diff --git a/tasks/cloud_setup_basic.yml b/tasks/cloud_setup_basic.yml
index 8c6cc5d274..c21b3c8f55 100644
--- a/tasks/cloud_setup_basic.yml
+++ b/tasks/cloud_setup_basic.yml
@@ -21,8 +21,8 @@
 - name: sync time - just once
   action: command /usr/sbin/ntpdate -s -b 66.187.233.4
 
-- name: edit hostname to be instance name
-  action: shell hostname  `curl -s http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/instance-id`
+- name: edit hostname to be instance name - prefix hostbase var if it exists
+  action: shell hostname  ${hostbase}`curl -s http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/instance-id`
   tags:
   - config