The server naming convention is dead, long live the server naming convention!
Summary: Get rid of conventions that can be cross-referenced from other data sources in a programmatic fashion. Consolidate or present those cross-referenced data points into one pane of glass. Rant: In times old, server's had cool names like Ferrari, Robotech, etc. Although cool, this drove the need for a server naming convention which served useful purpose. It could tell us a good many things about a server just by looking @ its name. Some things could be: Location OS Application Etc. Because of limitations in previous technologies, you had to limit your server name to a certain number of characters (coming from a Windows background). Each of these data points needed to be shortened to acronyms or numbers. This essentially requires a decoder ring for each section of the server name to understand it's hidden meaning. When dealing w/ a small environment, not a big deal, but scalability becomes a problem. Using the examples given above: Location