After changing vCenter hostname from IP to FQDN, vSphere client is not accessible with FQDN

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• vCenter Server was first installed with IP address as hostname
• After changing hostname to FQDN by another way than VAMI, you cannot acess to vSphere client with vCenter FQDN and get an error:

ERROR: [400] An error occurred while sending an authentication request to the vCenter Single Sign-On server - An error occurred when processing metadata during vCenter Single Sign-On setup: the service provider validation failed. Verify that the server URL is correct and is in FQDN format, or that the hostname is a trusted service provider alias.

• Accessing vSphere client with vCenter IP is still working
• You can verify that PNID and hostname are different

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

VCENTER_IP

#hostname

NEW_FQDN

Environment

vCenter Server 7.x

Cause

Changing your vCenter Server's FQDN - VMware vSphere Blog

NOTE: If the vCenter Server was deployed using the IP as PNID/FQDN, then the following should also be considered:

• The PNID change workflow cannot be used to change the IP address of vCenter Server
• The PNID change workflow cannot be used to change the FQND of vCenter Server

In this scenario, use the vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface (VAMI) to update hostnames or IP changes directly. 

Resolution

Before applying the following steps, VMware recommends to have an offline Snapshot  (virtual machine powered off) of all nodes in the same SSO domain "in ELM" before any activity that will include changes in the vCenter Server.

VMware vCenter in Enhanced Linked Mode pre-changes snapshot (online or offline) best practice

 

1. Revert back the hostname to the IP

• #/opt/vmware/share/vami/vami_config_net

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

 

• Choose option 3) Hostname and enter vCenter IP

e.g

New hostname [NEW_FQDN]: VCENTER_IP

• Choose option 1) Exit this program

 

2. Change vCenter FQDN with VAMI interface

Reconfigure the Primary Network Identifier

 

3. Reboot vCenter Server Appliance