diff --git a/cmd/cloudinit/cloudinit.go b/cmd/cloudinit/cloudinit.go
index e590041a..ee5ad2de 100644
--- a/cmd/cloudinit/cloudinit.go
+++ b/cmd/cloudinit/cloudinit.go
@@ -24,6 +24,8 @@ import (
 	"sync"
 	"time"
 
+	"gopkg.in/yaml.v2"
+
 	log "github.com/Sirupsen/logrus"
 	"github.com/coreos/coreos-cloudinit/config"
 	"github.com/coreos/coreos-cloudinit/datasource"
@@ -35,10 +37,10 @@ import (
 	"github.com/coreos/coreos-cloudinit/datasource/url"
 	"github.com/coreos/coreos-cloudinit/pkg"
 	"github.com/coreos/coreos-cloudinit/system"
+	"github.com/rancherio/os/cmd/cloudinit/hostname"
 	rancherNetwork "github.com/rancherio/os/cmd/network"
 	rancherConfig "github.com/rancherio/os/config"
 	"github.com/rancherio/os/util"
-	"gopkg.in/yaml.v2"
 )
 
 const (
@@ -298,6 +300,13 @@ func executeCloudConfig() error {
 	log.Info("Merging cloud-config from meta-data and user-data")
 	cc := mergeConfigs(ccu, metadata)
 
+	if cc.Hostname != "" {
+		//set hostname
+		if err := hostname.SetHostname(cc.Hostname); err != nil {
+			log.Fatal(err)
+		}
+	}
+
 	if len(cc.SSHAuthorizedKeys) > 0 {
 		authorizeSSHKeys("rancher", cc.SSHAuthorizedKeys, sshKeyName)
 	}
@@ -315,7 +324,7 @@ func executeCloudConfig() error {
 		f := system.File{File: file}
 		fullPath, err := system.WriteFile(&f, "/")
 		if err != nil {
-			log.Fatalf("%v", err)
+			log.Fatal(err)
 		}
 		log.Printf("Wrote file %s to filesystem", fullPath)
 	}
diff --git a/cmd/cloudinit/hostname/hostname.go b/cmd/cloudinit/hostname/hostname.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..8e08bdfc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmd/cloudinit/hostname/hostname.go
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+package hostname
+
+import (
+	"io/ioutil"
+	"syscall"
+)
+
+func SetHostname(hostname string) error {
+	if err := syscall.Sethostname([]byte(hostname)); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+	return ioutil.WriteFile("/etc/hostname", []byte(hostname), 0644)
+}
diff --git a/util/util.go b/util/util.go
index e898cf96..acb4c71c 100644
--- a/util/util.go
+++ b/util/util.go
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ package util
 
 import (
 	"archive/tar"
+	"bufio"
 	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
@@ -13,10 +14,11 @@ import (
 	"strings"
 	"syscall"
 
+	"gopkg.in/yaml.v2"
+
 	log "github.com/Sirupsen/logrus"
 
 	"github.com/docker/docker/pkg/mount"
-	"gopkg.in/yaml.v2"
 )
 
 var (
@@ -25,6 +27,23 @@ var (
 	ErrNotFound  = errors.New("Failed to find resource")
 )
 
+func GetOSType() string {
+	f, err := os.Open("/etc/os-release")
+	defer f.Close()
+	if err != nil {
+		return "busybox"
+	}
+	scanner := bufio.NewScanner(f)
+	for scanner.Scan() {
+		line := scanner.Text()
+		if len(line) > 8 && line[:8] == "ID_LIKE=" {
+			return line[8:]
+		}
+	}
+	return "busybox"
+
+}
+
 func mountProc() error {
 	if _, err := os.Stat("/proc/self/mountinfo"); os.IsNotExist(err) {
 		if _, err := os.Stat("/proc"); os.IsNotExist(err) {