A suggestion for cPanel -- Hostname Change

Our new managed server was installed with the wrong hostname. No problem, I thought, and used the WHM to change the hostname.

It did change the hostname, but maybe not everywhere --

1) The reverse DNS entry still showed the original, wrong hostname.

2) Apache's httpd.conf file still showed the original. wrong hostname in ServerName and ServerAdmin equates.

3) There may be an original wrong hostname somewhere in the exim (sendmail) system, or maybe the emails from [email protected] have been created by the bad reverse DNS. I am too ignorant in this area to know, and haven't found the exim config files yet.

Anybody else ever do a hostname change via WHM, and then needed to patch up a few places where WHM did not change the hostname for you?

-- Arthur Cronos



PS: One other thing. When setting up WHM for the first time, I got a warning that told me that the 'hostname' needed to be a domain I owned and that it could not be any user on the system.

Well, that was very ambiguous to me at the time. I didn't know if 'hostname', in that context, meant 'server', 'domain', 'domain.com', or 'server.domain.com'.

Now after fiddling a bit, I'm pretty sure you meant that the 'hostname' is the first part, then 'domain.com' is the domain, and than the 'server name' is the whole thing. IE:
hostname -- boogie
domain -- shoes.com
servername -- boogie.shoes.com

Is this correct? If so, a definition or example during that set-up script (and in the manual) would avoid some confusion for cpanel users in future.

 

Whalla you mean?

Hi Ozzi4648,

Thanks for the info. My server is running fine now as far as I can tell, but I'd never seen some of these files that you mention, so I looked at them.

They all contain sensible information except the resolv.conf, which appears to contain darkorb's info --

domain darkorb.net
search darkorb.net
nameserver 127.0.0.1
nameserver 66.197.217.11
nameserver 66.197.217.12

What is this stuff? And do I leave it alone? Or change it to something else?

-- Arthur Cronos from Voltos

 

And Whalla!

Hi again, Ozzi4648,

Actually it was only 15 minutes ago that I posted my question about resolv.conf, and here I have an answer (from you) almost immediamento!

The hosts and network files were fine, containing my correct information.

It was only the resolv.conf that contains somebody elses. No those aren't my IPs, except I suppose 127.0.0.1 might be correct for me as well as anybody.

I will change them to my IPs and domain info. But if this file is used, how is it that the server has been apparently working OK? What is the usage for which resolv.conf is designed?

Thanks for taking the time to fill me in.

-- Arthur Cronos from Voltos

 

Hmmm. Optimally ...

Hi Ozzi4648,

From what I could see of the DNS entries, they looked OK. (I'm a bit too ignorant to feel certain of what it *should* look like, but at least none of the old name was in there, and all the numbers and names were mine.)

The tech at the NOC -- upon my query -- said he found an error in the 'Reverse DNS' and he fixed that for me. I gather that the 'Reverse DNS' is something like the third string on a three-string mandolin (Bass, Treble, Reverse), and it's something that I cannot look at for myself.

But now you've got me worried. I don't know if it's running optimally. It runs, that's all I know.

Hmmm.