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How to Change the Hostname on a Vultr Cloud Compute Instance

Updated on November 27, 2024

Changing the default hostname on an instance modifies the default server configuration and reinstalls the operating system.

Follow this guide to change the hostname on a Vultr Cloud Compute instance using the Vultr Customer Portal, or API.

  • Vultr Customer Portal
  • Vultr API

  1. Navigate to Products and click Compute.

    Navigate to Products in the Vultr Customer Portal

  2. Click your target Cloud Compute instance to open its management page.

    Open the Instance management page

  3. Navigate to the Settings tab.

    Navigate to the settings tab

  4. Find and click Change Hostname on the left navigation menu.

    Click Change Hostname

  5. Replace the existing value with your new hostname.

  6. Click Reinstall to change your instance hostname.

    Set a new hostname

  7. Check the confirmation prompt and click Change Hostname to apply your new hostname.

    Apply the new hostname

  1. Send a GET request to the List Instances endpoint and note the target instance's ID in your output.

    console 
    $ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/instances" \
  -X GET \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}"

  2. Send a PATCH request to the Update Instance endpoint and update the instance's hostname.

    console 
    $ curl "https://api.vultr.com/v2/instances/{instance-id}" \
  -X PATCH \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${VULTR_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --data '{
    "hostname" : "new-instance-hostname"
  }'