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Changing the Host Name of a Machine Running ESX Server 2.x and below

Details

How do I change the host name of a machine running ESX Server?

Solution

To change the host name of a machine running ESX Server, modify the following files:

/etc/hosts
/etc/sysconfig/network
/usr/lib/vmware-mui/apache/conf/httpd.conf

When editing the hosts file, include the fully qualified domain name (FQDN). For example:

ip.address.of.server host.domain.com host

Note the order of the terms in the example above. If the FQDN and the alias are reversed, the remote console parameters use the alias only.

In the httpd.conf file, change the ServerName configuration setting to reflect the new FQDN. For example:

ServerName host.domain.com

After editing the files listed above, run the hostname command with the new FQDN to have the name change take effect without a reboot. For example:

hostname host.domain.com

For information on changing the hostname on ESX Server 3.x, see Changing the IP Address, Default Gateway and hostname of the Service Console in ESX Server 3.x (4309499).

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