Considerable numbers of engineers imbue hostnames with meaning. This is especially true for classically trained engineers. A 'traditional' engineer will come up with a naming pattern like: P = production. DV = DeltaV HIST01 = Historian Zero one. for a 'complete' hostname of PDVHIST01 and this is only a short example. I think that many engineers feel that they are following in the footsteps of great naming ideas, such as ISA 5 or KKS (Kraftwerk Kennzeichnen System, a naming convention for instrumentation in power plants in Germany), but computer systems aren't quite like that. Computer systems get replaced, and are a lot more complicated than a field instrument to make changes on. They're not outputting a single signal over an analog loop that is well characterized by a loop diagram. Many projects I have observed have faced significant delays due to adjustment of naming conventions. Additionally, the fully qualified domain name also usually repeats portions of this information, such as PRD for production, TST for TEST or DEV for development. Trying to cram everything into a hostname is silly. https://serverfault.com/questions/437143/is-there-a-practical-server-host-naming-convention There's a broad swath of literature available to help prevent making these mistakes. There are also a lot of 'smart' people who have spent very little time thinking about this because they have been building things instead. Trouble is, the engineers putting things together are just the first step in the process. After I build a DCS, there are 1,000 users who need to use that system to make the drugs, or pump the gas, or make the chemical. If I, as a designer, make a complicated name that contains everything, with each 'field' within the name containing variable length elements, it usually just ends up looking like PVPRDDVPSPPS. Worse, the fully qualified domain name probably looks like PVPRDDVPSPPV.PVPRDVWRS.DELTAV.LOCAL. That ugly thing means that people are less likely to use it appropriately. Users will attempt to use only the hostname. Good engineers are not just technical. They are looking at delivering the whole event, not just play-by-play. Good engineers will guide you towards appropriate naming conventions. Good naming conventions are those that match up human abilities with the system being controlled to make it easy for people to learn how to use the system appropriately. See Also: [[Books I've Read]]