RHEL 8 / CentOS 8 change hostname

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A hostname is the label or name linked to a device on a network. Its main purpose is to recognize a device on a specific network or over the internet. There are three different hostname types:

  • Static – Most of the time you will be interested in this type of hostname which is defined by user and the /etc/hostname configuration file.
  • Transient – This type of hostname is defined within kernel space and by default it is set to be the same as the static hostname. Transient hostnames can be set/updated by DHCP or mDNS at runtime.
  • Pretty – Pretty hostname allows for additional characters as per UTF8 character set hence serving rather only for presentation purposes. The pretty hostname also allows to include spaces.

This article will explain how to change or set hostname on RHEL 8 / CentOS 8 Linux server or workstation. To change hostname you will use the hostnamectl command.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to change the static hostname.
  • How to change the transient hostname.
  • How to change the pretty hostname.
  • How to check the current hostname.

Check hostname on RHEL 8 Linux system using hostnamectl command

Checking hostname on RHEL 8 Linux system using the hostnamectl command.

Software Requirements and Conventions Used

Software Requirements and Linux Command Line Conventions
Category Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used
System Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, CentOS 8
Software N/A
Other Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command.
Conventions # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

How to change hostname on Redhat 8 step by step instructions

  1. Check the current hostname settings. As a root user execute: 
    # hostnamectl 
   Static hostname: linuxconfig
   Pretty hostname: linuxconfig.org
Transient hostname: linuxconfig.org
         Icon name: computer-vm
           Chassis: vm
        Machine ID: cedfcca06f78400cb71c32d2e28e34c3
           Boot ID: 3188b99e85884d7e8aecbc4df8a50c2c
    Virtualization: oracle
  Operating System: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0 (Ootpa)
       CPE OS Name: cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8.0
            Kernel: Linux 4.18.0-32.el8.x86_64
      Architecture: x86-64

    In case you are only interested in a specific hostname type use one of the following switches, --static,--transient or --pretty. For example:

    # hostnamectl --static
linuxconfig
  2. Change hostname by using the hostnamectl command. For this we will use the set-hostname argument followed by the desired hostname. For example let’s set the static hostname to eg. centos8: 
    # hostnamectl set-hostname centos8
# hostnamectl --static
centos8

    To change any other hostname type simply add --transient or --pretty switch. For example:

    # hostnamectl set-hostname --transient centos8
# hostnamectl --transient
centos8
  3. Update the /etc/hosts file. This is an optional step. Check your /etc/hosts file and replace any occurrence of the old hostname to the newly configured hostname string.

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