IP address mismatch or missing in vSphere Client Summary tab

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

IP addresses are missing or show incorrect values in the Virtual Machine Details section of the Summary tab in vSphere Client. This occurs even when the virtual machine is powered on and network connectivity is otherwise functional.

• The vCenter Summary tab displays a different IP than the Guest OS console.
• The IP address field in vCenter is empty or shows "Not available".
• Network telemetry heartbeat is missing.

 

Environment

• vCenter Server 7.x / 8.x
• Linux Guest OS
• VMware Tools / open-vm-tools

Cause

This issue is caused by one of the following:

1. The vmtoolsd service (VMware Tools) is stopped or crashed within the Guest OS.
2. The administrator is viewing a nested shell or redirected terminal session on a different server, leading to a perceived mismatch.
3. The Guest OS is unresponsive, preventing the Tools daemon from reporting network metadata to the host.

Resolution

Follow these steps to synchronize the IP address telemetry:

1. Log out of all active secondary or nested terminal sessions to ensure the native guest console is being used.
2. Run ifconfig or ip addr on the native console to confirm the local IP configuration.
3. Check the status of the VMware Tools service: systemctl status vmtoolsd
4. If the service is stopped or inactive, start and enable it: systemctl start vmtoolsd systemctl enable vmtoolsd
5. If the service is running but the mismatch persists, restart the service: systemctl restart vmtoolsd
6. Confirm the vSphere Client reflects the correct IP address in the Summary tab.