Understanding YaST2 hostname settings during SLE11 installation

This document (7016000) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (any version)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (any version)
SUSE Manager 1.7
SUSE Manager 2.1

Situation

After the manual set up of a SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 based product (Desktop or Server), the hostname -f command returns unknown host. This may result in the following situations:

3rd party applications cannot start or run properly
SUSE Manager set up (yast2 susemanager_setup) will stop to proceed because of a missing hostname

Resolution

The full qualified domain name (FQDN) needs to be entered in the "Hostname and Domain Name" input field on the respective Hostname/DNS tab in the YaST2 network settings module. This will ensure the hostname is set in /etc/HOSTNAME.

Cause

The FQDN has been entered into the hostname input field on the address set up of the YaST2 network settings module but not on the Hostname/DNS tab. This will create a hostname entry in /etc/hosts associated with an IP address instead of configuring the FQDN in /etc/HOSTNAME.

Additional Information

When setting up the network details for a given machine, the admin could actually get the impression, the hostname input field to the right of the IP address and netmask is the full qualified domain name the machine is supposed to receive. In fact, the entry this setting creates is a resolve entry in /etc/hosts but not the hostname in /etc/HOSTNAME. Leaving the hostname and domain input field on the hostname/DNS tab empty will result in a setup without a FQDN. YaST2 will not complain about this and proceed if the installation but this might cause problems later once additional services need to be configured.

On SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 based products the FQDN was entered before the IP settings during the network set up.

Disclaimer

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