Month: January 2014

Changing the vCenter 5.5 Appliance Hostname

How to change the hostname of the vCenter appliance, including updating the self-signed SSL certificates…

  1. Log into the administrative web page for your appliance using your browser of choice. https://your.vcenter.appliance.ip:5480.
    vca_rename_1
  2. Browse to the Network -> Address tab. Update the hostname and click “Save Settings”.vca_rename_2
  3. Browse to the Admin tab. Toggle the “Certificate regeneration enabled” option to “Yes”.vca_rename_3
  4. Browse to the System tab, click the Reboot button.vca_rename_4
  5. Wait. Wait some more. Keep waiting. Ok, connect to the ESXi host directly and open the console. See…it’s still rebooting. (Why do ESXi and the VCA take so long to boot/reboot?)
  6. Once it’s back, log into the admin interface, browse to the Admin tab and ensure that the “Certificate regeneration enabled” option is set to “No”.

That’s it…simple, but a little time consuming. Any plugins (NetApp Virtual Storage Console, VMware Update Manager, etc.) may need to be re-registered with vCenter to ensure they are working correctly.

Linux Console Scrolling

A simple, but extremely useful, tip…I didn’t know about it for a long time, but now that I do it’s quite helpful.

In most linux consoles, including RHEL and it’s derivatives, SUSE, and Ubuntu (these are the ones I’ve tried) you can scroll up and down to view the console history by holding the Shift key and using Page Up/Page Down.

Unfortunately, it does not work with the cDOT console.