License server setting, can i use an IP?

[alvictor]

Lately the 2 ESX servers located in the DMZ reported a License server not found. Then i decided for testing to enter the IP address of the License server instead of the FQDN...the result was that my server is not repsonding anymore.

I have then 2 questions:

-Should i have never entered the ip address in the License server field?

-How can i get back the ESX host?

Cheers,

alice

[dmaster]

Hi alvictor,

It's no problem to use an IP-address for the license server.

On a ESX host goto the Configuration tab. than click on Licensed Features.

by clicking License Source there you can change your license server

[alvictor]

Then you mean that i didn't do anything wrong by typing the ip in the field and that the fact the ESX host is since then not more responding is due to something else....now the state of my server is ''not responding'' amd the License features field does not show anymore. Any suggestions?

[dmaster]

can you logon the ESX server service console with Putty ?

then you can try do the following.

service vmware-mgmt restart

you can also try afterwards with the vi client (disconnecting and reconnecting of the esx server)

[alvictor]

That i have also already done...i was now thinking of disconencting the host...let's see what i get. Cheers

[java_cat33]

No what you did by changing the license server address from fqdn to IP is not the cause of the problem. Can you recall anything changing before the two DMZ ESX servers became unresponsive.

Can you not ping your ESX servers from a host in the DMZ?

Can you access your ESX servers consoles?

[java_cat33]

Try restarting the vpxa service....

service vmware-vpxa restart

[alvictor]

Restarted the vpxa service but still no luck. I also have a few vm's running on this box but luckuly the environment is in implementing stage so i could try to force them to shutdown? And disconnect...?

I cannot recall having performed any other action than the one of changing the field...

Thanks for your tips

[oschistad]

This sounds a lot like a similar issue I had to troubleshoot a few days back. The ESX servers would become unresponsive every time I attempted to change the license server setting from evaluation to license server. Turns out that the DNS server configured on the ESX was offline, and that the host was trying to find the reverse lookup on the IP I was providing. Once we corrected the DNS issue, the server was able to connect to its license server, and as it turned out even though we had entered an IP address, the license server field was populated with the FQDN of the host.

So the moral of the story is that you should check the DNS configuration on your ESX, and verify that there exists a reverse-lookup record for the IP of your license server. If this is not the case, and you cannot correct the DNS server side, you may be able to solve your problem using the /etc/hosts file, which takes precedence for all name resolution if a record is found there.

[java_cat33]

How did you get on with disconnecting the host and re-adding it?

[alvictor]

Thanks for the dns tip...after i tested the dig command...the server was back on track...not sure i got everything.