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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My only currently active machine is a laptop named buttwarmer as per my cat’s suggestion.
I call them after what service is running on it. E.g. openvpn.
My devices are cringely named after songs in Haken’s discography.
Desktop is MESSIAH. Laptop is AFFINITY. Phone is NIGHTINGALE. Steam Deck is SHAPESHIFTER. Router (and its WAP) is PORTALS. My NAS is the only one that falls outside of this, it’s generically (last name)NetNAS. I should rename it, but I don’t want to break anything 😅
Eta: changed my NAS’ hostname is ARCHITECT. Nothing broke! Yay for me.
This is my favorite of the thread.
You can even call one Host, haha.
Shit, you’re right!
All my personal devices are named “AHE”+n. So the abbreviation for “at heart engineer”+ a letter signifying the device. So my phone is “AHEM”, my laptop is “AHEL”, my desktop is “aheo” (O for office), my server is “ahes”.
Not gonna lie before I read your handle I thought these were all named after ways of passively-aggressively clearing your throat. 😂
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’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.
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?
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.
I named my old white bitfenix prodigy m “Baymax” because it was white and had rounded edges.
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.
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.
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 use Roman gods. Juno, Jupiter, Pluto, etc. I have a beelink minipc that I named Mellona, the Roman goddess of honey 😆
I use Egyptian gods!
I have been using Uranus moons for all my devices.