The host name of R/3 servers is used in many places, for example, when installing R/3, in the start scripts, and for communication between servers. You can choose this name if you observe certain rules, which are explained in the following section. You must follow these rules for your SAP System to operate smoothly and efficiently.

As a prerequisite, you must have basic knowledge of the TCP/IP protocol.

The host name must be assigned before you install the SAP System. SAP does not support a name change after installation.

If you use only one network card, the host name must match the IP name that is assigned to this network card.

The host name of an R/3 server is a text string that can consist of letters (a-z), numbers (0-9), and the minus symbol (-). The last character cannot be a minus symbol. The host name is not case-sensitive. You cannot use a period (.) as part of the host name; you can only use it in the full qualified domain name.

Up to and including Release 4.5, the host name can have a maximum length of 8 characters.

Except for the maximum character length, this definition corresponds to the Internet standards (standards RFC 952 and RFC 1123).