Hi fellow selfhosters!
What hostnames do you use for your systems and services?
And maybe why if it’s an interesting story.
I’ll start:
Steam Deck: krax
Smartphone: krix (once I get LineageOS installed again)
MiniPC: krux
Reserved for future use: krex & krox
Creative, I know. 😅 The names have no deeper meaning. The x comes from Linux. That’s it.
I know some of you use god names of certain pantheons, such as Thor. But I find that boring as a lot of people are doing that.
Now let your pants down and tell me all about
your embarrassing host names!
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All my hostnames are after Zen Buddhist concepts, like shikaku, hongaku, mushin, wuwei, jiyu, etc. My printer is the only thing that breaks this trend, it is named pos
Why not Saṃsāra? Or maybe it’s Rin’ne in Japanese?
I have been saving that one for when I get a framework laptop
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…
All of mine are animals, chosen similar to their functions (ie my 2-in-1 is “weasel”, my Chimera VM buildhost is a busy/hard-working “beaver” (busy “bumblebee” was taken by my old Gentoo binhost VM), “orca” is my media server (big black PC case), “bluejay” is my rpi (tiny, in a blue TARDIS case), etc.
It’s fun! (I have too many computers.)
Backup: VEEAM01
DC: DC1
VM for taxes and other stuff I don’t want on my main pc: ZAHLNIX01 (tl: not paying anything)
NAS01: My NAS file share VM
TEST01: Testing VM
Appoxo-PC2: My main PC (as it’s mark 2)
Proxmox host: PVE2 (I planned a cluster but have no other nuc to use in the cluster)
NAS: Current jellyfin and main docker host
PiNAS02: My Raspberry Pi 4As you see: Very creative.
I named my old white bitfenix prodigy m “Baymax” because it was white and had rounded edges.
My server is still called driveway because the install originated in an HP laptop a customer ran over with their car. Motherboard still worked though!
Server (big iron): Bender
Desktop (main character): Fry
Laptop (for accounting): Hermes
Netbook (small and dumb): Nibbler
Phone (held to my head): BrainSlug
HTPC (one big viewport): Leela
This is my scheme as well! Pretty much to the t. Except my HTPC is hypnotoad and nibbler is my NAS.
OMG Hypnotoad HTPC is so much better! Why didn’t I thnnk of that?
I’ve gone through lots of themes. These days it’s mostly where things are or what they are for. Topshelf, closet, code lives on monkey, work laptop is named work. I’ve had more fun themes but the novelty wore off.
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.
You had me digging through old hosts files and ssh configs to find some of these.
I try to name them something that resembles what they do or has something to do with what their purpose is.
Short is good, and if it can match more than one of the machine’s purpose/os/software/look, the better.
If it’s some sort of personal machine, it gets a personal name
Phones
- traveller
- pawn
- rook
- bishop
Virtual Workstations
-
boxy
-
moxy
-
sandbox
-
cloud
-
ship lxc container host
-
dock docker host
Laptops
- ciel Razer blade stealth with a rainbow LED keyboard
- arc runs arch.
- lled is a dell
Desktops
- bench
- citadel
- bastion
Huh. I thought for sure someone else would be using my scheme.
LAN computers are all Tolkien swords: sting, orcrist, gurthang, glamdring, etc. If I run out of swords, I’ll start adding other weapons: aeglost, the spear; dailir, the arrow. We don’t get a lot of named battle axes, which I always thought weird; I’d think dwarves of all people would forge legendary axes, and certainly name them.
My WiFi and VPN networks are forests in Middle Earth: fangorn, bindbole, dimholt, lothlorien, etc. The only exception is my LAN itself which is… “lan”. Because short.
My cloud VPSes are named after Greek Titans: hyperion, phaethusa, tethys, etc.
Mobile devices have whatever names they come with, because they’re so ephemeral.
In the past, I used Gimli’s family tree for server names. My main server was called “Thorin”. I think I had used Thrain and Gloin.
These days I use Union generals from the civil war:
Sherman - NAS, media server, nextcloud. Thomas - reverse proxy, adguard1. Ellsworth - arr stack. Sheridan - backup server. dockerhost01 - because naming your servers after their function makes a lot more sense.
In the past, I used Gimli’s family tree for server names.
Oh, that’s good.
Middle Earth is a great source for this stuff, b/c Tolkien filled out the world like a historian.
I like your schema. I’ve used something similar. My hosts have always been sci-fi space/time ships/stations, user accounts are characters from or Captain’s of said vessels. Over the years I’ve had a TARDIS, Serenity, Moya, Out of Bands II, Galactica, Millennium Falcon, Rocinante, etc. It’s usually whatever I happen to be discovering or binging at the time I setup the machine. For nearly a decade the TARDIS was my server/NAS because it was bigger on the inside that survived through several generations of smaller devices like laptops and raspberry Pi’s named after smaller lighter vessels like Serenity and Rocinante.
Thanks! I’ve learned in jobs over the years that there are two good ways to choose names:
- Descriptive acronyms: AppDev01Loc01. They’re useful in business and large teams, and dull as shit. But practical.
- Mythos with a lot of variation. Characters from your favorite novel is usually bad, because you quickly run out of names. Mythos are usually good, dinosaurs… anything with a lot of variation.
“Sci fi starships” is a great one! Lots of source material there; the categories basically fall out by themselves. That’s a great choice.
Places in video games is one option for me especially in cluster setups. EG cluster Tamriel has nodes Morrowind, Skyrim, Oblivion, etc.
“Have you been to the cloud
districtlately? Oh what am I saying, of course you haven’t!”
I tend to use the names of angels for my personal devices (which surprisingly was inspired by this and not NGE)
For laptops I tend to use demons instead, just seems to fit better (which actually was inspired by Gundam IBO but this is the list)
For example:
- desktop (Linux side) is Raziel
- desktop (windows side 😩) is Azrael
- main laptop is Gusion
- eBay Thinkpad is Barbatos
I use characters from Haikyu and Thor.
I have asahi, hinata, daichi and heimdal running.
