vCenter server upgrade 4.1 to 5

[jortman]

When I try to upgrade my 4.1 vCenter Server I get an error before the upgrade starts. The Fully Qualified Domain Name cannot be resolved. If you continue the installation, some features might not work correctly. For detailed requirements, see the vSphere Installation and Setup guide.

I can ping my vCenter server using the FQDN and I can also run NSLOOKUP on this server and all reports back fine. What am I missing and what wouldn't work if I ignored the error and continued on with the install?

Thanks,

John

[DSTAVERT]

You need to make sure ALL involved names resolve including ESXi hosts to and from each other and to and from vCenter.

[DSTAVERT]

Use vmkping http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003728

[jortman]

Ok so I can vmkping between both esxi boxes from either one and my vCenter server from either one that is a VM on one of the esxi boxes. I can also login the the vCenter server WIN2k8 and ping both esxi boxes using their names.

[jortman]

After searching google and not the vmware community I found someone with the same problem. All your vmware stuff has to also have PRT for reverse lookup in DNS. My two esxi boxes were in reverse lookup however the vcenter sever wasnt. Had the vcenter server added and the install will continue without errors now.

[atbnet]

Hi All,

I have been performing installs and upgrades of vSphere 4/5 and found this warning message to be purley down to not being able to sucessfully perform a reverse lookup of the vCenter server.

It doesn't apply to the ESX/ESXI servers, the installer is just performing a check on the server running the installation.

Everytime the solution has been to create a reverse lookup zone on the DNS server(s), which was missing. An easy fix 🙂

For more info see here http://www.vmadmin.co.uk/vmware/36-virtualcenter/282-vsphere5fqdnerror

[rebuildthepier]

I had the same issue but already had the relevant information in my reverse lookup zone.

Turns out it was related to the management network NIC that was attached to my vCenter Server for administering my iSCSI LAN - disconnecting this briefly meant the error went away and I was able to proceed with the upgrade.

[MGR201110141]

Had this prolem too. I had PTR records for everything.

But i fixed it by disable a network adapter. In my case "IBM USB Remote NDIS Network Device"

[jortman]

I think this is the biggest thread I have ever started in my internet history! I am glad to see so many people posting their problem and fix for the same issue this is what makes the VM community the best technical forum I am a member of.

[Jasonf1973]

Hi Reb,

I am having the same issue w/ the FQDN when installing vCenter 5, I have fwd and rev lookup zones in place. I see you said you disconnected the NIC and it resolved the issue, can you elaborate on what exactly you did? Im getting a little frustrated and hope your solution will resolve our issue as well.

Thanks.

Jason

[pgn674]

I had this problem and solved it, and would like to share my solution. In short: I had two network interfaces on two different subnets and an IP address on each, and reverse DNS for both IP addresses needed to resolve into the FQDN I was specifying in the installer.

Let's say I have a Windows Server 2008 VM I'm installing vCenter Server on, and the VM has two network interfaces. One is on the the private subnet, 10.129.0.0/16, and is the regular internal network that has all the employees and servers on it. The other is the storage subnet, 10.131.0.0/16, and contains fast switches for NFS and iSCSI network storage and such. There is no DNS server set for the interface going to the storage subnet, but there is one on the private subnet interface.

This DNS server has forward and reverse DNS all set:

vcenter.mycompany.com => (A) 10.129.0.34

10.129.0.34 => (PTR) vcenter.mycompany.com

vcenter-strg.mycompany.com => (A) 10.131.0.34

10.131.0.34 => (PTR) vcenter-strg.mycompany.com

This accurate reflects the static IP addresses I have set on each interface. But, as it turns out, it looks like the vCenter installer wants both IP addresses on both interfaces to reverse lookup into the FQDN that you're giving to the installer. So, I had to go onto my DNS server and set this:

10.131.0.34 => (PTR) vcenter-strg.mycompany.com, vcenter.mycompany.com

In Linux, host, nslookup, and dig will all return multiple reverse PTR records. In Windows, nslookup does not. But, it seems the vCenter installer is able to process multiple reverse PTR records alright.