CentOS 8 Change Hostname (computer name) command

/etc/hostname

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Display the current CentOS 8 hostname

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 infile. Open the terminal application and type the following command to change the hostname on CentOS 8.

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 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



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.

