vCenter Server Unknown Node Status, Incorrect Name under Administration

Products

VMware vCenter Server VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

Login to the vCenter Server vSphere Web Client.

Select Administration > System Configuration

Node status appears as "Unknown"
Node name is incorrectly displayed

Note: The node name is shown as vcsa1.example.com instead of the correct name vcsa2.example.com.

Cause

After a vCenter Server rename, the sAMAccountName for the node in the vCenter vmdir database is not properly updated. This may include discrepancies due to case sensitivity.

Examples of Issue:

A vCenter with the FQDN 'vCenter1' has its sAMAccountName value listed as 'VCENTER1'
vCenter1's FQDN was updated to 'vCenter_1', but the sAMAccountName value is still listed as 'vCenter1'

Note: The affected vCenter Server PNID has the correct value for the hostname.

See 'Upgrading to vCenter Server 7.0 fails when case differs between FQDN and PNID (84355)'

vcsa# /usr/lib/vmware-vmafd/bin/vmafd-cli get-pnid --server-name localhost

# /usr/lib/vmware-vmafd/bin/vmafd-cli get-pnid --server-name localhost
vcsa2.example.org

Resolution

Pre-requisites

Take powered (graceful) off-line snapshots of all the vCenter Server nodes.
- See 'VMware vCenter in Enhanced Linked Mode pre-changes snapshot (online or offline) best practice (85662)'
Ensure that the vmdir service is in healthy normal mode and not read-only
- See 'How to unlock and reset SSO password in vSphere 6.x/7.x using the vdcadmintool (2146224)',
  - Get vmdir state

Using jxplorer, connect to vmdir on the affected vCenter server node

Locate the sAMAccountName for the Node

Update and Set the sAMAccountName for the affected vCenter Server node and Submit changes

Wait a moment for the change to replicate to all nodes if linked

See 'Determining replication agreements and status with the Platform Services Controller (PSC) (2127057)',

"After modifying objects within the PSC, either via creation, deletion or actual modification, these changes are replicated to the PSCs after 30 seconds. When multiple PSCs are daisy chained together (in-line), this can result in a wave-replication in which PSCs in the chain will request an update, implement the update, and then its partner node will perform the same, eventually converge on the same replica data across the same vSphere domain."

Stop and restart vCenter Server services on the affected vCenter Server node

vcsa# service-control --stop --all; service-control --start --all

Verify that the System Configuration shows the proper Status for the vCenter Server Node

Additional Information

The vmware-stsd service fails to start due to multiple machine accounts with the same sAMAccountName (85673)