The Angry Admin: Time for a Rant about Naming Conventions

If you work with network administration of ANY kind (file and print services, directory administration, web applications, software deployments, etc.), pay attention:

Take a moment to review how you name things.

Devices: Servers, Desktops, Laptops, Tablets, Mobile Devices, Printers, Printer Pools/Groups.

Resources:  Software Packages, Log Files, Folders, Shares.

Active Directory: User Accounts, Security Groups, Contacts, Group Policy Objects, WIM Files, Forests, Domains, Sites and Subnets, Site Links.

SCCM: Packages, Collections, Advertisements, Task Sequences, Boundaries, Catalog Descriptions.

All of it.  EVERY F-ING THING.

Then, ask yourself this:  If I had to manage 50,000 of EACH of these things, what would make it easier to filter out and find things by logical grouping?

• By type or category (desktop, laptop, high-end vs cheap-crap, servers, physical vs. virtual)
• By organizational entity (department, division, group, sector, team, project, etc.)
• By security role (admins, users, special roles, etc.)

You might laugh this off or smirk, but om-f-ing-g:  this comes back to bite the living shit out of more people than I can count.  If I had a dollar for every time I've heard an SE, SA or whatever say "damn.  I wish I would have named this stuff like ____." I would be retired and living on a tropical island.  My own island.  With my own castle and airplane and an armada of jetski's to go with it.

Just do it.