This post will guide you how to change the hostname of your Ubuntu Linux system. How to change the current hostname “devops-VirtualBox” to “devops-osetc” on your Ubuntu Linux 16.04? How do I set the Ubuntu hostname from A to B in the command line interface under Ubuntu system?
You will learn that how to change hostname of Ubuntu system temporarily and how to change the hostname of your Ubuntu system permanently from this tutorial.
Check the Current Hostname of Ubuntu
If you want to get the current hostname information, you can try to execute the hostname command in the command line interface of Ubuntu system. Or you can cat the /etc/hostname file to check the hostname of your system.
Type the following command:
$ hostname or $ cat /etc/hostname
Outputs:
devops@devops-VirtualBox:~$ hostname devops-VirtualBox devops@devops-VirtualBox:~$ cat /etc/hostname devops-VirtualBox
Change Hostname of Ubuntu Temporarily
If you just want to change the hostname of ubunt system temporarily, or it only works in the current session, after you reboot the system, the changing will be lose. Type the following command in the command line interface:
$sudo hostname devops-osetc
Outputs:
devops@devops-VirtualBox:~$ sudo hostname devops-osetc [sudo] password for devops: devops@devops-VirtualBox:~$ hostname devops-osetc
Change hostname of Ubuntu permanently
If you want to change the hostname permanently, you can modify the /etc/hostname configuration file, then add the newly hostname in. just do the following steps:
#1 edit /etc/hostname file using vi or vim command
#2 delete the current name and enter into the newly name
#3 reboot the system so that the changes can take effect.
Note: if you do not want to restart your Ubuntu system, just run the following command to restart hostname service to apply changes:
$systemctl restart systemd-logind.service
4# you shoud also edit the /etc/hosts file to do domain name resolution. And it will map ip address to host name, change the hostname and make it same as the name in /etc/hostname file.
Change Hostname Using Hostnamectl Command
You can also simply use the hostnamectl command to set the hostname of your Ubuntu system.
Check current system information
Type the following command:
$hostnamectl
Outputs:
root@devops-osetc:~# hostnamectl Static hostname: devops-osetc Icon name: computer-vm Chassis: vm Machine ID: 059a07d442e846d4b85243bd416818a8 Boot ID: 51e3098dcfe34b7dbcd5fe22d8ead885 Virtualization: oracle Operating System: Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS Kernel: Linux 4.8.0-36-generic Architecture: x86-64
If you want to change the current hostname from devops-Virtualbox to devops-osetc, just run the below command:
$ hostnamectl set-hostname devops-osetc