topic Re: hostname restrictions in Operating System - HP-UX

hostname restrictions

David McMullen_1 — Tue, 12 Dec 2000 23:35:29 GMT

Is there a restriction that hostnames must start with an alpha character? I was told that a hostname could not start with a number (0-9). I am I being told a tall tale?

Re: hostname restrictions

Trevor Dyson — Wed, 13 Dec 2000 00:11:52 GMT

This is correct - hostnames must start with a letter not a number and be a maximum of 8 characters. A combination of numbers and letters can be used for the rest. Underscores are accepted but should not be used as some DNS servers may have a problem with that.

Cheers, Trevor

Re: hostname restrictions

Dan Hetzel — Wed, 13 Dec 2000 07:24:14 GMT

Hi David,

You're right ! Names must start with a letter.
The name length shouldn't exceed 8 characters to remain compatible with some old stuff, even is the maximum is defined as 64 in file sys/param.h (MAXHOSTNAMELEN).

As Trevor told you, some DNS don't like the underscore character, so you'd better avoid it.

Best regards,

Dan

Re: hostname restrictions

Paula J Frazer-Campbell — Wed, 13 Dec 2000 09:36:07 GMT

Hi
If you wish to use a number then spell it, i.e.

one-sys
two-sys

Paula

Re: hostname restrictions

Dan Hetzel — Wed, 13 Dec 2000 10:15:19 GMT

Hi Paula,

One of my clients in France named the systems the following way:
GHT1HP
GHT2HP
GHT3HP....
Which, spelled in french sounds like:
"J'ai achete un HP", 'J'ai achete deux HP"...
meaning
"I bought one HP", "I bought two HP"....

Stupid, isn't it?

Dan

Re: hostname restrictions

Paula J Frazer-Campbell — Wed, 13 Dec 2000 12:29:50 GMT

Hi Dan
Talking of silly server names our sister company Cosmos has two NT servers called Hotpoint and Zanussi because the boxes look like washing machines.

;-)

Paula

Re: hostname restrictions

nnf97 — Wed, 13 Dec 2000 18:05:51 GMT

To each his/her own :)
We have sys15, sys30.
And then we have, Fred, Wilma, Barney and Louise.
I visited a client yesterday and the oldest server, ready for the mortuary is appropriately named Morticia. :)

Have Fun,
Nabeel

Re: hostname restrictions

Rita C Workman — Wed, 13 Dec 2000 18:23:54 GMT

Yes the standard is maximum 8,
must start with a letter and is recommended that you include a number (although not required).

Just so you have something additional:
It is suggested (note suggested..) you not include underscores BUT you should not use metacharacters (like @ / " : etc) as part of the hostname.

/rcw

Re: hostname restrictions

David McMullen_1 — Thu, 14 Dec 2000 04:10:14 GMT

Thanks for all the reponses. And the laughs. Now can anyone tell me why this is?

TIA

davidmac

Re: hostname restrictions

Trevor Dyson — Thu, 14 Dec 2000 06:50:52 GMT

Generally for backward compatibility with older network client, server and utility software. The 8 char/no start with number/alphanumeric only rule is the lowest common denominator that will work with all network software that uses the hostname in some way.

You could configures your hostname as "123@^%%%55andahalf" however, maybe not today, maybe not tommorow but some day and soon, something will barf.

Re: hostname restrictions

David McMullen_1 — Fri, 15 Dec 2000 02:38:21 GMT

Thanks Trevor!