Off-Topic • [Discussion] How do you name your devices?

I name everything but am careful not to use logic necessarily becoming alphanumeric gibberish. Maybe theme, maybe association, maybe purpose. There are patterns. What are we naming?

I find that abstract names are best as the role of the system might change throughout its lifetime. What was once a NAS might be pressed into hosting and such. Ideal schemes also avoid borrowing names from a finite pool. I wonder about Debian using Toy Story characters, but Pixar keeps expanding the Toy Story universe so there's plenty left yet for codenames.

I have been a bit uncreative in the past, naming a BOINC cluster simply Node-01, Node-02, Node-03, etc. But the more memorable names are those that don't require you go and physically check printed nametags before SSH'ing into a target.

My personal computers have received names of sci-fi locales ever since my first ever PC. And, as I exhaust sci-fi that I have any affinity for, I'm feeling it's time to refresh my strategy. So I'm just looking for inspiration.

For desktops and notebooks, I use "translated" brand names. With two HP's, one is Happy and the other is Hope. A self-built desktop with an MSI motherboard is Missy, and a second one with a SilverStone case is called... Zilversteen (which is Silverstone in Dutch). My servers are characters from the Chucky horror movies universe. General server is Lizzy, the metadataserver for the LizardFS filesystem is Ray, the shadow metadataserver is called Shadow, the chunckservers are called Chucky01, -02, -03,... and so on. When I still had a RAID-5 system, the server for that was called Mother and all the clients were geven girl's and women's names.
A lot is possible: the only limit is your fantasy.

That is clever. Inscribing the vendor into the name without actually doing so.

I used (like 2-3 years ago) to call computers by their board / OEM names: asrpc, ibm-x230, etc. - But one day I found it boring and unpractical - How to differ between 4 computers which share same board / are same OEM computer?
So I don't have any pattern in naming anymore, I've started to use nicknames (which have reasons behind them) instead
Some examples:

• "ambassador" since I travel with this computer nearly everywhere
• "last-resort" because it's reliable as hell and is always the solution when one computer goes down for any reason
• "daria" terminal in a laptop's body - back in primary school I had a girl in my class with such name and was like that laptop: Problematic, irritating and useless
• Once I had "DeRP" which standed for "Debian Router Project"

The only exception is me server, "lassie-with-a-tankgun", which has no background behind her name
Also, though I remember their names without it since they are all unique enough, I do stick a name tags to my computers (see attachment)

Portable systems are the best IMO and it's getting harder to find good mATX slim cases.

I like how you proudly label them in the physical. There are label makers that can be used to print out adhesive tags, which I would use if I were to do the same as they help make the tags look formal.

Statistics: Posted by Uptorn — 2024-02-23 16:22 — Replies 5 — Views 127

---