Define your naming convention

A good name for a resource helps you to quickly identify its type, its associated workload, its environment, and the Azure region where it runs. To do so, names should follow a consistent format—a naming convention—that is composed of important information about each resource. The information in the names ideally includes whatever you need to identify specific instances of resources. For example, a public IP address (PIP) for a production SharePoint workload in the West US region might be pip-sharepoint-prod-westus-001.

Diagram 1: Components of an Azure resource name.

Recommended naming components

When you construct your naming convention, identify the key pieces of information that you want to capture in a resource name. Different information is relevant for different resource types, and not all established naming components can be used for each resource type. Establish a standard naming convention for your environment that is easy to follow, concise, and useful for recognizing information that's relevant to the deployed resource.

The following list provides examples of naming components that are useful when you construct resource names:

Naming component	Description
Organization	Top-level name of the organization, normally utilized as the top management group or, in smaller organizations, part of the naming convention. Example: contoso
Business unit or department	Top-level division of your company that owns the subscription or the workload that the resource belongs to. In smaller organizations, this component might represent a single corporate, top-level organizational element. Examples: fin, mktg, product, it, corp
Resource type	An abbreviation that represents the type of Azure resource or asset. This component is often a prefix or suffix in the name. For more information, see Recommended abbreviations for Azure resource types. Examples: rg, vm
Project, application, or service name	Name of a project, application, or service that the resource is a part of. Examples: navigator, emissions, sharepoint, hadoop
Environment	The stage of the development lifecycle for the workload that the resource supports. Examples: prod, dev, qa, stage, test
Location	The region or cloud provider where the resource is deployed. Examples: westus, eastus2, westeu, usva, ustx
VM role	Identifier of the purpose of the VM. Examples: db (database), ws (web server), ps (print server)
Instance	The instance count for a specific resource, to differentiate it from other resources that have the same naming convention and naming components. Examples, 01, 001

Note

Although virtual machine (VM) names in Azure can be longer than the allowed NetBIOS name of the VM, we recommend that you keep them consistent. For more information and for other restrictions, see Computer names.

Naming considerations

In addition to defining the naming components, you must also consider the order in which the naming components are listed and what type of delimiters (if any) should appear between components. Also take into account the different naming rules that are associated with resources types.

Scope

All Azure resource types have a scope that defines the level of that resource. Also, A resource must have a unique name within its scope.

For example, a virtual network has the scope of a resource group, which means that there can be only one network named vnet-prod-westus-001 in a specific resource group. Other resource groups can also have virtual networks named vnet-prod-westus-001, but each resource group can have only one with that name. Subnets are scoped to virtual networks, so each subnet within a virtual network must have a distinct name.

Some resource names have a global scope, such as a name for a Platform as a Service (PaaS) that has a public endpoint or a virtual machine DNS label. A resource in a global scope must have a name that's unique across the entire Azure platform.

Diagram 2: Scope levels for Azure resource names.

Azure naming rules

Azure naming rules vary depending on the resource type. When you define a naming convention, it's important to understand Azure naming rules for the resource type to avoid confusion and delay deployments.

For example, resource names have length limits. We recommend that you keep the length of naming components short to prevent exceeding resource name length limits.

Note

Balancing the context of a name with its scope and length limit is important when you develop your naming conventions. For more information, see Naming rules and restrictions for Azure resources.

When you construct your naming convention, identify the key pieces of information that you want to reflect in a resource name. Different information is relevant for different resource types. The following list provides examples of information that are useful when you construct resource names.

You can abbreviate resource names and naming components as a strategy to reduce the length and complexity of resource names. Shortening names can be useful for any of the naming components, but it's especially important to help you keep resource names within name length limits. For example, a VM name in Azure can be longer than the OS naming restrictions. Keeping Azure VM names shorter than the naming restrictions of the OS helps create consistency, improve communication when discussing resources, and reduce confusion when you're working in the Azure portal while being signed in to the VM itself.

