Linux setting hostname and domain name of my server

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I would like to change hostname and domain name for my Linux server. Where can I set the local hostname and domain name of my server?

You can use hostname/hostnamectl command to show or set the system’s host name and dnsdomainname command to show the system’s DNS domain name. But the changes are temporary if you use these commands. Local hostname and the domain name of your server defined in text configuration file located in /etc directory.

How to use hostnamectl command

If you are using systemd based distro such as RHEL/CentOS 7.x, Fedora latest, Ubuntu Linux 16.04 LTS, Debian 9.x+, Arch Linux and more, use hostnamectl command. To see current hostname, run:
$ hostnamectl
To change hostname to foo, run:
$ hostnamectl set-hostname 'foo'
$ hostnamectl

A note about GUI tools

If you are using Red Hat or Fedora Linux (older version) use redhat-config-network GUI tool. Type following command and click on DNS tab > Setup hostname and domain name:
# redhat-config-network
On other hand you can edit a text file. Find out and set up the value for HOSTNAME in the file /etc/sysconfig/network:
# vi /etc/sysconfig/network
Setup/replace HOSTNAME
HOSTNAME=web.nixcraft.com
Where, web is hostname and nixcraft.com is your DNS domain name.

If you are using Debian Linux

You need to edit /etc/hostname file and put hostname.domain.com in this file:
# vi /etc/hostname
Set or replace hostname:
web.nixcraft.com

Debian, Suse and other Linux distro support GUI tool called network-admin. Type following command and click on DNS tab > Setup hostname and domain name:
$ network-admin

Please note that you must have properly configured DNS server to work FQDN based hostname. See how to configure Linux as a dns client.

See also:

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.

10 comment

  2. I think we have to restart the network service after making the changes.

    service network restart

  4. Do you also want to tell in your artice about restarting services so the new changes can come to effect? At the moment the article is half baked.

  8. Step1: Change the New Values in the Host file
    [root@erp ~]# cat /etc/hosts
    # Do not remove the following line, or various programs
    # that require network functionality will fail.
    127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
    192.168.0.1 erp.myappsdba.com erp
    [root@erp ~]#

    Step2: Change the New Values in the network file
    [root@erp ~]# cat /etc/sysconfig/network
    NETWORKING=yes
    NETWORKING_IPV6=no
    HOSTNAME=erp.myappsdba.com
    GATEWAY=192.168.0.3

    Step3: Change the New Values in the sysctl.conf and resolv.conf files
    [root@erp ~]## cat /etc/sysctl.conf
    kernel.hostname=erp.myappsdba.com
    kernel.domainname=myappsdba.com

    [root@erp etc]# cat /etc/resolv.conf
    search myappsdba.com
    nameserver 192.168.0.7
    nameserver 192.168.0.2
    option attemts : 5
    option timeout :15
    [root@erp etc]#

    Step4:Ping the Host Name or Changed IP Address.
    [root@erp etc]# ping myappsdba.com
    PING myappsdba.com (192.168.0.1) 56(84) bytes of data.
    64 bytes from fortedc.myappsdba.com (192.168.0.1): icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=1.06 ms

    Step5:Restart the Network or Reboot the system for effecting the changes
    [root@erp ~]# init 6 or

    [root@erp ~]# service network restart

  10. Please help me connect to server with a Linux netbook. There is a box for the name of the server… but I don’t know it.

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