I use names of bones for my different serves. I have metacarpus, clavicle, femur and coccyx.
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Rock types and Greek gods. Everything from emerald to Aphrodite.
I gave up on cute or clever names a while ago; now I go with “storage0”, “router0”, “wap00”, “vmhost0”. Always with a numeric suffix because there will be a -1, -2 some day.
Usually, some type of pun based on the hardware.
I use characters from Haikyu and Thor.
I have asahi, hinata, daichi and heimdal running.
I don't have a whole network setup like the rest of you guys, but I've been naming my desktop pc's SHODAN ever since I built my first one. Secondary/partner's pc is named XERXES. I'll probably never change them.
My media server is called "The_Nexus."
My phone when I host anything on it is "The Hackinator 9000" because I think it would be funny for a normie to see and freak out.
Internal server (Home Assistant etc.): domus
External server (Nextcloud etc.): nimbus
Router/firewall: murus
Hardware hosts usually get a mix of hardware description and main use, e.g. en old Esprimo with Proxmox is esprimox. Virtual hosts are garden themed - auth server is mycel, monitoring will be called canopy once I move it, VM with lots of docker stuff is garden etc.
They're all some kind of machine. Steam deck: SteamMachineryV1
PC: ArchMachineryV2
Phone: Android_μMachine
Oddly enough my server goes by MonoVerse, which I named first and I guess it just stuck.
My first computer job was at a college that used names from ancient history and mythology. So I mostly still do that. Medea is my plex server. Zeus and Hera are the hosts for docker and VMs. Heimdall is the router.
The only break in the pattern is my storage, which is currently NASC and NASD...
Oh and my personal machine used to be HAL_9000 (complete with wallpaper and theme sounds) but now I just name it "box."
ok so don't hate me but h001, h002, h003, and so on.
That's h for host. I also use n to number networks, and k to number physical keys.
I list them all in my keepassxc password database, where I can include any additional information.
With the prevalence of vms, docker containers, and docker networks, there's just too many things to name. By numbering them I can just side step that whole game.
Desktop: 30p87
Laptop: 30p87-laptop
Phone: 30p87-phone
Server: 30p87-server
DNS server at location bv: 30p87-dns-bv
DNS server at location db: 30p87-dns-db
Switch at location bv: 30p87-bottom-bv
Switch at location db: 30p87-bottom-db
My personal use devices are all some variation of Pingu (eg. iPingu, Pingtendo etc.), and my NAS devices are based off Pokémon puns (Storlax and Archivysaur currently).
My wife on the other hand is boring, so her’s are just system default.
Mine are all named for the colour of the case, or case accent when ambiguous, though network infrastructure items are named for their models, being the typical default.
I sometimes use A records or mDNS-SD for the actual services provided and use a *.home.arpa. domain.
Another theme at another site is native fauna and flora names.
No cringe, no pop culture.
im very lazy now but i used to use tyrande, shandris, and then rotate around any other kalimidor/kaldorei places and people because when i played warcraft i was obsessed with night elves
- Rlyeh -host/nas
- Cthulhu
- Yog
- Yibb
- Hastur
- Hotep
- Cylitha
I name based on OS and location.
fedoraDesktop fedoraLaptop fedoraServer fedoraSchoolServer unraid qnap ubuntuServer
'fuck' and the family of 'fucking'
I use "butler" terms, like:
- Jarvis
- Archibald - used for my old Arch desktop
- Alfred
They serve me well, and I give them due respect.
Depends on how many hostnames I need. If I just need 2, using opposite duals is fun, {romeo,ruliet}.shakespeare.com. 4 I almost always use cardinal directions or the seasons; {north,south,east,west}.domain.com or {spring,summer,fall,winter}.domain.com.
If I need a lot of potential subdomains, you can't beat the Greek or NATO alphabet, giving you 24 and 26 hostnames respectively which can be further enhanced by using the purpose of the server with the alphabet;
- beta-w02.domain.com # second webserver on beta
- beta-db02.domain.com # second db on beta
Current homelab+desktop+laptop host count here is 22. All anime characters or references. It’s a fairly large pool to pull from, so it’s worked for me for 20+ years now. Mobile devices (phones, tablets, etc) and game consoles aren’t really as clever though.
All of them are in a piHole DNS though so no host files keeps it easy to track. Services have names that mostly are just what they are though and cnames to the matching host that hosts them (or load balancer, whatever)
I named mine after different Half Life characters: GMAN- Server FREEMAN- Main Gaming Rig ALYX- Laptop
And so on...
They're all some kind of machine. Steam deck: SteamMachineryV1
PC: ArchMachineryV2
Phone: Android_μMachine
Oddly enough my server goes by MonoVerse, which I named first and I guess it just stuck.
I originally named all my hardware after members of the Wu-Tang Clan plus some close affiliates, but I actually ran out of names, so now I use MFDOOM aliases for my workstations, and keep Wu-Tang for infrastructure, because it's for the children.
Every computer I own is an autobot. My primary machine is always Optimus Prime, has been since 2008. Other machines get other names generally slightly inspired by their role / nature. Bumblebee and CliffJumper are miniPCs of various persuasions, Preceptor is my "mess around with AI" box, my big server that handles most of my data and network services is Wheeljack, my Macbook is Mirage, my backup server is Powerglide, my TV (which is an old Dell all in One running Linux Mint) is UltraMagnus.
My devices are named after planets from Doctor Who: mondas, telos, skaro, villengard.
I use characters from whichever book I'm reading at the time. Examples:
- Arya: From ASOIAF, a small but powerful Ultrabook
- Cthulhu: From HP Lovecraft, a huge 17" laptop
- Horus: From the Horus Heresy books, A powerful laptop
- Binky: Death's white horse from discworld, a white desktop
- Peaches: A rat that always carries a book with her. My home server
Used to be astronomy based. Sol for actual network and then planets and stellar bodies and stuff. But I have so many devices now.
Now I just make it ass informative with as free letters as possible. Almost everything is 3 or 4 letters long.
So like fsrv for file server, msvr for media server and so on.
I just memorise the IPs lmao. then again I only have 1 or 2 hosts up on my network ever
I wouldn't say my hostnames are very creative, but they all have some kind of backstory.
Main desktop: POwOful
It's a pretty powerful desktop, so why not call it that :)
Laptop: LenOwO
Can you guess the laptop brand?
Server 1: Shitbox
It's my first server box I ever built, so it's underpowered and pretty shitty.
Server 2: Stowage
My proper server with actual data parity, and it's pretty powerful
Server 3: Jank
This one is another shitmix of hardware with random harddrives in raid 0. I am aware that they'll die at some point, and all of that data stored on it will be lost, so i use it as temporary storage whenever I need to copy something from one machine to another.
Robot vacuum: suckywucky
Yea....
Reserved for future use: krex & krox
Poor "kryx".