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

Finally, this thread on ipf/ipnat might matter.

Rev 1.04 11/21/99
by Jeff Liebermann (jeffl@comix.santa-cruz.ca.us)
Latest version at: https://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=xyzxx)
        /usr/lib/uucp/Configuration     (MYNAME=xyzxx)
        /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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11 comments

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.



Thu Jan 16 20:36:34 2014: 12402   anonymous




you also have to change /etc/net/ticlts/hosts /etc/net/ticots/hosts /etc/net/ticotsord/hosts



Thu Jan 16 20:42:48 2014: 12403   TonyLawrence




Changing /etc/net/ticlts/hosts /etc/net/ticots/hosts /etc/net/ticotsord/hosts -

That would be true on Solaris, but not SCO






Mon Jan 27 11:31:28 2014: 12409   anonymous




If you don´t change this files on openserver 6 , at boot time you see,
rpcbind: Could not find any loopback transport. Exiting.
in sco doc (link)
If a message is displayed that states rpcbind is not running, check the name of the system (uname -n) with the entries in the /etc/net/*/hosts files, and see if they match.

If they do not match, your machine has had its name changed with the uname command, and the hostname entries in the /etc/net/*/hosts files must be manually updated.



Mon Jan 27 11:33:57 2014: 12410   TonyLawrence




This article is not about OSR6.



Mon Jan 27 11:40:46 2014: 12411   TonyLawrence




I know very little about OSR6 and don't want to know anything either :-)

This website will only be here a few more years. I'm pretty much retired now and and doing very little SCO work of any kind (and intensely disliking the little that I do). I'm not keeping up with it, I'm forgetting things and have no interest in keeping any of this up to date any more.

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