After you deploy the vCenter Server Appliance, you can edit the DNS settings and specify which DNS server to use. You can edit the IP address settings of the vCenter Server Appliance. You can also specify whether to use IPv4 and IPv6 or only IPv6, and how the appliance obtains the IP address.

You can edit these settings by using the vSphere Web Client.

Prerequisites

  • To change the IP address of the appliance, verify that the system name of the appliance is an FQDN. If, during the deployment of the appliance, you set an IP address as a system name, you cannot change the IP address after the deployment. The system name is always used as a primary network identifier.

  • Verify that the user who logs in to the vCenter Server instance in the vCenter Server Appliance is a member of the SystemConfiguration.Administrators group in vCenter Single Sign-On.

Procedure

  1. Use the vSphere Web Client to log in as administrator@your_domain_name to the vCenter Server instance in the vCenter Server Appliance.
    The address is of the type http:// appliance-IP-address-or-FQDN/vsphere-client.
  2. On the vSphere Web Client main page, hover over the Home icon, click Home, and select System Configuration.
  3. Under System Configuration, click Nodes.
  4. Under Nodes, select a node and click the Manage tab.
  5. Under Common, select Networking, and click Edit.
  6. Expand DNS and edit the settings.
    Option Description
    Obtain DNS server address automatically Obtains the DNS settings automatically from the network.
    Enter settings manually Lets you specify the DNS address settings manually. If you select this option, you must provide:
    • Hostname

      Name of the vCenter Server Appliance machine.

    • Preferred DNS server

      IP address of the preferred DNS server.

    • Alternate DNS server

      IP address of the alternate DNS server.

    • Search domains

      Restricts the domain when looking up an address. Domains that you type, are searched in the order you list them, and the search stops when a valid name is found.

  7. Expand the network interface name to edit the IP address settings.
  8. Edit the IPv4 address settings.
    Option Description
    No IPv4 settings Disables the IPv4 address. The appliance uses only an IPv6 address.
    Obtain IPv4 settings automatically Obtains the IPv4 address for the appliance automatically from the network.
    Use the following IPv4 settings Uses an IPv4 address that you set manually. You must enter the IP address, subnet prefix length, and the default gateway.
  9. Edit the IPv6 settings.
    Option Description
    Obtain IPv6 settings automatically through DHCP Assigns IPv6 addresses to the appliance automatically from the network by using DHCP.
    Obtain IPv6 settings automatically through Router Advertisement Assigns IPv6 addresses to the appliance automatically from the network by using router advertisement.
    Static IPv6 addresses Uses static IPv6 addresses that you set up manually.
    1. Click the Add icon.
    2. Enter the IPv6 address and the subnet prefix length.
    3. Click OK.
    4. (Optional) Edit the default gateway.

    You can configure the appliance to obtain the IPv6 settings automatically through both DHCP and router advertisement. You can assign static a IPv6 address at the same time.

  10. (Optional) Delete a dynamic IPv6 address.
    1. Click Remove addresses.
    2. Select the IP address to delete and click the Delete icon ().
    3. Click OK.
  11. Click OK to save your edits.

What to do next

You need to restart the dnsmasq service to flush the old cache data.

  1. Connect to the vCenter Server Appliance using SSH.
  2. Change the BASH shell by entering the shell command.
  3. Run service dnsmasq restart to restart the dnsmasq service.