Names

This page lists name resources.

Domains

020.

  • tld is now 020. , maybe change that to something that starts with a letter like amsw?
  • ns1.020 = 10.205.253.1 = stanleyH
  • ns2.020 = 10.205.253.2 = duja
  • add your hosts to /etc/bind/db.020 on stanleyH

amsw.nl. and 8.8.6.0.8.7.6.0.1.0.0.2.ip6.arpa.

  • DNSSEC signed
  • Zones managed by Imre Jonk
  • Currently no self-service, just ask if you want a subdomain
  • ns.amsw.nl (primary) at GWL, ns2.amsw.nl at DCG, ns3.amsw.nl at puck.nether.net

Hostnames

xkcd: Permanence

"There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things" - Phil Karlton

We use two types of hostnames in our network: functional names and pretty names. Functional names are used for network equipment like routers, switches and radios. Pretty names are reserved for servers and devices that have multiple tasks. Pretty names should be short with at least two syllables to make them easier to pronounce over the telephone while you're in a noisy datacenter. You can pull them randomly from the mnemonic wordlist: https://kevinmarquette.github.io/public/mnemonicwordlist.txt

Functional names are used for specialized equipment. It's a good idea to use these standard names:

  • router
  • switch
  • access999 (wireless access point)
  • clientzzz (wireless client)

The ID-part of an access point should be the three-digit heading (compass direction) the AP is facing. For example, the hostname of an access point facing exactly northeast should be 'access045'. The ID of a client should be the three-letter node abbreviation it is connected to. An example client hostname is 'clientwfc'. The reasoning behind this is that an access point can have multiple clients and should therefore have its heading as the ID, while a client can only be connected to one access point and should therefore have the name of the connected node as the ID.

If you require another hostname for a device of the same type that is part of the same node, just append a functional identifier. For example, if you install a second switch at WFC and it's located in a weatherproof box on the roof instead of in the rack, it would be called switch-roof.wfc.amsw.nl.

Think about traceroutes when naming router interfaces:

user@desktop:~$ traceroute router.wfc.amsw.nl
traceroute to router.wfc.amsw.nl (10.205.253.10), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 1  lan.router.dwk.amsw.nl (10.205.6.1) 0.436 ms  0.411 ms  0.214 ms
 2  dwk.router.gwl.amsw.nl (10.205.255.65)  1.816 ms  1.791 ms  1.757 ms
 3  router.wfc.amsw.nl (10.205.253.10)  4.226 ms  4.441 ms  4.362 ms

Remember that it's often hard to change names. You don't want to change the hostname 'ircbox' to 'mailbox' just because you're repurposing your server. Give it a name that lasts, and use CNAMEs wherever you can to tie service names to pretty names.

A domain name for a server might look like this: titanic.gwl.amsw.nl. The name should point to an IPv6 address (and maybe an IPv4 address if you need legacy support). The IP addresses should have a reverse DNS entry that points to the domain name. Service names should be assigned with CNAME records, like this:

titanic.gwl.amsw.nl.  IN  AAAA   2001:db8::1
imap.gwl.amsw.nl.     IN  CNAME  titanic.gwl.amsw.nl.

Just use service names directly on the AAAA records if you can't use CNAME's (when using NS, MX and SRV records, for example).