Organizations approach naming conventions very differently depending on the nature of their business. Neworks that are very geopgraphically dispersed focus more on location/dept type names, over companies that only operate in one state, etc. I was curious what types of interesting naming conventions Network Managers have deployed and why you choose what you did. In my organization, I have defined my rather simple naming convention as follows:
dt##-loc
dt = Device Type
## = Qty of devices of that type at location
loc = Location
Device type is usually a two-character designator, but not always nor required to be.
As a brief example, these are some device types:
rt = Router
sw = Switch (access)
cs = Core switch
ds = Distribution switch
ap = Access Point
wgb = Work Group Bridge
ids = Intrusion Detection
ips = Intrusion Prevention
I specify two-digit quantities because I don't ever expect to have over 99 devices of one particular type at any location. Each of my WAN sites have a unique location code used by corporate accounting, for chargeback purposes, etc. - which is carried over to my device names. So, under my scheme, my devices have the following names:
cs01-corp
cs02-corp
ds01-corp
ds02-corp
ds03-corp
ds04-corp
sw01-t550
sw02-t550
sw03-t550
ap01-t162
ap02-t162
wgb01-t162
What other types of useful naming conventions does everyone else utilize? Feel free to share any unique challenges you've either overcome through your conventions or continue to struggle with.
