Gary Varga (5/22/2015)
Eric M Russell (5/22/2015)
Gary Varga (5/22/2015)
Eric M Russell (5/22/2015)
T_Peters (5/21/2015)
I've run into various naming conventions that have caused problems over the years. One of my favorites was naming printers after the 7 Snow White dwarfs. It was a bit limited for growth. I've also seen different conventions for physical vs virtual servers. That went to hell when we went through a big P2V project.Now, when it comes to naming networked printers, I do think that the name should include location along with model.
For example:
"ATL_HPLJP400_FL03CR12"
Atlanta office, HP LaserJet Pro 400 printer, conference room 12 on the 3rd floor.
And when the printer moves with a team?
The same problem still applies. Often printers are assigned to teams or departments so move with the team/department. I have seen this occur within the last 12 months.
STOP WITH THESE VARIANTS OF HUNGARIAN NOTATION!!!1
It is these codified values that are subject to change which will become outdated and inevitably waste time and cause confusion.
1 We have gone through this argument with naming in code so why is it not seen for what it is in naming in general. After all, in general, we tend to be great at concepts and abstractions.
When the printer moves between teams and floors, then my suggestions is that the name the printer change to reflect the new location. We're talking here about a printer, a device that spits out reams of paper. For obvious reasons, users care about sending their print job to a specific printer, like whatever printer sits outside conference room 3, so they can grab their report off the tray before walking into the meeting. If the printer moves, or another team acquires it, then we don't want to send out print jobs to another stange location.
Unlike a printer, users don't care where the database server is physically located.
Think how problematic it would be if someone in HR printed off some senitive documents, they walk around the corner to pull it off the tray, only to discover that the printer is missing. Hours later, after making several phone calls, they finally learn that they printer was moved to IT department in a remote office. So, if the printer moves to a new location or team, then please change the name of the printer.
For obvious reasons, people just expect their team printer just to work. Move the team with the printer and rename the printer then everyone has to add a printer and set it as the default. Maintenance nightmare.
People don't care what printer they are printing to but expect it just to work. Is the printer for the location or for the team? This matters.
I guess it depends on policy.
😛
Yes it is a maintenance nightmare when printers are swapped around and relocated to other offices. When someone prints out a document, they expect it to print from a specific location, like the printer around the corner. They don't have an affinity for a specific printer, it's the physical location they care about.
Perhaps if the printer was named something like 'Atlanta - 3rd Floor - Room 212', but it doesn't have an affinity for any specific model of printer. When printers are upgraded or rotated around between teams, the name in Active Directory points to a different device sitting in the same physical location. Personally I don't care what model printer sits outside the conference room, I just want my print job to end up at that location.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho