Is it possible to use mixed-case hostname for Red Hat IdM(IPA) hosts?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.X
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.X
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.X
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.X
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.X

Issue

  • Is possible to use uppercase hostname in Red Hat IdM (IPA) environment?
  • An application running on system has dependency on uppercase characters in hostname. Is it possible to modify hostname with some work around like adding ALIAS names in /etc/hostslike and add that system in Red Hat IdM(IPA) environment?
192.168.1.1 ipaclient.example.com ipaclient IpaClient.example.com IpaClient
192.168.1.1 IpaClient.example.com ipaclient IpaClient.example.com IpaClient

Resolution

  • No, ipa server and client installation scripts expect lower case hostname. All hosts in environment should have uniform lowercase hostname.

Root Cause

  • Using mixed case hostname in ipa-client will be problematic from kerberos point of view. A kerberos principal is case-sensitive, so host/IpaClient.example.com@EXAMPLE.COM is different from host/ipaclient.example.com@EXAMPLE.COM.

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