Naming component	Description
Resource type	An abbreviation that represents the type of Azure resource or asset. This component is often used as a prefix or suffix in the name. For more information, see Recommended abbreviations for Azure resource types. Examples: rg, vm
Business unit	Top-level division of your company that owns the subscription or workload the resource belongs to. In smaller organizations, this component might represent a single corporate top-level organizational element. Examples: fin, mktg, product, it, corp
Application or service name	Name of the application, workload, or service that the resource is a part of. Examples: navigator, emissions, sharepoint, hadoop
Subscription purpose	Summary description of the purpose of the subscription that contains the resource. Often broken down by environment or specific workloads. Examples: prod, shared, client
Environment	The stage of the development lifecycle for the workload that the resource supports. Examples: prod, dev, qa, stage, test
Region	The Azure region where the resource is deployed. Examples: westus, eastus2, westeu, usva, ustx

Note

When you're ready to name your resources and assets, review Recommended abbreviations for Azure resource types.

The following section provides example names for common Azure resource types in an enterprise cloud deployment.

Note

Some of these example names use a three-digit padding scheme (###), such as mktg-prod-001.

Padding improves readability and sorting of assets when those assets are managed in a configuration management database (CMDB), IT Asset Management tool, or traditional accounting tools. When the deployed asset is managed centrally as part of a larger inventory or portfolio of IT assets, the padding approach aligns with interfaces those systems use to manage inventory naming.

Unfortunately, the traditional asset padding approach can prove problematic in infrastructure-as-code approaches that might iterate through assets based on a non-padded number. This approach is common during deployment or automated configuration management tasks. Those scripts would have to routinely strip the padding and convert the padded number to a real number, which slows script development and run time.

Choose an approach that's suitable for your organization. The padding shown here illustrates the importance of using a consistent approach to inventory numbering, rather than showing which approach is superior. Before choosing a numbering scheme, with or without padding, evaluate what will affect long-term operations more: CMDB and asset management solutions or code-based inventory management. Then, consistently follow the padding option that best fits your operational needs.

The following section provides some example names for common Azure resource types in an enterprise cloud deployment. For more examples, see the Azure Naming Tool and the Naming and tagging tracking template.

Note

The following examples are intended to provide visualization of a naming convention, but actual conventions vary by organization.

Example names: General

Asset type	Scope	Format and examples
Management group	Business unit and/or environment	mg-<business unit>[-<environment>] mg-mktg mg-hr mg-corp-prod mg-fin-client
Subscription	Account / enterprise agreement	<business unit>-<subscription purpose>-<###> mktg-prod-001 corp-shared-001 fin-client-001
Resource group	Subscription	rg-<app or service name>-<subscription purpose>-<###> rg-mktgsharepoint-prod-001 rg-acctlookupsvc-shared-001 rg-ad-dir-services-shared-001
API management service instance	Global	apim-<app or service name> apim-navigator-prod
Managed identity	Resource group	id-<app or service name>-<environment>-<region name>-<###> id-appcn-keda-prod-eastus2-001

