ESXi 5.x host not respondig after chaning the vCenter appliance IP address
In my lab I changed the IP address of my vCenter 5.1 appliance.
I thought it would be pretty easy. Just connect to the vCenter appliance management port 5490 with HTTPS.
Login as root and go to the Network tab. Change the IP and reboot the vCenter appliance.
But after the reboot all my vSphere ESXi hosts where marked as “Not responding”. When I did a connect on the ESXi host the ESXi server connected. But after a minute the where marked as “Not responding” again. This minute is the default timeout value when vCenter doesn’t receive any heartbeats from the ESXi hosts. I read that vCenter listens at TCP and UDP 902. So I tried to telnet to the new vCenter IP address at port 902 and I didn’t get a response. So obvious vCenter isn’t listing on the TCP 902.
Then I looked at the vCenter settings. Login on the vCenter appliance with a vSphere client. Select the vCenter, select settings, general. Click “Edit”. Under runtime settings you will see the configured IP address. In my case this was the old IP address. After changing the old IP to the new IP address and a reboot my ESXi hosts kept connected.
Michael Wilmsen is a experienced VMware Architect with more than 20 years in the IT industry. Main focus is VMware vSphere, Horizon View and Hyper Converged with a deep interest into performance and architecture.
Michael is VCDX 210 certified, has been rewarded with the vExpert title from 2011, Nutanix Tech Champion and a Nutanix Platform Professional.
