Configuring A System Name - Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Configuration Manual

Chapter 4 Administering the Switch
For complete syntax and usage information for the commands used in this section, see the Cisco IOS
Configuration Fundamentals Command Reference, Release 12.3 and the Cisco IOS IP Command
Reference, Volume 2 of 3: Routing Protocols, Release 12.3.
These sections contain this configuration information:
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•

Configuring a System Name

To manually configure a system name, perform this task:
Command
Step 1
configure terminal
Step 2
hostname name
Step 3
end
Step 4
show running-config
Step 5
copy running-config
startup-config
When you set the system name, it is also used as the system prompt.
Understanding DNS
The DNS protocol controls the Domain Name System (DNS), a distributed database with which you can
map hostnames to IP addresses. When you configure DNS on your switch, you can substitute the
hostname for the IP address with all IP commands, such as ping, telnet, connect, and related Telnet
support operations.
IP defines a hierarchical naming scheme that allows a device to be identified by its location or domain.
Domain names are pieced together with periods (.) as the delimiting characters. For example, Cisco
Systems is a commercial organization that IP identifies by a com domain name, so its domain name is
cisco.com. A specific device in this domain, for example, the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) system is
identified as ftp.cisco.com.
To keep track of domain names, IP has defined the concept of a domain name server, which holds a cache
(or database) of names mapped to IP addresses. To map domain names to IP addresses, you must first
identify the hostnames, specify the name server that is present on your network, and enable the DNS.
OL-25340-01
Configuring a System Name, page 4-15
Understanding DNS, page 4-15
Purpose
Enters global configuration mode.
Manually configures a system name.
The default setting is switch.
The name must follow the rules for ARPANET hostnames. They must start
with a letter, end with a letter or digit, and have as interior characters only
letters, digits, and hyphens. Names can be up to 63 characters.
To return to the default hostname, use the no hostname global
configuration command.
Returns to privileged EXEC mode.
Verifies your entries.
(Optional) Saves your entries in the configuration file.
Software Configuration Guide—Release IOS XE 3.3.0SG and IOS 15.1(1)SG
Configuring a System Name and Prompt
4-15