DNS Domain name field for ESX Servers are "empty" - Support and Troubleshooting

DNS Domain name field for ESX Servers are "empty" Issue  Symptoms Post vCenter discovery it was observed that few of the ESX servers DNS Domain name field is not populated. Release Any release. Cause The probable cause is the target ESX servers doesn't have the FQDN name configured. Troubleshooting In order to troubleshoot further,

Compare the ESX server CIs which has DNS Domain field populated and not populated.

Re-run the discovery towards the respective vCenter CI's. Compare the "VMWarevCenterESXHostsProbe" Input payload for working and non-working ESX hosts. >working ESX>

{"type":"HostSystem","morid":"host-29","name":" abc.expr.com ","install_status":false,"os_version":"VMware ESXi 5.5.0 build-2403361","network":["network-35","network-34"],"datastore":["datastore-30","datastore-31","datastore-32","datastore-33"],"vm":["vm-49","vm-39","vm-38","vm-121","vm-61","vm-37","vm-41"],"correlation_id":"30393137-3436-5a43-4a35-33363034505a","cpu_speed":2297,"model_id":"ProLiant DL380 Gen9","ram":98175,"cpu_count":2,"cpu_core_count":10,"manufacturer":"HP","cpu_type":"Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2650 v3 @ 2.30GHz","ip_address":"xx.xx.xx.xx","cpu_manufacturer":"intel","serial_number":"CZJ53604PZ","cluster":["domain-c26"],"disk_space":3605}

>non-working ESX>

{"type":"HostSystem","morid":"host-325","name":" xyz ","install_status":false,"os_version":"VMware ESXi 5.5.0 build-1331820","network":["network-36","network-35","network-38","network-37"],"datastore":["datastore-326","datastore-366","datastore-367"],"vm":["vm-289","vm-323","vm-306","vm-295"],"correlation_id":"32333536-3030-5355-4533-333443444d59","cpu_speed":2294,"model_id":"ProLiant DL380p Gen8","ram":262109,"cpu_count":2,"cpu_core_count":6,"manufacturer":"HP","cpu_type":"Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2630 0 @ 2.30GHz","ip_address":"xx.xx.xx.xx","cpu_manufacturer":"intel","serial_number":"USE334CDMY","cluster":["domain-c79"],"disk_space":4369}

In the payload received we could see the name probed for one ESX with FQDN and other without FQDN. (text highlighted) Logic " VCenterESXHostsSensor " sensor is responsible for updating data to the "cmdb_ci_esx_server" table. https:// nav_to.do?uri=sys_script_include.do?sys_id=4c6fbb6f8f575200c2fe0b5437bdeeae This sensor script in turns calls the another script include " HostnameJS " to process the "hostname" var vCenterSysId, vCenterUuid, datacenterMorId, datacenterSysId, fullDiscovery, _this,

enableCmpApi,

hostname = new HostnameJS() ,

esxVmMap = { },

hostMounts = [ ],

serialNumbers = [ ], This " HostnameJS " script include parses the domain name from what the "VMWarevCenterESXHostsProbe" probe has probed from the target server. https:// /nav_to.do?uri=sys_script_include.do?sys_id=8998a2500ab3015300e6ebbf8bc77f26 _parseFQDN: function(sysName) {

this.sysName = sysName

// A fully qualified domain name should never have spaces in it. If it does, then we can't really parse it.

if (sysName.indexOf(" ") > -1)

return;

// If the hostname is an IP address, then there's really nothing to parse.

if (SncIPAddressV4.getIPAddressV4Instance(sysName))

return;

// In order to parse FQDN, the name must have at least 2 dots in it, such as mac1.snc.com

var parts = sysName.split('.');

if (parts.length < 3)

return;

// Parse FQDN with regex. By default, we take the first one separated by dot as

// the host name and the rest of at least two as the domain name.

try {

var regexStr = gs.getProperty('glide.discovery.fqdn.regex', "^([^.]+)\\.((?:[^.]+\\.)+[^.]+)$");

var fqdnRegex = new RegExp(regexStr);

var groups = fqdnRegex.exec(sysName);

if (groups.length != 3)

return;

this.sysName = groups[1];

this.dnsDomain = groups[2];

} catch (e) {

this.log("FQDN parsing error! The regex " + regexStr + " was not able to parse '" + sysName + "'. The error is " + e.message, "warning");

}

}, If you see the above script logic, the name which is probed must have at least 2 dots in it, such as mac1.snc.com . So that this sensor will parse FQDN with regex and update the "DNS Domain" name field. In this scenario, the ESX hosts " abc " has complete FQDN " abc.expr.com " and the corresponding "HostnameJS" script include parsed FQDN with regex with the right value. But for the non-working ESX server " xyz ", the name was probed as " xyz " which doesn't have FQDN. Resolution The Customer has to check internally with VM Admin to see how the ESX hosts name are configured and alter them accordingly.