I like to think of everything as ephemeral. You can always write software for a new box to "fill in" holes when systems are replaced. I like this because it helps me when I assign roles or node based redundancy to my boxes.
Yeah, the tokenized strategy is kinda going after the ephemeral nature of the boxes, which is why I like it. Do you use the numbered approach?
Yes. Numbered approach, which I like because I can pack data in. So for instance: dbserver_01_n01. Which is the first node of the first db server. I have servers that are mostly used in read only and others which are write only. But their roles switch. We do all of the writing (not users), so it makes sense to split the namespacing this way.