Edit the DNS and IP Address Settings of the vCenter Server Appliance

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

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.

Note: In vCenter Server 6.7, using dual IP stacks (IPv4 and IPv6) is not supported.

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, click Home > Administration > System Configuration.
3. Under System Configuration, click Nodes.
4. Under Nodes, select a node and click the Manage tab.
5. 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	You can specify the DNS address settings manually. If you select this option, you must provide: Hostname for the vCenter Server Appliance machine. Preferred DNS server IP address. Alternate DNS server IP address. Search domains if you want to restrict the domain when looking up an address. Domains that you enter are searched in the order entered. 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 address 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.
   Use static IPv6 addresses	Uses static IPv6 addresses that you set up manually. Click the checkbox. Enter the IPv6 address and the subnet prefix length. Click Add to enter additional IPv6 addresses. Click Save.

   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 you want to delete and click the Delete icon ().
    3. Click OK.
11. Click OK to save your edits.

What to do next

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.