New to vCenter with questions

[Cuore_Sportivo]

Hi everyone!

I am new to vCenter and I have a couple of (stupid maybe) questions. I had been using ESXi 5.5 (free license) at my home server until yesterday, that I downloaded and installed a trial version of ESXi 6 plus vCenter 6 server.

My first problem is that I cannot access my server by using my domain name (provided by a DDNS service). Whenever I try to connect via the domain (either by a browser or mobile Watchlist), the server is not responding. If I just type its local IP, I will connect just fine. I should mention here, just in case, that during vCenter's installation, I filled FQDN's box with the local IP address. While I was with ESXi 5.5, everything was working just fine.

Second question has to do with VW compatibility. I upgraded the compatibility at a couple of VMs and now I guess I will be unable to edit the hardware when using the old client, right?

Since I don't have a license for vcenter, I plan to just use free ESXi after vCenter's license expiration. Is there any way to downgrade VM compatibility?

I've also noticed something extremely weird.

When I sign in vCenter, many times my keyboard will stop responding. More specifically, I will be able to press the F keys and the Ctrl, Alt etc, but when I type letters and numbers nothing happens.

I'm almost certain that this has nothing to do with my desktop (Win 8.1 Pro), since it started happening yesterday, when I firstly signed in vCenter.

Anyone ever noticed it before?

Thanks for your time!

Any help is appreciated.

[RichardBush]

Hi, to answer the second question.

The Version 6 C# will allow you to edit vmware hardware 11 (or below), this is a host client and you connect directly to the ESXI host.

Rich

[RichardBush]

For the first question i think more details are required..

You say "My first problem is that I cannot access my server by using my domain name (provided by a DDNS service). Whenever I try to connect via the domain (either by a browser or mobile Watchlist), the server is not responding. If I just type its local IP, I will connect just fine."

when you ping the FQDN from the client accessing what is it resolving to ? is this the correct IP ? Are you trying to connect from an external location ? or internal ?

If you are coming in from external this sounds like a firewall / port forwarding issue... Easy way to check, add the FQDN to the client host file pointing to the local IP (client needs to be on same local net as server) does the FQDN work now ?

If you can answer the above we may be able to help.

Rich

[Cuore_Sportivo]

Hi RichardBush and thanks for your reply.

During vCenter's installation, at the FQDN box, I filled the local IP address (192.168.1.12) of the vCenter instance, not a domain.

The only possible way to connect to vCenter is by typing the local IP. When (locally or remotely) typing the domain name (e.g. mydomain.ddns.net:9443) the server is not responding.

I had port forwarded at my router's NAT settings, the public port 9443 to 443 vCenter's port. Nothing worked so I switched from local 443 to 9443, cause I read the vCenter 5.5 was using port 9443. Once again, same results..

I can remotely connect to a VM of the host without any kind of problems, so I guess the problem has nothing to do with the ddns provider or the router's firewall.

[RichardBush]

Hi ,

ok locally, if you ping the fqdn ew mydomain.ddns.net does that respond to 192.168.1.12? or are you resolving to an external ?

Lets see if we can get internal working first.

R

[Cuore_Sportivo]

No it's not responding to the local IP address. But I think that this is how it should be (correct me if I am wrong), cause I have one port (9443 forwarded to 443 of vCenter) open on my router's firewall.

[RichardBush]

Ok this is what i would suggest you do to be sure its a problem going via the FW.

Place a entry in the host file to point your dydns entry to resolve your local IP address. how to : http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/article/how-do-i-modify-my-hosts-file

Then check it resolves the internal IP address and try to connect by FQDN. if this works it would suggest that it is a fw issue, port / nat traversal / hair pining.

Rich