When we install a new machine, a desktop or a server or a xen guest or something else, one of the first things to decide is what to call it, ie. the hostname.

New hostnames
When setting up a new system, sometimes it’s difficult to come up with a good hostname, at other times they just appear out of nowhere. On this page I am maintaining a collection of hostnames. Some we have already used, some are new, some may never be used.

What qualifies a “good” hostname?
First and foremost a hostname has to be memorable – this makes it easier to associate a particular function with it. Depending on the language used, a hostname should also be easy to pronounce, hence not too long. I prefer two syllables names, but up to three syllables is acceptable too.

Category “City names”
oxford, leningrad, hamburg, newyork, chicago, sydney, dresden, toulouse, marseille, copenhagen, stockholm. cologne, heidelberg
madrid
bremen
london

Uncategorised
frost – “Frost”, a long-running ITV detective-series. DCI = Detective Chief Inspector.
waitrose – a UK supermarket chain
dartmoor
exmoor
camus
sherlock
watson
nietsche
gaillard
newton
chronicle
journal
baileys
johnny
walker
kepler
davinci
bradbury
bentley
veyron
bugatti
newton
dupont
haddock
tintin
spirou
figaro
gaston
lagaffe
tintin
idefix
majestix
obelix
asterix
hathaway
saopaulo
hobson – Laura Hobson, the pathologist in the TV-series “Lewis”.
greengrass – character in “Heartbeat”, ITV TV-series.
heartbeat
brideshead
vogelsang
hospital
emergency
catscan
elleryqueen
celcius
fahrenheit
wychwood – village in a Miss Marple mystery
theodora
madrid
moriarty
mycroft
sherlock
redheat
midsommer
glasgow
kestrel
redkite
orchid
flieder
elderberry / holunder
eagle
watson
frankfurt
sierra
kiowa
apache
sioux
stuttgart
rotterdam
amsterdam
rosewood
cherrywood
watchmaker
smith
fletcher
tailor
tinker
cobbler
joiner
dentist
psychic
gabriel
debenham
rowntree
hemlock
earlgrey
lipton
pgtips
tetley
guiness
chess
ludo
mozart
kinabalu
nietsche
kierkegaard
salman
rushdie
jensen
hansen
nielsen
rasmussen
hopper (in honour of former USN Rear Admiral Grace Hopper)
turing (in honour of Alan Turing).
deveraux
shorewood
turnbull
northmoor
southmoor
corrigan
tallyho
rotholz
rotkreuz
woodentop
blenheim
carmine
deadwood
chestnut
cherry

It’s been almost 8 years since we moved the datacentre and had a new airconditioning system installed.  Overall it’s been working fine,  but we’re nearing maximum capacity and need to consider upgrading. As it also failed miserably about two weeks ago, and we have some decent winter temperatures (coldest January in 30 years), now seems a good time to look at replacing it.

Things to consider for a new system
– size/capacity
– redundancy
– free cooling
– supplier

Supplier
I was never really happy with our current supplier (no need to name them). Originally, we chose them because they had already installed and maintained an existing cooling system in our buildings, but in retrospect it should have been clear that they had little or no experience with cooling a datacentre, not even small server-rooms. I don’t blame them, it was really our fault by not taking the time to do our research, and solicit a few proposals from different suppliers.
There is plenty of companies who do this type of thing, so for starters I’ve solicited proposals from three of them.

Capacity and redundancy
As Niels Bohr so wisely said “it is to difficult to predict, especially the future”. Trying to decide what we might need in the next 2-3 years is not easy, at all. Our datacenter is not that big, only some 40m2, and there is still plenty of room for expansion. Current power consumption is about 12kW plus the cooling system. The UPS is 15kW for now, but we already have a 30kW model in storage, so I am thinking we should aim for 20-25kW capacity for cooling.
As we’re expecting a new cooling plant anyway, redundancy is also a topic to consider. Essentially redundancy means a double system, so twice the investment.

Free cooling
When the current cooling plant broke down, we hauled out a big fan and installed it in the doorway. It simply draws in cold outside air through two 25cm venting holes, thereby easily maintaining a steady temperature of 15°C (outside -5°C). This has now been cooling the datacentre for about two weeks. It seemed reasonable to look for solutions for cooling with outside air, and after googling a while, I found the expression “free cooling”.
Free cooling devices are more expensive than plain air conditioning devices. At least that is my impression, I have not actually had any proposals yet. Some are very big, intended for large datacentres (100s of m2) with double flooring etc., but some also come in fairly compact sizes, intended for up to 30kW. The general idea is to reduce electricity consumption by utilising the outside temperature until it exceeds the target temperature for the datacentre. I have just today spoken to one possible supplier, it’ll be interesting to see where this leads.