Change the name of your PNS Virtual Appliance

[Anonymous user]

Hi ,

I have deployed a Virtual Appliance with PNS in it.
As soon as i use the plugin to configure the PNS in VCenter,the name of the appliance is displayed as localhost.

how can i change this?

See attached screenshot

[BillP]

Hi,

Are you using static IP address or DHCP. If using static address you can go to https://system ip:5480 and enter a host name.

If using DHCP you need to edit /etc/hosts and add the assigned ip address and the host name

[Anonymous user]

Hi Bill,

Thanks that looks the place where it should be 🙂 Although i am running in a problem there when i try to logon: " unable to authenticate user : Please try again "
No matter which account i use... any other suggestions?

[BillP]

Hi,

Another way to do this, is to go to the PCNS console and type the following command as shown in the below screenshot and press option 3 to type the hostname:

You may have to restart the PowerChute service before it shows up the hostname. To stop and start the PowerChute service the commands are below:

sudo etc/init.d/PowerChute stop

sudo etc/init.d/PowerChute start

Regards,

B

[Anonymous user]

Hi QueenB,

When i do it like that, i get the same message as you : Hostname has been set to ****
But as soon as i re-start the VM , it is been set back to LocalHost

[BillP]

Hi,

Where were you logging in when seeing the error? Through the web interface to port 5480 or logging into the console? From reading your reply to QueenB I assume you can log into the console. If that is the case you can add the host name to /etc/hosts. I tested using both static and DHCP and the below entries worked for either setting both.

NOTE: you should make a copy of the hosts file just in case while editing the file something goes wrong. That way you have a copy of the original settings to revert to.

As

[Anonymous user]

Hi,

Yes, i am able to login the console, and the steps discribed by QueenB gave me the option to re-name the appliance. But as soon as i reboot the VM, the name is set back to the original :"localhost" Should there be a step in the console where i need to specify to save that config?

[Anonymous user]

Nobody who can tell me how to safe the change which has been made to the name of the Appliance?

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Sorry for the delay in responding. You should have been able to edit /etc/hosts and /etc/sysconfig/network adding the required host name and that would resolve the issue. However, as you see when rebooting the OS the host name reverts back to localhost. I found VMware Kbase 2051759 that explains how to change the host name so that is remains after a reboot.

The steps are

1 - Power down the OS

2 - Using vSphere Client double click on the Appliance and select Edit virtual machine settings.

3 - Select the options tab

4 - Select Advanced that is under vApp Option and click on the Properties button on the right

5 - The Advanced Property configuration window will appear. Select New at the bottom of the window.

6 - In the Edit Property Settings window change

     Category = Networking Properties

     Label = Hostname

     Class ID = vami

     ID = hostname (this is case sensitive)

     Default value = desired hostname

7 - Click OK on all of the windows to close each of them

8 - Click on Edit virtual machine settings (again)

9 - Select the Options tab

10 - Select Properties that is under the vApp Options

11 - On the right side of the window there will be the vApp Property Configuration, using the scroll bar scroll down to Hostname and enter the desired hostname then click OK

Power on the PCNS Appliance and the desired host name will now be permanent.

Log into the appliance and you will see the prompt has changed from localhost the the new name and you can test by running the hostname command at the prompt. The new host name will appear.