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Summary
This standard defines how to name infrastructure, services, and end-user devices so they’re easy to identify, search, support, and audit. The goal is predictable names that carry just enough meaning without becoming a novel.
Reading List
Purpose
Provide a single, testable naming convention for all digital systems to improve operability, triage, reduce mistakes, and support governance including inventory, audit, compliance.
Scope
In scope
- Servers (physical/virtual), hypervisors, cloud instances
- Cluster nodes (Kubernetes/Swarm, database clusters, etc.)
- Networked services and service endpoints
- Infrastructure resources that surface names externally (DNS, monitoring, CMDB)
- End-user devices (desktops/laptops), if they’re managed and inventoried
- Self hosted services
Out of scope
- Human display names (e.g., “Finance API”) unless they map to an underlying system ID
- One-off lab experiments that never leave a sandbox (unless they touch shared DNS/monitoring)
- Third-party managed SaaS where naming is not under internal control
Environments included
- lab, demo, dev, test, stage, prod (minimum: prod and non-prod)
Statements
General Rules
- MUST use a single canonical naming pattern for hostnames and DNS records as defined below.
- MUST use only allowed characters:
- A-Z, 0-9, and – (Hypen)
- _ (Underscores) should not be used, and are defined for a different purpose.
- MUST keep the left-most hostname label within the 15 character limit for NetBIOS compatability
- MUST be unique within its relevant namespace
Canonical FQDN
- MUST follow
- [HostProvider] as A
- [SystemDomain] as B
- [Country] as C
- [City/Town] as D
- [Service] as E
- [Iteration] as 0
- [Environment] as F
- [Domain] as G
- [TLD] as H
- [HostProvider]-[SystemDomain]-[Country]-[City]-[Service][Iteration].[Environment].[Domain].[tld]
- AA-BB-CC-DD-E0.FFFF.GGGGGGGGGG.HHHH
Example:
HZ-SD-DE-FSN-H1.PROD.SYSTEMDOMAIN.INTERNAL
Definitions & Constraints
- HostProvider MUST be a short, fixed 1-2 char.
- SystemDomain MUST be a short 1-2 char code representing the owning platform
- Country MUST use the UN/LOCODE country code 2 char
- Town/City MUST use the UN/LOCODE location code, typically 2-3 char
- Service MUST be a short mnemonic 1-3 char
- Iteration MUST be a small integer or hex value 0-9, A-F.
- Environment MUST be one of the approved values
- LAB
- DEV
- TEST
- STAGE
- PROD
- Domain & TLD MUST be one of the owned public/private DNS zones.
End-user devices
Devices that are just a number, and not prefixed by a A-Z character are only permitted if:
- They are managed in an inventory systen that clearly defines the type and owner
- There is no collision with any other namespace
- The device number is directly associated with a end-user device.
- 0-499 being desktops
- 500-999 being laptops
Rationale
- Operability: Names encode the minimum details needed for on-call and support
- Auditability: Consistent naming supports inventory, access reviews, incident timelines, and asset lifecycle.
- Error reduction: Predictable patterns reduce mis-targeting
- Compatibility: The 15-character host label limit supports legacy Windows/NetBIOS constraints where applicable.
- Human factors: Hyphens are “a worthy sacrifice” for readability
Implementation Guidance
| Code | Provider | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| HZ | Hetzner | Hosting provider |
| AZ | Amazon Web Services | Cloud provider |
| MS | Microsoft Azure | Cloud provider |
| GC | Google Cloud Platform | Cloud provider |
| OP | On-prem | Internal / datacentre |
| Code | System domain | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| C1 | Company 1 | |
| C2 | Company 2 | |
| C3 | Company 3 | |
| C4 | Company 4 |
| Code | Service type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| S | SQL/DB | Presumed SQL-based database engine, but is equally open to Postgres, Mongo, etc. |
| D | Docker | Docker Nodes |
| M | Generic Multi Purpose Member | |
| R | Routing/VPN/RRAS | Routing & Remote Access, VPN, etc. |
| W | Web | web frontends/reverse proxies |
| Code | Environment | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| lab | Lab | experiments/sandbox |
| dev | Development | active dev |
| test | Test | functional/QA testing |
| stage | Staging | pre-production |
| prod | Production | live |
Exceptions
Exceptions are allowed, but they must be deliberate and clearly declared.
Compliance & Verification
- Regex-based checks per naming class
- FQDN pattern for hosts/services
- Numeric-only device pattern with range validation
Roles & Responsibilities
- Owner: Platform/Ops
- Approvers: Team-Lead
- Implementers: Engineers creating infrastructure, services, devices
Revision History
| Version | Date | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | 2026-02-18 | Initial |