Hostname defined in file "network" changes after change to file "hosts"

qwkfish · 10-14-2009, 10:30 AM

A CentOS 5.3 server running a Xen virtual machine also running CentOS 5.3. The pertinent files are configured as follows:

/etc/sysconfig/network

NETWORKING=yes
NETWORKING_IPV6=no
HOSTNAME=system-wrk-1
GATEWAY=172.16.15.1

/sbin/ifup-local (case statement for 'eth0')

ip addr add 192.168.30.5/24 brd 192.168.30.255 dev eth0 label eth0:0

/etc/hosts

127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.30.5 system-adm-1 adm-1 # alias eth0:0
192.168.20.5 system-wrk-1 wrk-1 # eth1 (relates to hostname)
## eth0 is DHCP obtaining an address of 172.16.25.2

command line prompt

guest@system-wrk-1

All is fine up until this point where a technician makes the following change to /etc/hosts:

127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.30.5 system-adm-1 adm-1 # alias eth0:0
192.168.20.5 system-wrk-1 wrk-1 # eth1
172.16.25.2 system-hse-1 ## still DHCP but entered here

Now after a reboot of the system (virtual machine), the command line prompt comes back as:

guest@system-hse-1

If /etc/hosts is only a local DNS lookup, why doesn't the prompt adhere to the value set in /etc/sysconfig/network and why does it change to the new entry defined in /etc/hosts? Not only did it change names, it changed interfaces!

Your insight is greatly appreciated.

Qwkfish

odcheck · 10-14-2009, 12:01 PM

Code:

hostname -f

what is the output?

otherwise do a

Code:

echo "system-wrk-1" > /etc/hostname

qwkfish · 10-14-2009, 05:07 PM

To answer odcheck, the return from hostname -f is system-hse-1. Populating /etc/hostname (not normally present by default in CentOS, is this a Debian thing?) changes nothing.

This would appear to be a bug in the Xen stuff. The virtual machine has CentOS 5.3 running on it just as the base physical machine does. Both system install sets are essentially the same. The condition only occurs on the virtual machine given the same setup. May have to go to the well (Citrix) on this one.