[CentOS] Changing hostname?

Sun Sep 14 01:11:23 UTC 2008
Bob Hoffman <bob at bobhoffman.com>

 
> [kikinovak at calimero ~]$ cat /etc/hosts

> 127.0.0.1       calimero.local calimero localhost.localdomain 
> localhost
> 
> [kikinovak at calimero ~]$ hostname
> calimero.local
> [kikinovak at calimero ~]$ hostname --fqdn
> calimero.local
> 
> Wouldn't this be more correct?

I would suggest not making 'local' part of your server name.
Although localhost.localdomain, in a  non network setting, can work
absolutely fine, there is an issue with your email headers. The use of
locahost, local, and stuff like that is a big red flag.

I changed, in my centos 5 server, where the host name was
localhost.locadomain...

/etc/sysconfig/network
Hostname=server1.mydomain.com 
(where the domain is one of my websites on the server, actually my name
server too)

Change, for sendmail to work with it, the file local-hosts-names
Add the new name to it
Server1.mydomain.com

Change /etc/hosts
First of all, leave all the original stuff and do not alter.
Underneath the original stuff, just add
<ipaddress>  server1.mydomain.com

REBOOT

Then do this...

shell prompt> uname -n
server1.mydomain.com

shell prompt> hostname -s
Server1

shell prompt> hostname -d
Mydomain.com

shell prompt> hostname -f
server1.mydomain.com

shell prompt> hostname
server1.mydomain.com


All of these steps allows the mail headers, at least in sendmail, to
function properly. Other than that, unless you are in a network, or if you
are not sending mail, it is usually not a biggie if you miss some steps.

This is what I did to resolve a new hostname.