Question

How to change my droplet's reference when seen on a terminal

Posted on October 28, 2021
DigitalOcean Droplets
Asked by vincej

So, I just created a droplet. And I gave it a name. However, when I access that droplet though ssh it comes up with a great long name:

root@laravel-ubuntu-s-1vcpu-2gb-amd-lon1-01:~#

Now, when I have created droplets in the past, they would have been referenced like this:

root@‘my-website’

So - what have I done wrong, and can I chnage it ?

Many thanks !

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Rajkishore J

DigitalOcean Employee

• October 28, 2021

Accepted Answer

Hi @vincej,

During the time of droplet launch, you can change/edit the hostname under the “Choose a hostname” section.

For more information : https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/droplets/how-to/create/

And for renaming droplets, You can accomplish this by following the steps listed below.

Login to the Digital Ocean Control Panel.
Click the Droplet you want to rename.
Then, on the Droplet detail window, click on the name of your Droplet.
Change the name in the entry field and click the checkmark.

Renaming the droplet changes the name on the Cloud panel as well as updating the RDNS record, but it doesn’t automatically update the hostname inside the droplet configuration. You will need to update the droplet hostname within Droplet operating system.

You can achieve this by either updating /etc/hostname and /etc/hosts files, or by using hostname utility hostnamectl.

Update /etc/hostname : https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/ubuntu-change-hostname-command/

Use hostnamectl : https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/ubuntu-18-04-lts-change-hostname-permanently/

I hope this helps!

Regards, Rajkishore