How To Change Hostname on Debian 10

In this tutorial, we will show you how to change the hostname on Debian 10 Buster. For those of you who didn’t know, Hostname is a label used to identify the machine and will help you to easily distinguish the server from another one. The hostname should be a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) and should point to the server IP address so you can access the server by using it.

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. If you are ready open up your terminal and follow through this tutorial, and in less than 10 minutes you will have changed your hostname on a Debian 10 (Buster) server.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Debian 10 (Buster)
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Change Hostname on Debian 10 Buster

Step 1. First I will check the current hostname by running “hostnamectl status” on the shell of your server:

hostnamectl

The output on my system is:

   Static hostname: godetz
         Icon name: computer-laptop
           Chassis: laptop
        Machine ID: 2381ec6bc9meilana1c843f399507ea2
           Boot ID: 2902f9a594944feramona0759229ef0
  Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (Buster)
            Kernel: Linux 4.15.0-43-generic
      Architecture: x86-64

Step 2. Change and Set Hostname.

To change the hostname type the command:

sudo hostnamectl set-hostname new_hostname
 ### example ###
sudo hostnamectl set-hostname linuxtips

Check the hostname again (Close the session and open a new session using the terminal):

   Static hostname: linuxtips
         Icon name: computer-laptop
           Chassis: laptop
        Machine ID: 2381ec6bcmeilanac843f399507ea2
           Boot ID: 2902f9a594944fe28d8ac9075ramona0
  Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch)
            Kernel: Linux 4.15.0-43-generic
      Architecture: x86-64

In each of these configurations, you’ll need to be sure your hostname conforms to the standards for FQDNs (Fully Qualified Domain Names). The ASCII letters a – z, the digits 0 – 9, and the hyphen (‘-‘) are the only characters acceptable (the first character, however, cannot be a hyphen). You may also find it necessary (or useful) to include the domain name as well, in which case you would then also use periods (dots) to separate the hostname and the domain name (and top-level domain).

For more command options you can add the --help flag at the end.

# hostnamectl --help
hostnamectl [OPTIONS...] COMMAND ...

Query or change system hostname.

  -h --help              Show this help
     --version           Show package version
     --no-ask-password   Do not prompt for password
  -H --host=[USER@]HOST  Operate on remote host
  -M --machine=CONTAINER Operate on local container
     --transient         Only set transient hostname
     --static            Only set static hostname
     --pretty            Only set pretty hostname

Commands:
  status                 Show current hostname settings
  set-hostname NAME      Set system hostname
  set-icon-name NAME     Set icon name for host
  set-chassis NAME       Set chassis type for host
  set-deployment NAME    Set deployment environment for host
  set-location NAME      Set location for host

Congratulations! You have successfully changed the hostname. Thanks for using this tutorial on how to change and set the hostname on your Debian 10 (Buster) system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official Debian website.