A.P. Lawrence

How to change a system name or IP address on SCO Unix.

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

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/*

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

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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