Changing the Host Name in Linux

Linux, Uncategorized

After purchasing another dedicated cent OS server last week and experiencing some issues with DirectAdmin i pinpointed the problem. The host name was completely wrong, although not a huge deal it was causing DA to throw a tantrum.

This is so simple to put right but i couldn’t for the life of me remember how to. After an hour or so of Googling i still couldn’t find the answer. In the end i picked up some old college notes and found what i need.

It is such a common task and being the nice chap that i am i put together this little how to guide. As you will see it really is easy once you know how to do it.

Start by popping open a terminal, in my case putty over ssh, and login to the root account.

You will need to edit /etc/sysconfig/network in your favourite editor. I’m using nano

# nano /etc/sysconfig/network

Edit the line beginning HOSTNAME= with your new host name e.g. HOSTNAME=gopalmer.co.uk

Next edit the /etc/hosts file in the same manner, again replacing the HOSTNAME value with your new host name.

Now type the following into the shell (replace gopalmer.co.uk with your host name)

# hostname=gopalmer.co.uk

Finally we need to restart the xinetd service

# service xinetd restart

Thats it! Easy wasn’t it?

Tags: Add new tag, change linux host name, guide, host name, hostname, how to, Linux, linux host, linux host name