Changing IP and VLAN on host - no VM downtime

It is possible to change the service console (COS) IP and VLAN id for hosts in a cluster without having VM downtime (see this post for changing hostname). The trick is to change the COS IP first on all hosts and then wait with the changing of the vMotion IP until all COS IP's have been changed. This way, you will be able to put the hosts into maintenance mode one by one and vMotion will still work with the old IP even though COS IP's will differ in range and VLAN id.

NB. It may be neccesary to disable HA for the cluster before you begin as the HA agent will not be able to configure on the hosts when IP's don't match for all hosts.

1. Enter maintenance mode
2. Update the DNS entry on the DNS server
3. Log on to the vCenter server and flush the DNS: ipconfig /flushdns
4. Go to ILO, DRAC or something similar for the host (you will loose remote network connection when changing the IP) and change the IP (use this KB article for inspiration): 
5. [root@server root]# esxcfg-vswif -i a.b.c.d -n w.x.y.z vswif0 , where a.b.c.d is the IP address and w.x.y.z is the subnet mask.
6. Change the VLAN id (in this case VLAN 12): esxcfg-vswitch -v 12 -p 'Service Console' vSwitch0
7. Change gateway: nano /etc/sysconfig/network
8. Change DNS servers: nano /etc/resolv.conf
9. Restart network: service network restart
10. Ensure that gateway can be pinged
11. Update the NTP server from the vSphere client if needed.
12. Continue the process with next host in the cluster

When all COS IP's have been changed, go to the vSphere client and change all vMotion IP addresses and VLAN id's. This will not require any downtime. And then test that vMotion works.

Done.

Changing hostname from the service console

The easiest way to change the hostname is via the vSphere client (see this post for changing IP address and VLAN IP). If, however, this is not an option for some reason, the hostname can be changed from the service console the following way:

This KB article actually explains most of the proces which includes:

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1. Open the /etc/hosts file with a text editor and modify it so that it reflects the correct hostname.

2. To change the default gateway address and the hostname, edit the /etc/sysconfig/network file and change the GATEWAY and HOSTNAME parameters to the proper values.

3. For the changes to take place, reboot the host or restart the network service with the command:
[root@server root]# service network restart
Note: This command breaks any current network connections to the Service Console, but virtual machines continue to have network connection.

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I have experienced that after a reboot, the changes are reset and the hostname is changed back to the original one. To avoid this, there is one more step to be performed (before reboot):

Change the /adv/Misc/HostName parameter in /etc/vmware/esx.conf file (see screendump)

Cant See Secure Sites

Fix the problem with seeing them secure sites (banks or online stores) i found this very useful to me at my work (

Any way... what u need to do is make a new notepad file and write in it the following DLL's.. just copy-paste these

regsvr32 SOFTPUB.DLL

regsvr32 WINTRUST.DLL

regsvr32 INITPKI.DLL

regsvr32 dssenh.dll

regsvr32 Rsaenh.dll

regsvr32 gpkcsp.dll

regsvr32 sccbase.dll

regsvr32 slbcsp.dll

regsvr32 Cryptdlg.dll

and save it as > all file types, and make it something like securefix.bat.

then just run the file and ur problem should be gone.