RSS FeedsHow to change a system name or IP address on SCO Unix.
Many people land here from Google searches for how to change an ip address on SCO Unix. Jeff's article is more about other things you MIGHT have to change AFTER you change the ip address (although written for OSR5, Jeff's advice can be helpful on any Unix system).
On all OSR5 and Open Desktop systems, "netconfig" (graphical or in character mode) lets you change the ip address. You will need to relink a kernel and reboot.
IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO JUST CHANGE /etc/hosts !!! You need to use netconfig.
Changing /etc/tcp will just cause you more grief - don't do it!
You also will probably need to edit the OLD address out of /etc/hosts after doing this. See Why do I get "portmapper is not responding" errors?
A related task is changing the default route. See How do I add a default route?
By the way, the trick to using netconfig or any of the SCO admin ("scoadmin") tools in character mode is to understand that the TAB key moves between panes - so to move from a sub-pane back to the menus, hit TAB and vice-versa.
Rev 1.04 11/21/99
by Jeff Liebermann (jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us)
Latest version at: http://members.cruzio.com/~jeffl/sco/new_name.txt
Changing a name or IP address takes more than just running netconfig. There are far too many files that have system names, IP addresses, or both inside. I recently finished renaming a server. It took me 2 hours to get it straight and test the results.
The following is a list of files involved in renaming a server. I may have missed some as I was not running DNS or sendmail on this particular machine. Each file should be inspected for residue of the old name or IP address.
/etc/tcp (symlinked to 2 other files)
/etc/hosts
/etc/networks
/etc/gateways
/etc/resolv.conf
/etc/lmhosts (lan man only)
/etc/systemid
/etc/ppphosts (ppp only)
/etc/pppauth (ppp only)
/etc/default/tcp
/etc/default/nbconf (netbios configuration)
/etc/hosts.equiv (network security)
/etc/hosts.lpd (rlp security)
/etc/rc2.d/S91route (setup default route)
/.rhosts
/etc/conf/cf.d/config.h (created by idconfig relink)
/etc/conf/cf.d/stune (changed by uname -S new_name)
/usr/lib/uucp/Permissions (MYNAME=xxxxx)
/usr/lib/uucp/Configuration (MYNAME=xxxxx)
/usr/mmdf/mmdftailor
/usr/mmdf/table/* (numerous files)
You should also run:
uname -S new_name
/usr/mmdf/table/dbmbuild
Be sure to rebuilt the kernel with:
cd /etc/conf/cf.d
./link_unix
To change the IP address, the following files are also affected.
/etc/tcp
/etc/hosts
/etc/gateways
/etc/networks
/etc/ppphosts
/etc/ppppool
/usr/mmdf/table/smtp.chn
/etc/bootptab
If you are running sendmail instead of MMDF, the pathalias databases and sendmail.cf should be edited.
If you are running DNS, you will need to edit:
/etc/named.boot
and all the underlying databases.
If you have any networked printers, check:
/etc/bootptab
/etc/printcap
If you use RARP to configure printers, check:
/etc/ethers
If you are running INN news, you will need to edit:
/usr/lib/news/*
to change both the system name and various IP addresses used for
NNTP.
If you are running an Apache web server, be sure to edit the system name(s) in:
/usr/local/etc/httpd/conf/access.conf
/usr/local/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
/usr/local/etc/httpd/conf/srm.conf
If you have Vision FS, AFPS or Samba running, the peripherals on the server are known to MSDOS machines as:
\\server_name\device_name
Changing the server name will necessitate changing all the printer
and filesystem shares.
If you have imbedded the "default server" or its IP address in any managed hubs, routers, print servers, bridges, or SNMP managed devices, these will need to be tweaked.
As you can see, renaming and reconfiguring the IP addresses of a server is not a trivial task. The chain of aliases are long and convoluted. Keep backup copies of all key files and a notepad with all the files that were tweaked.
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Fri Apr 29 18:20:21 2005: 410 anonymous
I have quickly changed IP Address thanks to this post
Thanks
Wed May 18 19:08:11 2005: 540 anonymous
I need to change the IP address on my SCO Unix legacy computer to match network of my Windows workgroup. Found Jeff's article. But when I key 'netconfig' and use TAB to access the lower pane, that is as far as I can go. I cannot view or edit the hardware setups. I am logged in as 'root' with the master password. HELP!
Reply to: bob@savagebros.com
Wed May 18 20:11:40 2005: 545 TonyLawrence
You highlight the thing you want to change and then return to the top menu selections to modify it.
Thu Mar 15 07:47:17 2007: 2915 anonymous
5.0.5 and possibly 5.0.4 make sure you change the NODE tunable kernel parameter --
/etc/conf/bin/idtune NODE "myservername"
Before relinking your kernel.
Tue Dec 7 05:00:06 2010: 9147 anonymous
very bad post! Doesn't tell you anything about how to change the ip address. just rambling about changing it but never tells you exactly how to change it. someone should have proof read this before posting it.
Tue Dec 7 12:22:56 2010: 9149 TonyLawrence
On the contrary, the very first sentence tells you "Changing a name or IP address takes more than just running netconfig".
You can actually pre-load netconfig by editing /etc/hosts and changing it there first, but you don't need to.
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