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ESXi: DNS appears not working properly

Server Fault Asked by ksg on January 28, 2021

I have a working ESXi instance. Until recently, domain resolution worked this way:

  1. esxi.example.com is resolved to ESXi host instance (hereinafter "Host") within LAN.
  2. A VM ("Guest1") on Host runs Linux, and it’s hostname is configured as ‘guest1.example.com’ on guest OS. Then, guest1.example.com is resolved to Guest1 within LAN.

Today I realised things aren’t working this way. i.e. within LAN, guest1.example.com is not resolved at all.
I’ve confirmed these things:

  1. nslookup on Host SSH, Guest1 shell, and another PC within LAN, all fail.
  2. /etc/hostname on Guest1 is left unchanged. i.e. the content was ‘guest1.example.com’.
  3. The VM list on ESXi web client (esxi.example.com/ui) shows ‘guest1.example.com’ as the hostname value of Guest1, which is correct.

I’m totally at lost how I can resolve this issue. Any hint would be appreciated.


  • ESXi client version 1.33.5 (build 15102916)
  • ESXi version 6.7.0 (build 15160138)

One Answer

Without some information about how these names were previously resolved (a hosts/hostname file, manual DNS aliases in the router, a dedicated DNS server, or perhaps something configured in VMware), it is difficult to determine what might be wrong.

Where did you configure the hostname you expect to see in DNS? /etc/hostname and /etc/hosts will not propagate IP or name information, they are used for resolution and naming on the machine they reside on.

The name that shows up in the Web UI or in SSH on the VMware host does not create a DNS entry or the files in the previous example.

A DNS entry would be different than either of the above. Some routers have a light DNS server that can be configured through the web UI or SSH sessions. Many people use a Windows or Linux/Unix DNS server, either of which might be configured through a commandline, a locally run GUI, or an a web UI. I run a caching BIND/named server on a small single board computer at home because it's easy and because I don't need local zones yet (though I intend to set them up sometime soon).

Answered by Kris Long on January 28, 2021

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