vSphere 7 – How to change the FQDN and IP (PNID) Address of vCenter Server Appliance

There is a new feature in vSphere 7 allowing admins to change FQDN and IP of vCenter Server Appliance, the feature for which I personally was waiting a long time.

Why am I interested in changing FQDN or IP?

Recently we acquired another company and I would like to change their vCenters FQDNs to the naming convention in my company for consistency.

Another reason is that I moved one of datacenters and FQDN is not consist with new location.

Furthermore, in my current FQDN I have number of running version something like this : vCenter-6.5-London. I don’t want version number anymore as it is not consist with real version we are on.

Before you jump to changing PNID, have a look on some consideration you need to take: Before and After vCenter FQDN and IP (PNID) change – IMPORTANT!

Here is my playbook:

Login to VAMI – vCenter Server Appliance Management Interface – on port 5480
Go to Networking

On the Networking page click EDIT in top right corner for Network settings

Select Network Adapter and click NEXT
Here is the place where you can change Hostname and DNS

Below Hostname and DNS you can change IP settings for NIC
Click NEXT and you will be prompt for administrator password

Click NEXT and you will be presented with “Ready to complete” summary page. Review your new settings and accept the acknowledgment that you made a backup of vCenter Server Appliance before continuing with the network configuration.

NOTE: Be sure that FQDN and IP address are set properly.
Also changing NIC of management network adapter WILL result in downtime of your vCenter Server and can take some time before it will be up and running.