vCenter 6.0 Install fails "The supplied system name is not valid"

[TheVMinator]

I'm getting these errors when i try to install vCenter 6.0

Firstboot script execution Error. 

The supplied System Name vcsa6.mydomain.com is not valid.

Posts like this:

http://www.virtxpert.com/error-supplied-system-name-is-not-valid-during-vcenter-server-appliance-6-i...

Suggest that DNS is the problem.  I'm using a home router as my DNS server and it doesn't allow you to manually update DNS records.  How can I complete the install without changing my router?  There has to be a way to install vCenter Server without a dependency on DNS...

[dhanarajramesh]

you can add another DNS server in your system by using Dual DHCP DNS Server software on windows or you can use any free linux machine for DNS.

[m_crocker]

What exactly is trying to resolve what? I assume from the machine where the vCSA6 ISO is mounted to and you are performing the installation from to the new vCSA6 you are deploying. DNS forward and reverse lookups are working in my case. I can successfully ping the newly deployed vCSA6 from the machine running through the installation. I read that entering multiple DNS servers can create problems, so now I am down to one. Any other ideas as the logs are still complaining about DNS.

[Sateesh_vCloud]

Just curious - which name you given at this screen? FQDN?

Are you sure that both forward & reverse lookup entries are created in your DNS machine?

[m_crocker]

Not sure if you get that screen for deploying the vCSA? In my case, forward and reverse lookups definitely exist and from the machine where the vCSA6 ISO is mounted. I can do nslookups fine. The same DNS server is also used for the ESXi host I am deploying the vCSA on. I have chosen to synchonise the time with the host as well.

Why has VMware felt the need to introduce dependencies for the deployment of the vCSA?? I am working on a project now for a customer deploying vCSA5 but if it were vCSA6 it would not work! VMware shouldn't assume DNS and NTP are going to be present at build time.

[jaymemaurice]

In my case, the DNS name could not be resolved by the newly deployed VM because my gateway has an ARP guard feature and the address was still associated with the previous VCSA instances MAC address.  The upgrade also failed due to the same reason (MAC address changes).

There may be a lot of people who will encounter this issue and find it very frustrating to have to re-deploy multiple times.
In fairness they sort of alluded to it in the release notes... hopefully the next update fixes these silly things and makes it simply a "warning"

To troubleshoot this, you can log into the half deployed VM by pressing ctrl+alt+f3 at the console and logging in as root.

[FirstByte]

This is what worked for me - adding manual entry into local hosts file of Windows machine that I was deploying the PSC from - even though domain DNS was resolving 100%, forward + reverse for the appliance FQDN & IP.

Now PSC appliance deploys successfully, and starts without the firstboot execution error = happy days!

[NRay]

A new comprehensive has been created on kb.vmware.com for this issue.

Please find the KB here: The supplied system name is not valid error while upgrading vCenter appliances