Changing ESX Host name

[agoldbp95]

I have 6 Vsphere instances all unlinked to each other. I have Changed the domain the Hosts and the Vsphere instance are in. All the hosts have the new domain name. The Vsphere instance has the new Domain Name. When I open VSPHERE I see the vsphere.newdomain.com. The ESX hosts when logged in to individually all have esx.newdomain.com.

VSPHERE is still listing the ESX hosts as esx.olddomain.com. I would normally Remove the ESX host and readd it to the VSPHERE instance at which point the new domain would show. When Trying to Remove the esx host from inventory it says put host in maintenance mode. 

I have not had to do this with my other clusters. 1 can I get the esx host name to update under the VSPHERE instance without removing and readding it to inventory. 

2 why do I need to put the host in maintenance mode to remove it from inventory. Vsphere DRS is off and I Turned off HA when I tried to do this. Is there a way around shutting down all the VMs placing the host in maintenance mode, removing and readding it from inventory? 

Thank You

Alex

[nachogonzalez]

Hey, hope you are doing fine:
1. I'm not entirely sure, but I think you see a String value on the hostname and it does not dynamically change. I might be wrong.
2. Having to put the host in maintenance mode before removing it from the cluster is a failsafe to avoid any possible issues (for example, you clicked without meaning to and lost a host). Also, you have vMotion to ensure maximum uptime to your VMs.
If you want to shut down all the VMs in a host: 
Go to the host --> select VMs on the right pane --> Select all the VMs that are powered on --> right click --> shut down guest.