CentOS 8 Change Hostname (computer name) command

I am a new CentOS 8 Linux user and setup a server. They setup my server name to ‘li2025-143’ during deployment but now I would like to change the computer name to something else. How can I remove old name and set it to ‘nixcraft-centos8’ on CentOS Enterprise Linux? Can you tell me how do I change the CentOS 8 computer name? How do I assign a static hostname to server running CentOS 8?

Introduction : For CentOS 8 you can use the hostnamectl command to change the hostname of a CentOS 8 server, laptop or desktop. You can use the hostname command to see or set the system’s hostname too. The hostname or computer name is usually at system startup in /etc/hostname file. Open the terminal application and type the following command to change the hostname on CentOS 8.

Display the current CentOS 8 hostname

Type any one of the following command:
$ hostname
OR
$ hostnamectl

CentOS 8 change hostname command

The procedure to change the computer name on CentOS Linux:

Type the following command to edit /etc/hostname using nano or vi text editor:
sudo vi /etc/hostname
Delete the old name and setup new name.
Next Edit the /etc/hosts file:
sudo vi /etc/hosts
Replace any occurrence of the existing computer name with your new one.
Reboot the system to changes take effect:
sudo reboot

How to change the CentOS 8 server hostname without a system restart

Type the following commands:
$ sudo hostname nixcraft-centos8
Next edit the /etc/hostname file and update hostname:
$ sudo vi /etc/hostname
Finally, edit the /etc/hosts file and update the lines that reads your old-host-name:
$ sudo vi /etc/hosts
From:
127.0.1.1 localhost
To:
127.0.1.1 nixcraft-centos8
Save and close the file.

A note about hostnamectl command

Systemd based Linux distributions such as CentOS 8 can simply use the hostnamectl command to rename hostname. To see current setting just type:
$ hostnamectl
Sample outputs:

   Static hostname: localhost.localdomain
Transient hostname: li2025-143.members.linode.com
         Icon name: computer-vm
           Chassis: vm
        Machine ID: 3e729c2d7c094902af0333ce40564ffe
           Boot ID: e359e65f68ff45f2825134354bdc0a8d
    Virtualization: kvm
  Operating System: CentOS Linux 8 (Core)
       CPE OS Name: cpe:/o:centos:centos:8
            Kernel: Linux 4.18.0-80.7.1.el8_0.x86_64
      Architecture: x86-64

To change hostname from localhost.localdomain to nixcraft-centos8, enter:
$ sudo hostnamectl set-hostname nixcraft-centos8 $ hostnamectl

How to set or change CentOS 8 server hostname — Set or change CentOS 8 server hostname using the hostnamectl command

Conclusion

On CentOS 8 one can use the hostnamectl command to control the system hostname and set a new name as well. This is recommended method for all CentOS 8 users.

This entry is 16 of 17 in the Linux/Unix Set hostname Tutorial series. Keep reading the rest of the series:

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Posted by: Vivek Gite

The author is the creator of nixCraft and a seasoned sysadmin, DevOps engineer, and a trainer for the Linux operating system/Unix shell scripting. Get the latest tutorials on SysAdmin, Linux/Unix and open source topics via RSS/XML feed or weekly email newsletter.