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Catalyst 3550 Multilayer Switch Software Configuration Guide
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Chapter6 Administering the Switch
Configuring a System Name and Prompt
Configuring a System Name and Prompt
You configure the system name on the switch to identify it. By d efau lt, th e system nam e an d pro mpt a re
Switch.
If you have not configured a system prompt, the first 20 characters of the system name are used as th e
system prompt. A greater-than symbol [>] is appended. The prompt is updated whenever the system
name changes, unless you manually configure the prompt by usi ng the prompt glo bal conf igur at ion
command.
Note For complete syntax and usage information for the commands used in this section, refer to the Cisco
IOS Configuration Fundamentals Command Reference and the Cisco IOS IP and IP Rout ing
Command Reference for Release 12.1.
This section contains this configuration information:
Default System Name and Prompt Configuration, page 6-46
Configuring a System Name, page 6-46
Configuring a System Prompt, page 6-47
Understanding DNS, page 6-47

Default System Name and Prompt Configuration

The default switch system name and prompt is Switch.

Configuring a System Name

Beginning in privileged EXEC mode, follow these steps to manually configure a system name:
When you set the system name, it is also used as the system prompt. You can override the prompt se tting
by using the prompt global configuration command.
To return to the default hostname, use the no hostname global configuration command.
Command Purpose
Step1 configure terminal Enter global configuration mode.
Step2 hostname name Manually configure a system name.
The default setting is switch.
The name must follow the rules for ARPANET host names. They must start
with a letter, end with a letter or digit, and have as interior charac t ers onl y
letters, digits, and hyphens. Names can be up to 63 charac te rs.
Step3 end Return to privileged EXEC mode.
Step4 show running-config Verify your entries.
Step5 copy running-config startup-config (Optional) Save your entries in the configuration file.