Quick Tip: VMWare ESXi Host DNS Records

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I just wanted to send out another quick tip about VMWare. When setting up an ESXi host or a vCenter environment make sure to create DNS records for your hosts. It’s a lot easier to remember ESXi01.example.com then 10.50.101.X. Especially if you have a lot of ESXi host to manage. Also within vCenter DNS names look nicer then IP Addresses

ESXi DNS Names

To do this all you have to do is log into your DNS Server and create a DNS A record for each ESXi host. Assuming you’re using Windows Server DNS Server on your domain controllers then all these records will replicate to your other DNS Servers. If you’re not using Windows DNS, then refer to you DNS software to see how to create a records. If you’re using IPv6 then make sure to create AAAA as well.

This post specifically is designated for ESXi hosts that are in a static configuration. This means you have a certain set of ESXi hosts that are on 24/7 and run your current company environment. This also help the configuration of other related items. For example when you configure VM based backups in Veeam and other backup solutions. Assuming your backup server uses the same DNS server as the vCenter server then your can specify the name of the vCenter server or host names within your backup software instead of IP Addresses.

This does not cover the advanced options in the enterprise editions of VMWare vSphere where vCenter can do PXE boot options and/or dynamically boot or shutdown ESXi hosts based on the resource load within vCenter. When you get into those types of configurations there is many more options available.

-Terry Sheridan