Is this possible

[rachelle]

Is it possible to change the hostname of a Linux machine? If so what are the steps for doing this. If anyone provides me the idea I will also try this out.

[cyrus]

You can change the hostname on any Linux system with the command ‘hostname‘.

The syntax is as below:
#hostname

Without any parameter it will output the current hostname of the system.

[sammy]

You can also use hostname on any Linux system with the command ‘hostname‘with parameters as below:
#hostname –fqd

The above would output the fully qualified domain name (or FQDN) of the system.

#hostname NEW_NAME

The above parameter option would set the hostname of the system to NEW_NAME.

[ashlee]

If you use a Debian based Linux systems you can achieve Permanent hostname change as follows:

Debian based systems use the file /etc/hostname to read the hostname of the system at boot time and set it up using the init script /etc/init.d/hostname.sh

#cat /etc/hostname

debianadmin

So on a Debian based system we can edit the file /etc/hostname and change the name of the system and then run

/etc/init.d/hostname.sh startto make the change active. The hostname saved in this file (/etc/hostname) will be preserved on system reboot