Adding ESXI host to vcenter server

[Mevox]

When adding esxi 5.5 to vcenter changes the ip address from an internal ip to an external one by itself. It has done this several times while adding it. . The internal IP is not being used by any other device on the network, internal IP is on a vlan. Extrernal IP is the firewall.

[warring]

Host profiles??

[Mevox]

I am not using Host Profiles.

[rcporto]

You're using NAT between the vCenter and ESXi hosts ? Take a look here: VMware KB: Adding an ESX host to vCenter Server fails with the error: IP Address of the host changed

Resolution

Using NAT between the vCenter Server system and ESX hosts is an unsupported configuration. For more information, see Using NAT between the vCenter Server system and ESXi/ESX hosts (1010652).

To resolve this issue, do not NAT the ESX host IP from the DMZ to the internal network. Alternatively, configure direct routing on your router.

For a list of ports that are required for vCenter Server and ESX host communications, see TCP and UDP Ports required to access vCenter Server, ESXi/ESX hosts, and other network components (1....

[Mevox]

No NAT used, i was able to add any host to it with no issues, but now no matter what host i add to the cluster in vsphere it changes the ip address to same external ip address of the firewall.

[rcporto]

Name resolution is working for the affected host ? From vCenter virtual machine (assuming that is Windows) what you get if you run the command "ping -a ipaddressofaffectedhost" ?

And tell me if the IP address of the host is correct in the file /etc/vmware/vpxa/vpxa.cfg on entry similar to:

<vpxa>

<hostIp>10.21.48.121</hostIp>

</vpxa>

Additional information: VMware KB: VMware vCenter Server displays the error: Failed to connect to host

[Mevox]

Ping form vcenter server 5.5.0 (windows 2008 r2)

10.10.11.8 host is already in a cluster

10.10.11.9 is the one i want to add but it changes ip right after HA election.

ping -a does not return hostname, only ip in both cases (see attach)

[Mevox]

I found the host ip, i had to scroll down into the file to find it. (see attach)

[rcporto]

The IP address of your vCenter Server is really 199.91.64.80 ?

[Mevox]

i have 2 ip addresses one internal and an external one. i forgot to erase that from the file, but yes that is one of the ip addresses.

[Mevox]

I figured it out,

I changed the ip address of the vcenter 5.5 u2 inside vsphere, Administration>Vcenter Server Settings>Runtime Settings, from the external IP to the internal IP. Even though before i was able to add hosts having the external ip in there. The way i figured it out is, i checked the existing hosts vpxa.cfg file and all of them had the internal ip as the vcenter server ip.