[ydl-gen] setting the hostname in YDL 4.1

[Derick Centeno]

Hi Nathan:
I found another related discussion addressing this same question you 
raised... at least it appears so to me.  Perhaps this link could be 
helpful:

http://info.ccone.at/INFO/Mail-Archives/redhat/Mar-2005/msg00472.html

Regarding your next question, before I state one more word you can do:

$ man hostname

or

$ info hostname

and learn more details from within YDL.  Also you can do:

$ man dnsdomainname

or

$ info dnsdomainname

My comments build upon Mr. Murtagh's previous comments regarding 
hostname.  As you have noted during the YDL install process the option 
to "set the hostname" exists.  Choosing such a name let's say we call 
it excaliber, changes the generic name which is localhost.  From that 
point on instead of (let's imagine your username is nathan):

[nathan at localhost etc]$

We have instead:

[nathan at excaliber etc]$

In other words, hostname addresses the name for those services provided 
by your machine to other devices and systems. One good example is CUPS. 
  You may notice that to access CUPS via your browser within YDL.  
You'll enter CUPS (before hostname is set) by doing from within the URL 
of the browser:

localhost:631

However, after the name change to excaliber to enter CUPS becomes:

excaliber:631

Why?  CUPS is providing printing services to the machine named 
excaliber.

Just one point, the password which you need to enter CUPS is peculiar 
to your machine.  You are considered by this machine (if you actually 
own and use it) as it's System Administrator and you have and know it's 
root password.  Others who share access to this machine are your guests 
and they are users to which you may assign to them user names allowing 
limited or whatever access you decide to that machine, at your 
discretion.  These users or your machine can have different passwords 
which they can choose, but not the root password!

This root password is not the password you use to access or participate 
with the network your computer links to; nor should it ever be.  When 
you do logon to a network, if you don't have a specific name, a good 
DNS or other server will assign one to you for the duration of the 
contact.  Whatever happens (how you may be allowed to interact or 
exchange data and the kind of data and how large it can be, etc.) is 
determined by that Network Administrator.

I hope my extension of this discussion was useful to your purpose.

Best wishes....

On Jul 15, 2006, at 3:05 PM, Nathan Moore wrote:

> Hi Chris,
>
> Thanks for responding so quickly.
>
> Yes, I've heard from my sysadmin that when my machine sends out an 
> initial DHCP address request, the (DNS server?) network identifies my 
> machine's mac address and associates it with my machine's "hostname".  
> What I don't understand is how to tell our DNS server what I'd like 
> the machine to be called.  I get the impression from our sysadmin the 
> this naming is automatic and depends on information that I somehow 
> send to the DNS server.
>
> In the same vein, if I have no control over my machine's hostname, why 
> does one step of the YDL install process involve "setting the 
> hostname"?  Is this step a placebo to make me feel like I have more 
> control?
>
> Thanks so much for your reply!
>
>
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> Nathan Moore
> Physics
> Winona State University
> AIM:nmoorewsu
>
>
> On Jul 15, 2006, at 1:49 PM, Christopher Murtagh wrote:
>
>> On 7/14/06, Nathan Moore <nmoore at physics.umn.edu> wrote:
>>> I want the machine to have hostname "runner" under the domainname
>>> "workstations.winona.edu", so that from within the campus network I
>>> should be able to either,
>>>         ssh runner
>>> or
>>>         ssh runner.workstations.winona.edu,
>>> both of which presently fail
>>
>> Hi Nathan,
>>
>> There seems to be a bit of a misunderstanding as to how hostnames
>> work and propagate. You cannot do what you are trying to do by
>> configuring your machine. If you want this to work, you need to
>> contact the local LAN admin responsible for DNS. Setting it in your
>> /etc/hosts file or changing your hostname will only be seen by that
>> machine. No other machine has access to either of those, so these
>> changes will not propagate on the net. This is the precise purpose for
>> DNS.
>>
>> Hope this helps.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Chris
>> _______________________________________________
>> yellowdog-general mailing list
>> yellowdog-general at lists.terrasoftsolutions.com
>> http://lists.terrasoftsolutions.com/mailman/listinfo/yellowdog-general
>> HINT: to Google archives, try  '<keywords> 
>> site:terrasoftsolutions.com'
>
> _______________________________________________
> yellowdog-general mailing list
> yellowdog-general at lists.terrasoftsolutions.com
> http://lists.terrasoftsolutions.com/mailman/listinfo/yellowdog-general
> HINT: to Google archives, try  '<keywords> site:terrasoftsolutions.com'
>