How to update the domain name without reboot the server?

Akhran · 09-08-2005, 11:29 PM

In the file /etc/resolv.conf, I have

Code:

search home.intranet
nameserver 192.168.1.1

In the file /etc/network/interfaces, I have the following lines at the end of the file

Code:

.
.
.
dns-search home.intranet

I would like to change the domain name from home.intranet to test.intranet. How should I go about doing it without restarting the server?

I have tried to update the resolv.conf by changing 'search home.intranet' to 'search test.intranet'. Then I edit the interfaces file by changing 'dns-search home.intranet to 'dns-search test.intranet' (is this step necessary?) Followed by a

Code:

/etc/init.d/networking restart

However, when I checked the domain name with

Code:

# dnsdomainname

it is still showing the old name.

Please advise, thanks !

DaneM · 09-09-2005, 01:30 AM

I'm not sure about Debian, but in SuSE it's in /etc/HOSTNAME. In Slackware it's the same but in lowercase.

HTH

--Dane

Akhran · 09-09-2005, 02:14 AM

What I wanted to change is the name of the domain ie. from home.intranet -> test.intranet, not the hostname of the server.

Sorry for being ambiguous

Thanks for your reply!

MiscGeek · 09-09-2005, 05:19 AM

Maybe a dumb question, but have you updated your name server?

MensaWater · 09-09-2005, 07:44 AM

If all you want to do is change which domain you're searching for just add it to /etc/resolv.conf. If you want to change the domain of the host itself you need to do that separately. resolv.conf has nothing to do with the host's own domain but rather specifies what domains to append to host names when searching.

Also you can have more than one domain and nameserver in resolv.conf as for example:

search home.intranet test.intranet
nameserver 192.168.1.1
nameserver 192.168.1.2

So doing a nslookup (or dig as Linux prefers) for host name "billybob" it would first look for billybob.home.intranet and if not found then billybob.test.intranet.