VMware vSphere

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  • 1.  vCenter IP showing instead of hostname

    Posted Mar 27, 2019 03:40 AM

    Hi,

    I have a vCenter appliance which I have inherited and upgraded from 6.0 to 6.5. When I view the vCenter configuration from vCenter - vCenter Servers - Configuration - Edit, I get the hostname and FQDN displayed in different areas.

    Similarly from Home - System Configuration - Nodes, I see the vCenter as an IP not the FQDN.

    I noticed that the certificate is issued to the common name '10.9.250.230' rather than the hostname.

    I have confirmed that from the console when I run the following commands I get the FQDN, not the IP.

    1. hostname
    2. /opt/vmware/share/vami/vami_fullhostname

    /etc/hosts show the FQDN too.

    The VAMI interface also shows the correct FQDN

    I tried to regenerate new certificates and the vCenter web cert is regenerated with the IP again, not the FQDN. Interestingly the 'issuer' of the cert is the FQDN.

    Though this isn't causing problems I want to fix this display issue in case it causes me grief when I add it to Active Directory.

    Thanks



  • 2.  RE: vCenter IP showing instead of hostname
    Best Answer

    Posted Mar 27, 2019 09:30 AM

    If - during installation - either DNS is not setup properly, or the IP address is entered instead of the FQDN, the vCenter's Primary Network Identifier (PNID) will be set to the IP address.

    The PNID can unfortunately not be modified after installation (see e.g. https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2130599), except for reinstalling the vCSA.

    André



  • 3.  RE: vCenter IP showing instead of hostname

    Posted Mar 27, 2019 02:21 PM

    If PNID is IP address the only way is to re-deploy vcsa.

    Run the below command to get PNID:

    /usr/lib/vmware-vmafd/bin/vmafd-cli get-pnid --server-name localhost



  • 4.  RE: vCenter IP showing instead of hostname

    Posted Mar 28, 2019 05:36 AM

    Thanks guys, the PNID is definitely the IP address so it looks like I'll have to live with it.

    Will this affect me enabling AD integrated authentication in the future?

    Essentially I'd like to know what adverse affects this may cause to determine whether or not I need to build a new VC and migrate or just carry on as-is. I have no intention of changing the IP address of the VC.



  • 5.  RE: vCenter IP showing instead of hostname

    Posted Mar 28, 2019 02:40 PM

    Although I don't know what the future will bring, I don't expect any adverse affects.

    Maybe VMware even comes up with an option to change the PNID in the future!?

    André