Network is down, no /etc/hostid but hostid returns something. Why?

leniviy · 07-21-2017, 02:44 AM

I have a VM with CentOS 6.8. The network cables are disconnected. There are no /etc/hostid or /var/adm/hostid, but the command returns a persistent non-zero value. I tried to change MAC addresses, but that did not have any effect.

leniviy · 07-21-2017, 03:31 AM

Nevermind. hostname was localhost.localdomain so it was a resolvable ip.

business_kid · 07-21-2017, 03:35 AM

Your detail is scanty. You probably want $HOSTNAME, not hostid which returns a binary number. Networking is usually passed to the main box for a VM, and if you're doing anything else say exactly what you're doing.
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michaelk · 07-21-2017, 06:07 AM

The default hostid is typically a byte swap of the IP address that matches the hostname in the hosts file in hex format.

Since the default hostname is localhost.localdomain which is also the default alias assigned to your local loopback adapter i.e 127.0.0.1 the hostid is 007f0101.