Host name change notification from System Administrator [email protected]

Question

Our Mac OSX servers sends me this message every day:

Name: System Administrator
Email: [email protected]
Dept: Support

The host name of SERVER1 has changed to SERVER2. Some services may not work correctly until they have been updated to use the new configuration.

(in which, SERVER1 is the old host name and 2 the new host name of our server). What does it mean, and what could I do to solve this (get rid of this message). The server seems to work just fine, just as it did before.

Have you rebooted the server since the name change and where did you change the name? — mmmmmm, Jun 27 '12 at 09:04
No, sorry haven't found it. In the meanwhile we set up a new server so this old situation is not bugging us anymore. — tvgemert, Sep 12 '12 at 15:47

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 07 '13 at 16:14

1

I was having the same problem & found this thread on Apple Support Communities.

The short of it is that unless the name change is done through the command line with sudo changeip, it will forever complain about the change. The command goes like this:

sudo changeip OLDIPADDRESS NEWIPADDRESS OLDNAME NEWNAME

Use the same IP address and name in both spots and it's happy.

edited Oct 07 '13 at 16:14

grg

201,078

answered Oct 07 '13 at 15:25

Dave

11

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 07 '13 at 15:48

0

If your hostname changes regularly, you can suppress the notifications by opening Server.app, going to Alerts → Delivery and disabling the Network Configuration alert (for Email and/or Push).

Server Alert Settings

answered Oct 07 '13 at 15:48

grg

201,078

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 20 '14 at 12:37

Shutting off the Network Configuration (change) alert is the equivalent of putting electrical tape over the "Check Engine" indicator on your car. You are simply ignoring a an important warning.

Changing the IP address or the hostname on OS X server has always been a bad idea. Both are foundational to Open Directory working properly, just for one important example. The hostname gets "baked" into 8-12 configuration files. Changing the hostname in one location can create a mismatch in all the other locations. So don't ever change it unless you have a really important reason! And if you must, then you should use changeip to do so.

The changeip command ensures that the hostname is set up properly across all locations.

Host name change notification from System Administrator [email protected]

3 Answers3