Changing the VMware vSphere ESXi hyperviosr host name procedure is same for Hyper converge HCI or non Hyper converge HCI infrastructure but there is standard procedure have to follow with care.
Nutanix is the hyper-visor agnostic HCI solution that support many hypervisor like Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) , VMware vShpere ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix Xen Server.
Changing Nutanix ESXi Hypervisor Hostname
To change the ESXI host name in Nutanix cluster running with VMware ESXi hypervisor version 5.x, 6.x and so on is here to follow with precaution, taken actions and changing host-name.
There is no effect on Nutanix Acropolis running cluster to changing the VMware vSphere ESXi host-name manually with predefined secure procedure.
Precaution Before Changing the VMware ESXi Host-name
Nutanix administrator has to take precaution before changing the VMware ESXI hostname as mentioned below :
- If VMware ESXi host in Nutanix cluster, Remove host from the cluster first
- Enter ESXi host into the Maintenance mode to remove it from the cluster
- If the ESXi host is managed by Virtual Center/vCenter, disconnect and remove the ESXi host from the vCenter
- Make the modifications in your DNS environment to reflect the correct new name and IP address
- Log in to VMware ESXi host as root
After completed the precaution steps, Now can proceed to changing VMware ESXi host name procedure
Procedure to change VMware ESXi Host-name From Command Line
Log in to the ESXi host to rename through SSH or DCUI. Display current hostname:
~# hostname NTNX-Block-1-A
Run the following command to change the hostname:
~# esxcli system hostname set --host=ESXi-Host-Name
Run the following command to set the fully qualified domain name. Note that –host and –fdqn are mutually exclusive.
~# esxcli system hostname set --fqdn=ESXi-Host-Name.Domain-Name
Display the new hostname and fqdn for Example:
~# esxcli system hostname get Domain Name: local.corp.com Fully Qualified Domain Name: ESXihost-1.local.corp.com Host Name: ESXihost-1
To clear the domain name and leave only the hostname:
~# esxcli system hostname set -d=""
~# esxcli system hostname get Domain Name: Fully Qualified Domain Name: ESXihost-1 Host Name: ESXohost-1
Depending on the ESXi version, changes might be reflected automatically or imply a service restart.
ESXi 5.1 / ESXi 5.5 After changing the hostname, execute the following command in the ESXi host. Prism will reflect the changes after about 30 seconds. Be aware that restarting hostd is a mildly disruptive operation.
Esxihost# /etc/init.d/hostd restart
Output : watchdog-hostd: Terminating watchdog process with PID 31093 hostd stopped. Ramdisk 'hostd' with estimated size of 1049MB already exists hostd started.
Note: In VMware ESXI 6.x, Don’t require to restart hostd service.
Prism will reflect the changes automatically without restarting any service.
Changing VMware ESXi DNS Entry From GUI
- Connect to the host directly with a vSphere Client.Click ESXi host
- Click the Configuration tab
- Click DNS and Routing
- Click Properties, In the DNS Configuration tab, edit the Name field
- Click OK
- Join the ESXi host to Virtual Center/ vCenter Server and clusters.
Nutanix doesn’t recommended to change manually
The following ESXi settings should NOT be manually changed though:
- NFS settings
- VM swapfile location
- VM startup/shutdown order
- iSCSI software adapter settings
- vSwitchNutanix standard virtual switch
- vmk0 interface in port group “Management Network”
- SSH enabled
- Host and Nutanix CVM firewall ports that are open
Nutanix doesn’t recommend to change above configuration manually in production, it advised to take VMware and Nutanix support to do any modification(s).
Taking product support is the great and safe choice to do any major changes in production environment to minimize the risk.
Any prodcut support i.e VMware and Nutanix always follow best practice guidelines to resolving and troubleshooting the any product related issues.
Thanks to being here, You guys can follow Hyperhci blog on social media to stay tune with latest blogs.
Enjoy Hyperhci blog to learn something new and exciting.!