Hello
I have an ESX host which was built by a guy who worked with us but no longer with us.
We have no VC, and we use VI to access the SC.
The ESX host was rebooted and after the reboot the host had a different name! Will I need to shut down all VMs on this host before renaming? What things do I need to consider before renaming?
How do I change the hostname and how can I prevent it from getting a different name! We use MS DNS & DHCP, does this need to be assinged in DNS or DHCP?
Cheers
Well the hostname for the ESX Server should be statically configured along with a static IP Address, it's really not recommended to have it running on DHCP and allowing your DHCP server to randomly assign it a hostname.
You'll want to edit the following areas:
#You'll want to add your default gateway and hostname entry
/etc/sysconfig/network
#This where you'll statically configure your IP Address
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-vswif0
#You'll then want to restart your networking service
service network restart
i.e.
#cat /etc/sysconfig/network
NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=hostname.domain.com
GATEWAY=a.b.c.d
#cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-vswif0
DEVICE=vswif0
BOOTPROTO=static
IPADDR=x.y.z.a
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
ONBOOT=yes
PORTGROUP=portgroup0
MACADDR=XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
You can add a local /etc/hosts entry, but just make sure you keep it up to date if you decide on changing your hostname and/or IP
check the following files:
for dns connectivity
/etc/resolv.conf
search domain.co.uk
nameserver x.x.x.x
nameserver x.x.x.x
for dns hostname of the esx host
/etc/hosts
and change the real esx server name
From the console type "esxcfg-advcfg -s <your new server name> /Misc/HostName". Then restart server
Do not remove the following line, or various programs
that require network functionality will fail.
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost
192.168.3.250 name.domain.co.uk name