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+# Identifiers and Names in Kubernetes
+
+A summarization of the goals and recommendations for identifiers and names in Kubernetes.  Described in [GitHub issue #199](https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/issues/199).
+
+## Definitions
+
+identifier
+: an opaque machine generated value guaranteed to be unique in a certain space
+
+name
+: a human readable string intended to help an end user distinguish between similar but distinct entities
+
+[rfc1035](http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1035.txt)/[rfc1123](http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1123.txt) label (DNS_LABEL)
+: An alphanumeric (a-z, A-Z, and 0-9) string less than 64 characters, with the '-' character allowed anywhere except the first or last character, suitable for use as a hostname or segment in a domain name.
+
+[rfc1035](http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1035.txt)/[rfc1123](http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1123.txt) subdomain (DNS_SUBDOMAIN)
+: One or more rfc1035/rfc1123 labels separated by '.' with a maximum length of 255 characters
+
+namespace string (NAMESPACE)
+: An rfc1035/rfc1123 subdomain no longer than 191 characters (255-63-1)
+
+source namespace string
+: The namespace string of a source of pod definitions on a host
+
+[rfc4122](http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4122.txt) universally unique identifier (UUID)
+: A 128 bit generated value that is extremely unilkely to collide across time and space and requires no central coordination
+
+pod unique name
+: the combination of a pod's source namespace string and name string on a host
+
+pod unique identifier
+: the identifier associated with a single execution of a pod on a host, which changes on each restart.  Must be a UUID
+
+
+## Objectives for names and identifiers
+
+1) Uniquely identify an instance of a pod on the apiserver and on the kubelet
+
+2) Uniquely identify an instance of a container within a pod on the apiserver and on the kubelet
+
+3) Uniquely identify a single execution of a container in time for logging or reporting
+
+4) The structure of a pod specification should stay largely the same throughout the entire system
+
+5) Provide human-friendly, memorable, semantically meaningful, short-ish references in container and pod operations
+
+6) Provide predictable container and pod references in operations and/or configuration files
+
+7) Allow idempotent creation of API resources (#148)
+
+8) Allow DNS names to be automatically generated for individual containers or pods (#146)
+
+
+## Implications
+
+1) Each container name within a container manifest must be unique within that manifest
+
+2) Each pod instance on the apiserver must have a unique identifier across space and time (UUID)
+   1) The apiserver may set this identifier if not specified by a client
+   2) This identifier will persist even if moved across hosts
+
+3) Each pod instance on the apiserver must have a name string which is human-friendly, dns-friendly (DNS_LABEL), and unique in the apiserver space
+   1) The apiserver may set this name string if not specified by a client
+
+4) Each apiserver must have a configured namespace string (NAMESPACE) that is unique across all apiservers that share its configured minions
+
+5) Each source of pod configuration to a kubelet must have a source namespace string (NAMESPACE) that is unique across all sources available to that kubelet
+
+6) All pod instances on a host must have a name string which is human-friendly, dns-friendly, and unique per namespace string (DNS_LABEL)
+
+7) The combination of the name string and source namespace string on a kubelet must be unique and is referred to as the pod unique name
+
+8) When starting an instance of a pod on a kubelet the first time, a new pod unique identifier (UUID) should be assigned to that pod instance
+   1) If that pod is restarted, it must retain the pod unique identifier it previously had
+   2) If the pod is stopped and a new instance with the same pod unique name is started, it must be assigned a new pod unique identifier
+
+9) The kubelet should use the pod unique name and pod unique identifier to produce a Docker container name (--name)
+