Unable to add the ESXi host to the vCenter inventory

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• The below error is received while adding the host to the vCenter inventory
  • Cannot connect [HOSTNAME] in [CLUSTER]: incorrect username or password.
• The ESXi host could not be added using the hostname but was successfully added using the IP address.
• nslookup from the vCenter on the ESXi hostname and the DNS entry returned two IP addresses, one of which was unused.

[email protected] [ ~ ]# nslookup esxi.example.net
127.0.0.1
127.0.0.1#53

Name:    esxi.example.net
Address: example_IP1
Name:    esxi.example.net
Address: example_IP2


Cause

The vCenter attempted to resolve the hostname and connected to the unused IP address, leading to a failure during host addition due to unreachable or misconfigured target.

Resolution

• Remove the unused IP address from the DNS entry(AD) for the ESXi hostname.
• Add the ESXi host back to the vCenter inventory using the hostname.