Unable to resolve hostname for Redhat Linux server

Question

I've setup a Linux Red Hat server and would like to use it by referring to its hostname instead of the static IP.

eg. ssh [email protected], instead of ssh [email protected]

but I get a message:

ssh: Could not resolve hostname myhostname Name or service not known.

OR

If I do a nslookup from a windows client I get this such that it can detect the IP but I see dhcp-IP instead of my set hostname:

Server:  UnKnown
Address:  1903:ad:8s10::fd
Name:    dhcp-xx-xxx-xx-xxx.blah.di.blah
Address:  xx.xxx.xx.xxx

As per several other stackoverflow posts, I set the hostname in:

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

as

DHCP_HOSTNAME=myhostname.blah.di.blah

I made the changes and did a dhclient -r followed by dhclient eth0 but no luck.

Also, my /etc/hosts file looks like this:

127.0.0.1  localhost localhost.localdomain
xx.xxx.xx.xxx myhostname.blah.di.blah

Solution

If you are trying to reach the system by hostname from another system, it will not work. You will need to either set up a DNS server on your network and add these entries, or manually add the hostname to the hosts file of the remote system you are using.

Comments

[Matej Vrzala M4]

Did you add the hostname to your /etc/hosts file?

[L P]

Yes, I had: 127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain xx.xxx.xx.xxx myhostname.blah.di.blah.. updated description to include this.

[Matej Vrzala M4]

Ok.. what happens when you ping the domain?

[L P]

When I ping IP - I get the correct response, pinging domain returns ping: unknown host myhostname.blah.di.blah

[Matej Vrzala M4]

Ok one last thing you can try is changing your ~/.ssh/config file to associate the IP address with the host.. This is definitely a DNS problem...

[L P]

It doesn't work either. I'm not sure where is the "dhcp-xx-xxx-xx-xxx" bit coming from, it just needs to be populated with 'myhostname'. Don't know which config. needs to be updated to achieve this.