RedHat based system use the file /etc/sysconfig/network to read the saved hostname at system boot. This is set using the init script /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit

/etc/sysconfig/network:

NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=”plain.domainname.com”
GATEWAY=”192.168.0.1?
GATEWAYDEV=”eth0?
FORWARD_IPV4=”yes”

So in order to preserve your change on system reboot edit this file and enter the appropriate name using the HOSTNAME variable.

To temporarily change the hostname on a RHEL server (changes will revert back to what is in /etc/sysconfig/network after reboot):

hostname <hostname-here>

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