Customizing the Host Name and Chassis Name

Changing the host name, contact, and location is important for distinguishing and identifying the device uniquely and for accurate tracking of logs and errors. The messages that appear in the log are labeled with the chassis name, which makes tracking the errors much easier. Specify an easily understandable and meaningful host name and chassis name.

Perform the following steps to change the host name and then the chassis name.

  1. Customize the host name, contact, and location using the following commands. When you configure a host name, the name replaces the default system name in the device CLI prompt. 
    device(config)# hostname sj_device1
sj_device1(config)# snmp-server contact Support Services
sj_device1(config)# snmp-server location San Jose
sj_device1(config)# end
sj_device1# write memory

    The name, contact, and location each can be up to 255 alphanumeric characters. The text strings can contain blanks; however, you must enclose the string in double quotation marks for a host name and an SNMP location.

  2. Change the chassis name by using the chassis name command. 
    sj_device1# configure terminal
sj_device1(config)# chassis name SJ001
sj_device1(config)# end
sj_device1# write memory

    The chassis name command does not change the device CLI prompt. Instead, the command assigns an administrative ID to the device.

Parent topic: Initial Setup and Verification