How to Change DNS Servers for vCenter Step by Step

Change vCenter DNS servers and edit IP address settings

You install or upgrade vCenter Server, like any other network server, on a host machine with a fixed IP address and well-known DNS name, so that clients can reliably access the service. After you deploy the vCenter Server Appliance, you can edit the DNS settings and select which DNS server to use. You can edit the IP address settings of the vCenter Server Appliance.

Before you go to change the DNS servers, please note the prerequisites.

• To change the IP address of the appliance, verify that the system name of the appliance is an FQDN. If, during the deployment of the appliance, you set an IP address as a system name, you cannot change the IP address after the deployment. The system name is always used as a primary network identifier.

• Verify that the user who logs in to the vCenter Server instance in the vCenter Server Appliance is a member of the SystemConfiguration. Administrators group in vCenter Single Sign-On.

Next, this article will focus on how to change vCenter DNS servers and introduce the possible issues when changing vCenter DNS server.

How to change DNS servers of the vCenter Server Appliance

I will change DNS server in VCSA 7.0. First is by using the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface (VAMI) on port 5480.

Change DNS server using VCSA web console:

In order to change the DNS, you need to log in to VAMI https://appliance-ip-address-or-FQDN:5480 and login using the root user and password that you set when you installed VCSA.

1. Login and go to Networking. Then click EDIT in the top right corner for Network settings to change the DNS servers for vCenter 7.0.

2. Select the Network Adapter on which you want to make changes and click NEXT.

3. On the Edit settings section, you can change the DNS server IP and Hostname. Below Hostname and DNS you can change IP settings for NIC

4. Enter the username and password for the SSO credentials ([email protected]).

5. Review the settings and accept the acknowledgment that you have a vCenter backup before continuing with the network configuration. Click FINISH.

You will see the status of the network update. Once the network reconfiguration is complete, the UI redirects to the new IP address.

Some users reported that changes made to the VCSA hostname or the DNS server through the VAMI do not persist across reboots. You could try the following command to verify and update the vCenter appliance IP-address and hostname.

If your vCenter does not start after changing DNS servers, you can try the following method to fix it.

Fix: vCenter does not start after changing DNS servers

Some users reported that vCenter didn’t start all services after changing DNS servers, and encounter an error message “No healthy upstreams” when connecting with a browser. Here, you could change vCenter DNS from command line in console of VCSA.

 1. Open a console session of the VCSA, then login with root permission. Default password is: vmware

2. Run the command:

3. Opt for option 4 to change the DNS server.

Main Menu
0) Show Current Configuration (scroll with Shift-PgUp/PgDown)
1) Exit this program
2) Default Gateway
3) Hostname
4) DNS
5) Proxy Server
6) IP Address Allocation for eth0

This is a feature that many admins have asked for, but you must be sure to have a vCenter File-based backup or Image-level backup just in case something goes wrong. Meanwhile, it’s necessary to back up VMware virtual machines to avoid the data loss due to reversible tasks.

Best practice of VM Backup for better data protection

vCenter can manage a large number of virtual machines, A single vCenter Server instance can support a maximum of 1,000 hosts, 10,000 powered-on virtual machines and 15,000 registered virtual machines.

But to offer complete VM protection, many IT staff prefer specialized VMware backup software, such as AOMEI Cyber Backup. It offers you the following benefits.

✦ Agentless Backup: create complete and independent image-level backup for VMware ESXi VMs.
✦ Multiple VM Backup: batch backup large numbers of VMs managed by vCenter Server, or multiple VMs on a standalone ESXi host.
✦ Multiple Storage Destinations: backup to local or network share destinations.
✦ Automated Execution: create backup schedules to automate virtual machine protection.
✦ Restore Entire VM: restore immediately available VMs from any selected restore points.

AOMEI Cyber Backup supports VMware ESXi 6.0 and later versions. You can click the following button to download the 30-day free trial.

4 Steps to batch backup VMs on vCenter Server

1. Bind Devices: Access to AOMEI Cyber Backup web client, navigate to Source Device > VMware > + Add VMware Device to Add vCenter or Standalone ESXi host. And then click … > Bind Device.

2. Create Backup Task: Navigate to Backup Task > + Create New Task, and select VMware ESXi Backup as the Backup Type.

3. Set Task Name, Device, Target, Schedule, and Cleanup as needed.

• Task Name: you can change the task name or use the default name with an ordinal.
• Device: batch select large numbers of VMs managed by vCenter Server for centralized backup.

• Target: selecting to back up to a local path, or to a network path. Used paths will be saved in Favorite Storage for handy selection.

• Schedule (optional): perform full, differential, or incremental backup, and automate execution according to the frequency you specified.

• Cleanup (optional): automatically delete the old backup copies that exceed the retention period you specified.

4. Run Backup: Click Start Backup and select Add the schedule and start backup now, or Add the schedule only.

Created backup tasks will be listed and monitored separately, for progress checking, schedule changing and restoring. It’s easy to make a clone of a virtual machine in the same or another datastore/host, without reinstalling or configuring a new VM by clicking Restore to new location.

Summary

The new releases of VMware vCenter server appliance (VCSA) allows you to change a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) when deploying a new appliance. This article covers the detailed steps to change vCenter DNS servers and network settings.