[nycbug-talk] Sanity check on new naming scheme

[Matt Juszczak]

> One possible problem with that approach would be applications that try to 
> reach machines by name. If a machine is repurposed and you did not use CNAMES 
> or forgot to repoint a CNAME you could have programs reach a  machine that is 
> no longer doing what the program expects. Example: You have some type of 
> "inbox" machine that gets data through FTP from process X. Target machine for 
> process X is re-purposed, but it also accepts FTP with the same 
> user/password. Now  process X is silently broken because the sender is 
> succeding on FTPing, but whatever was supposed to process the incoming files 
> is looking somewhere else.
>
> I guess that with the proper change management any method will work.
> I think on a company with weak change management it may be easier to have 
> something fail when a machine is repurposed and renamed.

That's why you make the boxes generic - so people never really use the 
hostnames for functionality.  If I have a box called 
"bob.bos01.domain.net", that should only ever be used as a maintenance 
hostname, never as a service hostname.