ESXi Management IP Address and Hostname Revert to old value after reboot

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Issue/Introduction

The management IP address and hostname of ESXi host reverts to previous values, after the host reboots, instead of retaining the newly configured values. The changes are observed to revert back in the DCUI after the restart.

If the reboot is initiated from DCUI right after the changes has been made, it doesn't save the new value.

Environment

VMware ESXi 8.0

Cause

Configuration changes made via the Direct Console User Interface (DCUI) were not successfully committed to the bootbank (state.tgz) prior to the host reboot.
The initial reboot method bypassed or interrupted the standard /sbin/auto-backup.sh configuration backup process.

Resolution

 

• Update the Management IP and hostname via the DCUI and save changes.

• Log into the ESXi host via an SSH session.

• Verify the new values are correctly populated in the /etc/hosts file by running cat /etc/hosts.

• Initiate a graceful reboot from the command line using the # reboot command to ensure the configuration state is permanently saved to the boot image before the host restarts.