Virtual machine IP Address and DNS Name not available on virtual machine Summary tab

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Cannot view the virtual machine IP Address or Domain Name Server (DNS) Name.
• The virtual machine IP Address and DNS Name are not available on the virtual machine Summary tab.
• The vmware.log captured VIX API breakdowns inside the guest (Error VIX_E_UNRECOGNIZED_COMMAND_IN_GUEST) and instantaneous Guest RPC channel closures, proving the ESXi host was sending queries but the guest OS was rejecting them.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 
VMware ESXi

Cause

• This issue can occur if the virtual machine Configuration Parameters isolation.tools.getHostInfo.disable or isolation.tools.setinfo.disable is set to True. When configured this way, the guest operating system does not pass IP Address and DNS Name information to the ESXi/ESX host for display in vCenter Server. Newly created virtual machines without this virtual machine Configuration Parameter set to True do not exhibit this problem.
  
  Note: It is not required for the vCenter Server to be apart of the domain for the fully qualified domain name of a managed virtual machine to be displayed; however, if the virtual machine is not member of domain, then DNS name on virtual machine's Summary tab will display the hostname only.
  
  
  
• This issue can if Windows OS—likely due to aggressive endpoint security software (Trellix/McAfee Endpoint Security) running alongside Windows Virtualization-based Security (VBS)—was actively sandboxing vmtoolsd.exe and blocking the automated installation of kernel-level drivers required for the Virtual Machine Communication Interface (VMCI).

Resolution

To resolve the issue, set the isolation.tools.setinfo.disable parameter to False.

 

To set the isolation.tools.setinfo.disable and isolation.tools.getHostInfo.disable parameters to False:

1. Power off the virtual machine.
2. Right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings.
3. Click the Options tab.
4. Click General under Advanced.
5. Click Configuration Parameters.
6. Locate the isolation.tools.setinfo.disable and isolation.tools.getHostInfo.disable parameter and set the value to False.
   
   Note: If the parameter is not present, you can add it manually with the Add Row button and add the parameter name and value from the steps above.
   
   
7. Click OK.
8. Power on the virtual machine.

If after performing these steps the issue persists:

1. Right-click the Virtual Machine and click Remove from Inventory.
2. Browse the Datastore where the virtual machine is stored and right-click the virtual machines .vmx file.
3. Click Add to Inventory for the Configuration Parameters to become effective.

If the issue still persists:

Perform a "Deep Clean" reinstall of VMware Tools. Sometimes a standard uninstall/reinstall leaves broken VMCI drivers behind in the registry.

1. Uninstall VMware Tools..
2. Reboot the VM.
3. Manually delete the C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools folder if it still exists.
4. Reinstall VMware Tools from the vCenter ISO.
5. Reboot the VM once more.

Additional Information

KB 392238 (Setup failed to install the VMXNet3 driver automatically.  This driver will have to be installed manually)