Considerations in network naming schemes

When choosing descriptors for interfaces or devices, you may wonder about the best approach, since changes can become more complicated after everyone is used to the old names. Here are two opposite naming approaches:

1. Use names that identify where interfaces fall in your network topology, so it's easy to figure out what's going on when you're troubleshooting or training a new network administrator. For example, the third router in VLAN 2 might have a name with "v2r3" in it. Also, in a WLAN, consider using information that helps positively identify the device, such as a zip code. A logical naming scheme has the advantage of scalability. However, if too much information is crammed into the names, they can become unwieldy and hard to remember.
2. The opposite approach is security by obscurity; for example, some people want to avoid using names that make it too easy to guess the structure. "Cute" names are chosen rather than ones relevant to the network topology. This method may be useful for naming a small number of widely used servers. For example, "Saturn" is easier to remember than "w0otr35." If you have names that aren't very descriptive, it's helpful to use a database to link the names with additional relevant information. You can also use LDAP metadata for this purpose. There are two main problems with non-descriptive names, though. "Cute" names doesn't scale well if your network expands to thousands of devices. Also, databases of names are only useful if they're kept up-to-date.