VMware ESXi hostname displays incorrectly in the Active Directory

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• A VMware ESXi hostname containing 15 or more characters is added to Active Directory.
• The ESXi hostname contains more than 15 characters.
• The added hostname is displayed with a modified name.
• The ESXi hostname does not match Active Directory name when added to the domain

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.x
VMware ESXi 6.5.x
VMware ESXi 6.0.x
VMware ESXi 6.7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1

Resolution

This is expected expected behaviour in VMware ESXi due to NetBIOS naming is limited to 16 ASCII characters.

Computer names cannot exceed 15 characters. The 16th is reserved as a NetBIOS Suffix. You cannot specify a DNS host name that differs from the NETBIOS hostname.

 

The new computer account name that appears in the Active Directory takes the first 7 bytes from the short DNS name of the ESXi host. For example, one dash (-), 7 randomized characters, and one null character

 

For more information, see Microsoft support article 909264.

 

Additional Information