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Renaming a local Solaris zone

Published 25 Nov 2011 | 1 minute read | 2168 views | Solaris

This is a short how-to article providing steps to rename a local zone on Solaris.

NOTE: All these steps need to be performed on the global zone.

We use the zonecfg to change the zonename entry. In this article we will rename zone alpha to bravo.

Stop the zone you wish to rename:
```
root@global# zoneadm -z alpha halt
```

List the zones on the system, to verify that your zone has been halted:

root@global# zoneadm list -iv
ID  NAME     STATUS       PATH                           BRAND      IP
 0  global   running      /                              solaris    shared
 -  alpha    installed    /zones/alpha                   solaris    excl

Rename the zone using zonecfg:
```
root@global# zonecfg -z aplha
zonecfg:alpha> set zonename=bravo
zonecfg:bravo>
```
Notice that the prompt has already changed to indicate the new zone name.

Use the info sub-command to check the information is correct:

zonecfg:bravo> info
zonecfg:myzone2> info
zonename: bravo
zonepath: /zones/alpha
brand: native
autoboot: false
bootargs: 
pool: 
scheduling-class: 
ip-type: shared
hostid: 
inherit-pkg-dir:
        dir: /lib
inherit-pkg-dir:
        dir: /platform
inherit-pkg-dir:
        dir: /sbin
inherit-pkg-dir:
        dir: /usr
net:
        address: x.x.x.x/24
        physical: nxge2
        defrouter: y.y.y.y

Review the output

Verify the current configuration, commit your changes from memory to stable storage, and exit zonecfg:
```
zonecfg:bravo verify
zonecfg:bravo commit
zonecfg:bravo exit
```
Modify /etc/nodename and set the new hostname. Using the zonepath from the info output in step 4, the file we would need to modify is:
```
/zones/alpha/root/etc/nodename
```
Likewise, modify /etc/hosts and set the new hostname. In our example, the path to /etc/hosts is:
```
/zones/alpha/root/etc/hosts
```
Start your newly renamed zone:
```
root@global# zoneadm -z bravo boot
```
Login to your new zone and verify that the old hostname has changed to your new hostname:
```
root@global# zlogin bravo
root@bravo# hostname
bravo
```