Example names: Networking

Asset type	Scope	Format and examples
Virtual network	Resource group	vnet-<subscription purpose>-<region>-<###> vnet-shared-eastus2-001 vnet-prod-westus-001 vnet-client-eastus2-001
Subnet	Virtual network	snet-<subscription purpose>-<region>-<###> snet-shared-eastus2-001 snet-prod-westus-001 snet-client-eastus2-001
Network interface (NIC)	Resource group	nic-<##>-<vm name>-<subscription purpose>-<###> nic-01-dc1-shared-001 nic-02-vmhadoop1-prod-001 nic-02-vmtest1-client-001
Public IP address	Resource group	pip-<vm name or app name>-<environment>-<region>-<###> pip-dc1-shared-eastus2-001 pip-hadoop-prod-westus-001
Load balancer (external)	Resource group	lbe-<app name or role>-<environment>-<###> lbe-navigator-prod-001 lbe-sharepoint-dev-001
Network security group (NSG)	Subnet or NIC	nsg-<policy name or app name>-<###> nsg-weballow-001 nsg-rdpallow-001 nsg-sqlallow-001 nsg-dnsblocked-001
Local network gateway	Virtual gateway	lgw-<subscription purpose>-<region>-<###> lgw-shared-eastus2-001 lgw-prod-westus-001 lgw-client-eastus2-001
Virtual network gateway	Virtual network	vgw-<subscription purpose>-<region>-<###> vgw-shared-eastus2-001 vgw-prod-westus-001 vgw-client-eastus2-001
VPN connection	Resource group	vcn-<subscription1 purpose>>-<region1>-to-<subscription2 purpose>>-<region2>- vcn-shared-eastus2-to-shared-westus vcn-prod-eastus2-to-prod-westus
Route table	Resource group	rt-<route table name> rt-navigator rt-sharepoint
DNS label	Global	<DNS A record for VM>.<region>.cloudapp.azure.com dc1.westus.cloudapp.azure.com web1.eastus2.cloudapp.azure.com

Example names: Compute and Web

Asset type	Scope	Format and examples
Virtual machine	Resource group	vm-<vm role>-<environment>-<###> vm-sql-test-001 vm-hadoop-prod-001
Web app	Global	app-<project, app or service>-<environment>-<###>.azurewebsites.net app-navigator-prod-001.azurewebsites.net app-accountlookup-dev-001.azurewebsites.net
Function app	Global	func-<project, app or service>-<environment>-<###>.azurewebsites.net func-navigator-prod-001.azurewebsites.net func-accountlookup-dev-001.azurewebsites.net

Example names: Databases

Asset type	Scope	Format and examples
Azure SQL database	Azure SQL Server	sqldb-<project, app or service>-<environment> sqldb-users-prod sqldb-users-dev
Azure Cosmos DB database	Global	cosmos-<project, app or service>-<environment> cosmos-navigator-prod cosmos-emissions-dev
Azure Cache for Redis instance	Global	redis-<project, app or service>-<environment> redis-navigator-prod redis-emissions-dev

Example names: Storage

Asset type	Scope	Format and examples
Storage account (general use)	Global	st<project, app or service><###> stnavigatordata001 stemissionsoutput001
Azure StorSimple	Global	ssimp<project, app or service><environment> ssimpnavigatorprod ssimpemissionsdev
Azure Container Registry	Global	cr<project, app or service><environment><###> crnavigatorprod001

Example names: AI and machine learning

Asset type	Scope	Format and examples
Azure AI Search	Global	srch-<project, app or service>-<environment> srch-navigator-prod srch-emissions-dev
Azure OpenAI Service	Resource group	oai-<project, app or service>-<environment> oai-navigator-prod oai-emissions-dev
Azure Machine Learning workspace	Resource group	mlw-<project, app or service>-<environment> mlw-navigator-prod mlw-emissions-dev

Example names: Analytics and IoT

Asset type	Scope	Format and examples
Azure Analysis Services	Global	as<app name><environment> asnavigatorprod asemissionsdev
Azure Data Factory	Global	adf-<project, app or service>-<environment> adf-navigator-prod adf-emissions-dev
Azure Synapse Analytics workspaces	Resource group	synw-<project, app or service>-<environment> synw-navigator-prod synw-emissions-dev
Data Lake Storage account	Global	dls<project, app or service><environment> dlsnavigatorprod dlsemissionsdev
IoT hub	Global	iot-<project, app or service>-<environment> iot-navigator-prod iot-emissions-dev

Example names: Integration

Asset type	Scope	Format and Examples
Service Bus namespace	Global	sbns-<project, app or service>-<environment>.servicebus.windows.net sbns-navigator-prod.servicebus.windows.net sbns-emissions-dev.servicebus.windows.net
Service Bus queue	Service Bus	sbq-<project, app or service> sbq-navigator
Service Bus topic	Service Bus	sbt-<project, app or service> sbt-navigator