I created a VM, later added some storage, added a network, etc ....

A month later I'm having trouble knowing which components are actually associated with my VM? (In the future I think I will need to create a "parts" naming convention such as VMGold, VMGoldStorage, VMGoldNetwork.)

Can you suggest a better way to track al the VM pieces

TIA,

edm2

• Edited by edm2 Wednesday, July 15, 2015 2:02 AM edit

Hi,

3.1 - Naming Conventions

A good naming convention should be in place before creating any artifact in an azure account. A naming convention ensures that all the resources will have a predictable name, which helps lower the administrative burden associated with management of those resources.

Each customer may choose to follow a specific set of naming conventions defined for the customer as a whole, for a particular Azure account, or for an Azure subscription.

It is easy for individuals to establish implicit rules when working with Azure resources. However, when a team needs to work on a project on Azure, that model does not scale well.

The important point is that the customers agree upon the set of naming conventions up front.

3.1.1 - General Considerations

There are some considerations regarding naming conventions that cut across the sets of rules that make up those conventions. The following sections describe these considerations.

3.1.1.1 - Affixes

When creating certain resources, Microsoft Azure will use some defaults to simplify management of the resources associated to these resources. For instance, when creating the first virtual machine for a new cloud service, Azure will suggest using the virtual machines name as the name for the cloud service.

Although this will not present problems, it may be beneficial to identify types of resources that need an affix to identify that type. In addition, clearly specify whether the affix will be at the beginning of the name (prefix) or at the end (suffix).

For instance, here are two possible names for a service hosting a calculation engine:

•          SvcCalculationEngine (prefix)
•          CalculationEngineSvc (suffix)

Affixes can refer to different aspects that describe the particular resources. The following table shows some examples typically used.

        

Aspect	Example	Notes
Environment	dev,   stg, prod	Depending   on the purpose and name of each environment.
Location	uw   (US West), ue (US East)	Depending   on the region of the datacenter or the region of the intended audience.
Instance	01,   02	For   resources that may have more than one instance. For example, load balanced   web servers in a cloud service.
Product	ce   (for CalculationEngine)	Depending   on the product for which the resource provides support.
Role	sql, ex, ora, sp, iis	Depending   on the role of the associated VM.

Make sure that the naming conventions clearly state which affixes to use for each type of resource, and in which position (prefix vs suffix).

3.1.1.2 - Dates

Many times, it is important to determine from the name of an resource, the date of creation. We recommend specifying dates in the YYYYMMDD format. This format ensures that not only the full date is recorded, but also that two resources whose names differ only on the date will be sorted alphabetically and chronologically at the same time.

3.1.2 - Naming Resources

Customers must define each type of resource in the naming convention, which should have rules that define how to assign names to each resource created. These rules should apply to all types of resources, for instance:

•          Accounts
•          Subscriptions
•          Affinity Groups
•          Storage Accounts
•          Virtual Networks
•          Subnets
•          Availability Sets
•          Cloud Services
•          Virtual Machines
•          Endpoints
•          Roles
•          Etc.

3.1.2.1 Descriptive Names

Names should be as descriptive as possible, to ensure that the name can provide enough information to determine to which resource it refers.

3.1.3 - Computer Names

When administrators create a virtual machine from the gallery, Microsoft Azure will require them to provide a virtual machine name. Microsoft Azure will use the virtual machine name as the Azure virtual machine resource name. Azure will use the same name as the computer name for the operating system installed in the virtual machine. However, these names may not always be the same. In cases in which a virtual machine is created from a .vhd file that already contains an operating system, the virtual machine name in Microsoft Azure may differ from the virtual machines OS computer name. This situation may add a degree of difficulty to virtual machine management and we discourage it. Always ensure that the Azure virtual machine resource name is the same name as the computer name as assigned to the operating system of that virtual machine.

We recommend that the Azure Virtual Machine name be the same as the underlying OS computer name. Because of this, follow the NetBios naming rules as described in this article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/188997.

3.1.4 Storage Account Names

Storage accounts have special rules governing their names. In general, they are lower case names, and the assigned name, concatenated to the service (blob, table, or queue) and the default domain (core.windows.net) should render a valid, unique DNS name. For instance, if the storage account is called mystorageaccount, the following resulting URLs should be valid, unique DNS names^{^[1]}^[1]:

•          mystorageaccount.blob.core.windows.net
•          mystorageaccount.table.core.windows.net
•          mystorageaccount.queue.core.windows.net

In addition, storage accounts may take advantage of containers. These must adhere to the naming conventions as described in Naming and Referencing Containers, Blobs, and Metadata.

Reference:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/thecolorofazure/archive/2014/05/13/azure-implementation-guidelines.aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/azure/dd135715.aspx

Regards,
Nithin Rathnakar

Hi edm2,

I would suggest using resource groups to group resources together. You can then list your resource groups and see what resources belong together.

Of course, a naming convention is always a good idea too.

Regards

Niall Moran

• Proposed as answer by Niall Moran - IrelandMicrosoft employee 9 hours 22 minutes ago

Hi edm2,

I would suggest using resource groups to group resources together. You can then list your resource groups and see what resources belong together.

Of course, a naming convention is always a good idea too.

Regards

Niall Moran

• Proposed as answer by Niall Moran - IrelandMicrosoft employee Wednesday, July 15, 2015 9:56 PM

Very interesting ideas. Thanks....