WebSphere Application Server V7.0: Concepts ... - IBM Redbooks

6.9.6 Naming convention
The purpose for developing systematic naming concepts and rules for a
WebSphere site is two-fold:
► To provide guidance during setup and configuration
► To quickly narrow down the source of any issue that arises
Naming the WebSphere Application Server infrastructure artifacts, such as cells,
nodes, application servers, and so on should follow the company’s normal
naming conventions as far as possible. Some considerations to be taken into
account when developing the key concepts for the site during the installation
planning are as follows:
► Naming profiles
The profile name can be any unique name, but it is a good idea to have a
standard for naming profiles. This will help administrators easily determine a
logical name for a profile when creating it and will help them find the proper
profiles easily after creation. For example, a profile can include characters
that indicate the profile type, server, and an incremental number to distinguish
it from other similar profiles.
Do not use any of the following characters when naming your profile:
– Spaces
– Illegal special characters that are not allowed within the name of a
directory on your operating system (namely, * & ? ‘ “, and so forth)
– Slashes (/ or \)
► Naming cells
A cell represents an administrative domain.
In a stand-alone environment, the cell name is not usually visible to
administrators and a naming convention is not required. The name is
automatically generated during profile creation, and is in the following format:
Cell
The will increment, starting with “01,” with every new node. For
example, server1Node01Cell, server1Node02Cell, and so on.
In a distributed server environment, there are considerations for naming a
cell. A cell name must be unique in any circumstance in which the product is
running on the same physical machine or cluster of machines, such as a
sysplex. Additionally, a cell name must be unique in any circumstance in
which network connectivity between entities is required either between the
cells or from a client that must communicate with each of the cells. Cell
names also must be unique if their name spaces are going to be federated.
220 WebSphere Application Server V7.0: Concepts, Planning, and Design