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Well, I have worked in an environment where database server names were server software version concatenated with a shortish but high entropy random alphanumeric string. I'll take cute or descriptive any day over that.

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Yes, some places I’ve worked named servers with four numbers separated by full stops, it was crazy!

Even better if they are in the 0-255 range but different from the IP addresses they are using!

Satan: "I'd just like to say I'm a huge fan..."

I've heard the "cattle not pets" argument for servers, but I hate that. Naming a server is like naming a boat. I've done it where everything is named after astronomers, or physicists, or even comic strip characters, but I also like it when a server is named, well, with a name.

"Hey guys, Jeff is throwing errors again, need somebody to find out what Jeff's problem is."

It depends on scale. If you have 3 servers that you manage individually, you name them like pets. If you have 3,000 servers that you manage through automation, you enumerate them like cattle.

Sure, I get that. Not many do that, but they still name their handful of servers "EDG-12-XY-NY-001-WTF". When it would be so much better if it were named "Doug".

You'd be taking support calls, "WTF NY?"

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