VCSA 6.7 - Issues changing network settings

[antonysmith]

Hi,

I need to change the DNS servers on our VCSA 6.7, but seem to reach a dead end following any of the documentation.  There's a process shown using the Vsphere web client, but that appears to only apply to the obsolete Flash based interface.  The function doesn't exist in the HTML5 "ui" which is now the only option.

I can access the function from the Appliance Management (port 5480) interface.  However after entering the requested changes and going through "next" it asks for the SSO admin username and password.  That should be fine, except that even with the correct password entered the "Next" option is still greyed out. The username is pre-populated and can't be changed, and I am definitely entering the correct password.  Anyone come across, and preferably fixed that issue?

Any ideas?

Thanks, Tony S

[jhopf]

Did you ever find a solution?  I have this same issue right now, and I'm kind of in a panic as i have to retire the DNS servers its currently using.

[jhopf]

FYI I've managed to find a work around.      I also have one theory on what MIGHT be the cause, but it also might not.. 

I'm running vCenter appliance (VCSA) 6.7u3 in case this matters.  

So firstly, what I did:

1) Enabled SSH Under Access (open VCSA generally something like this https://vcenter.domain.com:5480/, and can be accessed by IP)
2) Logged into vCenter via SSH, immediately went to shell by typing shell<ENTER>
3) Searching for files with existing DNS servers, I found 2, so I edited both, replacing the entries with the new ones using vim (sorry no nano on VCSA at least out of the box)

a) /etc/resolv.conf (note it has a 127.0.0.1 entry, keep that there, it's using dnsmasq)
b) /etc/systemd/resolved.conf (same note as above, don't remove 127.0.0.1 or change its order)

Lastly clear the dnsmasq cache

service dnsmasq restart

It also responds to status if you are curious and its log for me was /var/log/vmware/dnsmasq.log and was named in the /etc/dnsmasq.conf

Once the changes are made and written, i always test with dig/nslookup to make sure i can lookup a relevant record by each dns server

Also once finished, the VCSA settings reflect the new servers (it still won't let me change and save due to the next button being greyed out)

As far as what my theory on what might be the problem.   I'm not certain, but my passwords are all generated and have some weird characters.  They have let me logon and do everything I need, but perhaps (big perhaps) this particular GUI is not tolerant of it.  I tried changing other settings in case it was some kind of validation failure.     I doubt the issue is with any kind of FLASH dependency, as im pretty sure i was able to save it once when setting up originally.    (Changing my SSO Admin password is also not awesome since my hyperconverged storage uses that account and is a little more complicated to update)

I'll probably open a ticket with VMware as I had to almost go to page 2 of my search results to find this one and only relevant post, with no answer (DenverCoder9, what did you see?)    I do have support to lean on, and it always annoys me when undocumented, unsupported back-end changes are needed even when they are as basic as resolve.conf and sysD resolved.conf  (you never know if its not also written in a database when the GUI updates it)

Also, this could be a browser thing, I've only tried with chrome variants so far. both Edge and real Chrome.   Hoping this info helps someone.  

[Wayne_JFS]

Hi,

I had this exact same issue and found an easy solution.

Login to the host server running the vCSA and launch the console.
Hit F2 to Customize Settings and enter the root credentials.
Arrow down to Configure Management Network and hit Enter.
Arrow down to DNS Configuration and hit Enter.
Type in the new Primary DNS Server.
Arrow down and enter the new Alernative DNS Server and hit Enter.
Hit Esc and when asked to Apply changes and restart management network? press Y
Hit Esc to logout.

I hope this helps.