Displaying an ESXi/ESX host in vCenter Inventory by FQDN or short host name

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article describes how to list an ESXi/ESX host in the vCenter Inventory by its Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) or its short host name.

Symptoms:

Environment

VMware VirtualCenter 2.5.x
VMware ESX Server 3.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.1.x
VMware ESX Server 3.5.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vCenter Server 5.5.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware VirtualCenter 2.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware vCenter Server 5.1.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.0.x

Resolution

When you add an ESXi/ESX host to vCenter Inventory using either its FQDN or its short host name, the hosts file on vCenter Server is queried. By default the hosts file is located in %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts.

If the FQDN is the first entry in the hosts file after the IP address, the FQDN displays in vCenter Server for the host. If the short host name is the first entry in the hosts file after the IP address, then the short host name displays in the vCenter Inventory.

To display the FQDN, ensure it is listed first in the hosts file. For example:

IP_Address FQDN short_host_name

192.168.0.5 esx-server-1.domain.com esx-server-1

To display the short host name, ensure it is listed first in the hosts file. For example:

IP_Address short_host_name FQDN

192.168.0.5 esx-server-1 esx-server-1.domain.com

Additional Information

For related information, see:

• Identifying issues with and setting up name resolution on ESX/ESXi Server (1003735)
• Configuring an ESX or ESXi host to display FQDN instead of IP address in vCenter without losing performance data (1014030)

Identifying issues with and setting up name resolution on ESX/ESXi Server
Configuring an ESX or ESXi host to display FQDN instead of IP address in vCenter without losing performance data
vCenter インベントリ内の ESXi/ESX ホストを FQDN またはホスト省略名で表示する