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Configure hostname in RHEL 7

We are going to see the different ways of displaying and setting hostname in RHEL 7. We will use commands like hostname, nmtui, nmcli, hostnamectl. Except for hostname command, all other methods will survive a reboot. To make hostnamectl aware of the change by other commands, we will restart hostnamed. hostnamectl is a part of systemd.

Using the hostname command

Display the hostname

[rtfmp@centos7 ~]$ hostname

Change the hostname

[rtfmp@centos7 ~]$ sudo hostname newhostname

Verify

[rtfmp@centos7 ~]$ hostname

Setting hostname with hostname is effective only until reboot.

Editing /etc/hostname

RHEL 7 has three hostnames. One of them, the static hostname is stored in /etc/hostname and this is what we normally refer to as “the hostname”.

Display the hostname

[rtfmp@centos7 ~]$ cat /etc/hostname

Yes, the /etc/sysconfig/network file is not in use anymore.

Change the hostname

[rtfmp@centos7 ~]$ sudo vi  /etc/hostname
[rtfmp@centos7 ~]$ sudo systemctl restart systemd-hostnamed

Remember to enter the FQDN.

Verify

[rtfmp@centos7 ~]$ cat /etc/hostname

Using hostnamectl command

To display the hostname, run hostnamectl or hostnamectl status

[rtfmp@centos7 ~]$ hostnamectl
   Static hostname: centos7.localdomain
         Icon name: computer
           Chassis: n/a
        Machine ID: fdba7161fada4540b992b6ce2065f909
           Boot ID: 40ab23eece1540f98877df3837595f20
  Operating System: CentOS Linux 7 (Core)
       CPE OS Name: cpe:/o:centos:centos:7
            Kernel: Linux 3.10.0-123.20.1.el7.x86_64
      Architecture: x86_64

Change the hostname

[rtfmp@centos7 ~]$ sudo hostnamectl set-hostname newhostname

Verify

[rtfmp@centos7 ~]$ hostname

Using nmcli

Displaying the hostname

[rtfmp@centos7 ~]$ nmcli general hostname

Change the hostname

[rtfmp@centos7 ~]$ sudo nmcli general hostname newhostname
[rtfmp@centos7 ~]$ sudo systemctl restart systemd-hostnamed

Verify

[rtfmp@centos7 ~]$ hostname

Using nmtui

nmtui is a text based graphical tool. Simply run nmtui from the terminal as root or via sudo and choose set system hostname and restart hostnamed.

[rtfmp@centos7 ~]$ nmtui
[rtfmp@centos7 ~]$ sudo systemctl restart systemd-hostnamed