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Accepted
Mike Fiedler
Asked: 2009-06-16 13:47:53 +0800 CST

How to rename an ESX 3.5 server?

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We want to rename the machine and preserve all performance data in the SQL Server on the VirtualCenter.

What procedure would you recommend? DNS updates/changes, SQL statements and service console commands.

virtualization vmware-esx

2 Answers

  1. Changing the server name is easy enough - DNS and a tiny bit of console work but keeping the performance data up to date with it seems a bit too much trouble to me.

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  2. Best Answer

    It seems like there is no current documented way to preserve performance data of the host.

    After some thought, it seems like it doesn't matter, anyways, since what matters is the history of the VM, not the host.

    So renaming a host was this process:

    1. Change DNS. Create A record for the host with the new name, remove the A record for the old, and create a CNAME for the old name
    2. Evacuate host, place in maintenance mode
    3. Use VI Client to rename host in DNS and Routing
    4. Reboot host.
    5. Remove Host from VI.
    6. Attach to host with new DNS name

    When all is said and done, and everything works well, clear out the DNS CNAMEs created.

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