We're setting up two clusters. One dev and one prod. The Production will host two SQL instances - a OLTP and a DW.

The development will host 4 OLTP non-production environments and at least one DW non-production. We're working on getting more DW non-prods and possibly more OLTP systems.

I'm considering a naming scheme like this, where PROJ would be 3 initials for the project name.

Dev Cluster

• MSSQLPROJD1\D1 (DEV)
• MSSQLPROJD2\D2 (TEST)
• MSSQLPROJD3\D3 (QA)
• MSSQLPROJD4\D4 (STAGE)
• MSSQLPROJD5\D5 (DW)

Prd Cluster

• MSSQLPROJP1\P1 (PRD)
• MSSQLPROJP2\P2 (DW)

To the left of the slash, each name must be unique network wide. On each server, the instance name, to the right of the slash, must be unique.

Any thoughts on this? I'm trying to avoid having instance names drifting from reality as the project progresses - say we change what we call a certain environment or want to repurpose one. Then we can update a listing of the purposes for the instances and be done with it.

How has a scheme like this worked out for you? Maybe you do things another way in your shop - tell me about it.

Thanks.