VCenter 6.5 installation - internal error

Question

I'm getting an error "internal error" when trying to "Set up vCenter Server Appliance" as shown in the attached screenshot:

It starts as shown in the second screenshot and then it throws the internal error, it looks like it's failing to set the host name.

I already checked /var/log/messages but there is nothing helpful there, is there any other log files that I need to check that might show the exact error?

The vCenter is installed on eSXI 6.

Solution

Having run into exactly this issue in my case it transpired that the DNS server that is set in the console of the appliance is the one used to look up the name. If the name won't look up in that dns server you get this error. The DNS server that you set in the VCS appliance configuration screen (the one on https://vcs-appliance:5480) appears not to be used). You need to open the console in ESXi view of the virtual machine and set the DNS server there.

Of course if you specify an IP address for the host name this doesn't happen because it doesn't look the host name up in DNS.

Not to say that that is the only reason you may see the error but it's enough in itself.

Comments

[Christian Ulbrich]

I can confirm your observations. I guess it happens, because the installer tries to set the host name, before it tries to update the network settings. Furthermore I can only add, that the installer did not work with my router's (a Fritz!Box, being very popular in Germany) builtin DNS server, although dig (was able to do forward+reverse lookups) - thus I had to install my own (I went with CoreDNS) and I had to change the DNS server in the console to use the new one.