# Renaming a node?

**URL:** <https://discourse.chef.io/t/renaming-a-node/1837>\
**Category:** Chef Infra (archive)\
**Created:** [May 17, 2011, 4:23pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/renaming-a-node/1837 "2011-05-17T16:23:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Michael\_Schueler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a5b964/32.png) [@Michael\_Schueler](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Michael_Schueler)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2011, 4:23pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/renaming-a-node/1837/1 "2011-05-17T16:23:56Z")

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Hi,

I have a bunch of nodes that are named after their EC2 instance id, like  
i-abc12345. I’d like to rename these to something more useful. I was  
somewhat successful by doing something like

% knife node show -Fj i-abc12345 \> blah.json  
% knife node delete i-abc12345  
% \<edit blah.json’s name: field\>  
% knife node from file blah.json

but ultimately these steps didn’t work that well. I also ended up having to  
knife client delete…

Anyone know of a supported or easier way to change a node’s name?

Thanks  
Mike