How Do You Solve the Linux Error “hostname: Name or service not known”?

Problem scenario
You run hostname -f and you get this error: "hostname: Name or service not known"

How do you solve this problem?

Solution
Do these things in this order:

1. Verify you have the hostname in the /etc/hostname file.
2. Verify the name above matches what is in /etc/hosts for the local IP address.
3. Try rebooting the server.

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