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update: I've found the truncate to 15 characters option under networking in the cluster config, but this didn't seem to do anything.

As far as the host names are concerned, if you're creating from the UI, you do get the option of editing the yaml where you can change the names. Whether it works or not I don't know since my system doesn't have DHCP so can't build through the vSphere option - more accurately, there is no client update, so the process doesn't continue.

@best-appointment-66450 You can set a hostname prefix, yes, but it still adds a long random ID to every machine. If you set a hostname in the cloud-config it'll just name every machine in the pool the same (DNS does not like this). Tbh I think my current solution still isn't perfect. If I check the cloud-config logs it fails mulitple times at setting the hostname. It still ends up booting with the hostname I want though so I ain't complaining.