By default, your server is started with the server’s given name as the hostname. Some software, such as cPanel, requires a valid Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) for the hostname to be used during their licensing verification system. This article describes how to change a server hostname in CentOS.

Change a server’s hostname

1. Using a text editor, open the server’s /etc/sysconfig/network file.

    # sudo nano /etc/sysconfig/network
   

2. Modify the HOSTNAME= value to match your FQDN hostname.

    HOSTNAME=myserver.domain.com
   

3. For internal networking, change the host that is associated with the main IP address for your server (found at /etc/hosts).

    127.0.0.1      localhost localhost.localdomain
   
    123.45.67.89   hostname.domain.com   hostname
   
    ~
   
    ~
   
    ~
   
    ~
   
    -- INSERT --                         2,43-57    ALL
   

4. Run the hostname command. This command lets you change the hostname on the server that the command line remembers, but it does not actively update all programs that are running under the old hostname.

    [root@defiant ~]# hostname hostname.domain.com
   
    [root@defiant ~]# hostname
   
    hostname.domain.com
   
    [root@defiant ~]#
   

5. Restart networking on your server to ensure that changes will persist on restart.

    # /etc/init.d/network restart