Change Hostname on CentOS 6

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This article is outdated and may not work correctly for current operating systems or software.

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Step 1: Login to your VPS

Locate the IP address of your Vultr VPS and login as the root user.

ssh root@server

Step 2: Use the hostname utility

Change your hostname to a different name of your choosing. For example:

hostname server01

Step 3: Edit `/etc/hosts`

Open the /etc/hosts file with your favorite text editor. For example:

nano /etc/hosts

Change the first line and replace your old hostname with the new one. Save the file and exit the editor.

Step 4: Edit `/etc/sysconfig/network`

This file also contains your hostname. Open the /etc/sysconfig/network file with your favorite text editor.

Change HOSTNAME=vultr to your desired hostname. For example: HOSTNAME=server01.

Step 5: Check your hostname

Run the following command to check your new hostname:

hostname

The new hostname will be displayed in your ssh terminal.

Step 6: (Optional) Change reverse DNS

Visit https://my.vultr.com/, then navigate to your VPS. Click on the IPv4 tab. You will see an "Update" button in the "Reverse DNS" column. Click this button to update the reverse DNS address. By default it will read:

x.x.x.x.vultr.com

It is common to replace x.x.x.x.vultr.com with the DNS name of your server, which may be related to its hostname.

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