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PowerEdge: iDRAC is not displaying ESXi Host Name and Operating System correctly

Summary: Provides steps to populate the system hostname and operating system in iDRAC for servers running VMware ESXi 6.5 and newer.

This article applies to This article does not apply to This article is not tied to any specific product. Not all product versions are identified in this article.
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Symptoms

iDRAC users may notice that Dell EMC PowerEdge servers are not reporting VMware ESXi 6.5 or 6.7 System Host Name and Operating System fields in the iDRAC web and CLI interfaces. This behavior differs from the behavior previously witnessed on Dell EMC PowerEdge servers with VMware ESXi 6.0 and older. 



Image of IDRAC hostname and ESXi hostname 

Cause

iDRAC does not poll the hostname of the Operating System. The Operating System pushes the hostname to the iDRAC controller through CIM providers. In ESXi 6.0, the CIM provider is enabled by default. This behavior changed in ESXi 6.5. CIM providers are disabled by default.

Resolution

To correct this behavior, you must enable CIM providers through ESXCLI and reboot the host.

esxcli system wbem set –e true
/etc/init.d/sfcbd-watchdog start

 After the reboot is complete, refresh the iDRAC and you should see that the hostname loaded updated.

Screenshot of ESXI and IDRAC hostname matching  

In newer builds of ESXi 6.5 and 6.7, enabling wbem will still not show the correct ESXi hostname in iDRAC. This is due to an intentional change by VMware where this functionality (writing hostname to BMC using inbox CIM providers) was removed. The future intention is for the hostd service to perform this function.

If enabling wbem (directions listed above) do not resolve the issue, the recommendation is to install either the Dell EMC iSM (iDRAC Service Module) or OpenManage Server Administrator vSphere Installation Bundle (VIB) for ESXi in the ESXi operating system.

Affected Products

iDRAC7, iDRAC8, iDRAC9, VMware ESXi 6.5.X, VMware ESXi 6.7.X, VMware ESXi 6.x, VMware ESXi 7.x

Products

iDRAC Service Module, PowerEdge FC640, PowerEdge M640, PowerEdge M640 (for PE VRTX), PowerEdge MX740C, PowerEdge MX840C, PowerEdge R240, PowerEdge R250, PowerEdge R340, PowerEdge R350, PowerEdge R440, PowerEdge R450, PowerEdge R540, PowerEdge R550 , PowerEdge R640, PowerEdge R6415, PowerEdge R650, PowerEdge R650xs, PowerEdge R6515, PowerEdge R6525, PowerEdge R740, PowerEdge R740XD, PowerEdge R740XD2, PowerEdge R7415, PowerEdge R7425, PowerEdge R750, PowerEdge R750XA, PowerEdge R750xs, PowerEdge R7515, PowerEdge R7525, PowerEdge R840, PowerEdge R940, PowerEdge R940xa, PowerEdge T140, PowerEdge T150, PowerEdge T340, PowerEdge T350, PowerEdge T440, PowerEdge T550, PowerEdge T640 ...
Article Properties
Article Number: 000142904
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 04 Dec 2024
Version:  7
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