Changing IP / Hostname on existing vCenter 7.x

At one time or another, we’ve all found our current IP scheme to be lacking or needing a refresh. That’s the situation I found myself in this week. In order to match with other networks and systems, I needed to change some IP addresses around. In the past changing this on the vCenter would be difficult, if not downright impossible. But needs being what they are, I need to try. This post will catalog me trying to accomplish both a FQDN change and IP address change on a vCenter 7.x server.

Special Note: If you have other things that depend on the vCenter or other solutions in your datacenter, your results may vary. You will need to map out all the connections you have to the vCenter, and hopefully they are using the FQDN and not the IP address. (Yes, using the IP IS possible). Generally, your FQDN might be more likely to stay put so some of the concerns might not be a problem. All keep in mind any Certificates and if they reference IP addresses or not.

To change your IP address and FQDN you will need to access the management page for your vCenter at https://your-vCenter-address:5480/ . After you log in, navigate to the Networking section on the left menu.

Click on the “Edit” in the top right and a new Menu will pop up.

I have only one network adapter in my machine, so the one highlighted is fine. Select “Next”. On the next screen, you will have the ability to change your Hostname and DNS as well as IP. (You will need to expand each section to do so.

Once you finish making the changes, select “Next”.

At this point it will prompt you to type in your SSO credentials. Do that and click “Next”.

On the Ready to Complete page, it will give you a summary of the changes you are about to make and prompt you to make sure you have created a backup of your vCenter before you proceed. Once you click on the acknowledgement button, you will be able to click on Finish.

Once you do, it will proceed with the network update, during this time, it will perform several tasks including stopping the management services and modifying the registry. Once the IP change has been made, a redirect window will appear, and it will automatically send you to the new page. The process is not quite finished yet. After logging in again to the new page, the progress window will reappear and continue its process.

If everything works, your popup window should show as Success. At this point, you should be able to log into the new FQDN for your vCenter. It worked on my end,  and was pretty painless.