 2019 - 01:46 AM
Putting countries in naming conventions makes sense as long as your estate is relatively static; but no need to invent new codes, just use the ISO codes; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
As for anything else, depends on how you are going to use it, how static the environment is to support it. I have seen:
- OS indicators; largely pointless as any inventory tool should have this
- Server/desktop/ laptop etc; again largely pointless
- environment indicator; Dev/ test/ DR/ Prod/ Staging/ training etc. This can be very useful as inventory tools don't capture, but if devices move between enviroments (eg test > Staging > prod) then this is ineffective
- Business unit indicator; can be useful
- function indicators (APP/ DB etc) not very useful, especially as some servers can have multiple functions
As for anything else, depends on how you are going to use it, how static the environment is to support it. I have seen:
- OS indicators; largely pointless as any inventory tool should have this
- Server/desktop/ laptop etc; again largely pointless
- environment indicator; Dev/ test/ DR/ Prod/ Staging/ training etc. This can be very useful as inventory tools don't capture, but if devices move between enviroments (eg test > Staging > prod) then this is ineffective
- Business unit indicator; can be useful
- function indicators (APP/ DB etc) not very useful, especially as some servers can have multiple functions
