Agile Central - On-premises: How to restore the default hostname of the appliance

Products

• CA Agile Central On Premise (Rally)
• CA Agile Central SaaS (Rally)

Issue/Introduction

Changing the hostname of an on-premise appliance can have consequences that result in services not starting.

It is possible that the name of the appliance was changed during the initial deploy of the OVF when the NetworkManager TUI screen was displayed.  Restoring the name back to default may present challenges if you do not have root access to the appliance. 

This article discusses

1. How to get root access
2. How to access the NetworkManager TUI
3. Verifying the /etc/hosts file
4. What the default setting is for the system hostname

Environment

Release:
Component: ACPREM

Resolution

Root Access

The ability to log into the appliance as root depends on whether you have the flag in your license file.  In the past, this was handled via a separate agreement, however now it is part of the standard agreement so you can have your license reissued with the root password permission included.
This article discusses how to change your root password from the control panel as well as how to request the license to get the permission to change root password: https://comm.support.ca.com/kb/requesting-and-updating-the-root-password-for-the-agile-central-onpremise-appliance/kb000010888

NetworkManager TUI

Checking hostname in NetworkManager TUI

To access the NetworkManager TUI

1. Log in as root to your appliance
2. At the command prompt, type: nmtui
3. A blue screen with 4 menu options will be presented:
   • Edit a connection
   • Activate a connection
   • Set system hostname
   • Quit
4. Press the down arrow until 'Set system hostname' is highlighted
5. Press Enter

Setting Default Hostname in NetworkManager TUI

The correct value that should be displayed is:

localhost.localdomain

1. If a value other than localhost.localdomain is listed, it should be updated.
2. Once the value has been updated, press the tab key two times until <OK> is highlighted.
3. Press Enter
4. Press the down arrow until Quit is highlighted
5. Press Enter
6. Restart the appliance by typing 'reboot' at the command line

hosts File

The hosts file should appear as follows:

# cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain localhost rallyonprem-oraclese rallyonprem-oraclese.f4tech.com
::1         localhost localhost.localdomain localhost6 localhost6.localdomain6

 

Additional Information

For a list of possibly symptoms that can result from changing the hostname, please see Can I change the hostname of my appliance?​