Changing the management interface to a different network?

[WebOps]

Hi

When our small vCenter set up was installed there was no physical management network, I have since put one in but the management interface is on the old network (LAN-1) and I want to move it to the new one (LAN-2)

My vCenter has a NIC in LAN-2 and my hosts all have a vmkernel NIC in LAN-2. Is the best way simply to add the new interface in as a new host or am I better off changing the IP via the DCUI to the new network? Although it would be nice I'm not that concerned about the historic data from the hosts.

The reason I need to do this is because when running a VADP backup the traffic flows over the vmkernel NIC in LAN-1 rather than the vmkernel NIC in LAN-2, this is because hosts were previously added to the vcenter using the LAN-1 management NIC so the DNS record for "Host-A" is the LAN-1 IP. Would it be a crazy thing to do simply to change the DNS record so it points to the new IP? The confusing thing is that the vcenter is in the LAN-1 domain for the SSO etc at the moment!

Thanks

[rcporto]

You can just change the actual VMKernel IP address to the new subnet, that will cause your ESXi disconnect from vCenter, update the DNS record of your ESXi host to the new IP address.

You will not lose any historical data... and one recommendation if your host make part of a cluster with HA enabled, is put the host in Maintenance Mode before change the IP address.

VMware KB: Configuring VMware ESXi Management Network from the direct console

[WebOps]

OK great, makes sense apart from the fact I already have a management NIC in the correct LAN and on a different vswitch with a new name. Could I then just do the DNS or is it essential to use the same NIC to retain the stats for the server?