Managing Attributes and Objects > Attribute Naming Rules
  
Version 10.3.00P13
Attribute Naming Rules
Adhere to the following rules when creating attribute names. Attributes are validated against these rules so that there are no conflicts in the database, such as duplicates or the use of Oracle reserved words.
• Limit the length to 30 characters.
• Begin the name with an alphabetic character.
• Use only ASCII, alpha, numeric, or underscore characters in the name. Spaces and special characters other than underscores are not allowed in attribute names, although they are allowed in the list of values (LOV) for an attribute.
• Names are not case-sensitive.
• Do not use Oracle reserved words. See http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E15817_01/appdev.111/b31231/appb.htm. To list the Oracle reserved words, use this SQLPlus query at the command line:
SQL> SELECT * from v$reserved_words;
• Attribute names within a domain hierarchy must be unique.
Examples of Attributes and Values
Refer to Attribute Naming Rules, About Attributes, and Understanding the Attribute Management View.
 
Table 1 Example Attributes and Attribute Values
Attribute Name
Possible Values
Purpose
Application
SAP
Exchange
Data based on the software application running on the host.
Asset_Tag
0001234
0001235
For asset management purposes, perhaps you want to report on backup servers by asset tag.
Backup_Server
BackupServer1
BackupServer2
You will certainly want to report on backup servers/clients based on the backup server that backs up the backup server/clients’ user data. Backup Server is the most common attribute, which is why the Portal creates a default group to represent this characteristic.
Business_Unit
Marketing
Accounting
Backup servers/hosts often contain backups of data owned by users from specific business groups (for example, Marketing).
CPU
Opteron
UltraSPARC
If you need to know how your backups are performing on your backup servers with specific CPUs, simply run reports based on this attribute.
Location
 
Americas
Asia
If you are responsible for hosts in a region, you can select a scope for your region. It may make sense to set up host groups by geographical location or, as an alternative, create an attribute to group hosts by location.
Country_Code
004
248
You can be very specific about the location of hosts that you have spread throughout the world.
Host_Type
Production
Test Server
This attribute can represent production vs. test machines. Data on production systems is critical to your business. Test data is important, too, but you might want to know how data is being produced on your production systems particularly.
SysAdmin
Alix
Emily
Hosts are managed by this person.
OS
Linux
Windows
Mac
If you need to roll out patches for a particular operating system, you can quickly determine when the user data on those hosts will be backed up. Your values can be general or specific (for example, Solaris 10).