VMware restore requires working DNS?

[D_Flood]

Environment: Netbackup Enterprise Server 7.0.0+a VMware related hotfix, W2k8 64 Standard

                    ESX version 4.1 running stand-alone (no Vsphere)

During a recent DR exercise we found that we were getting the error listed in:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH135461&actp=search&viewlocale=en_US&searchid=1315516973126

and could only fix it by restoring the DNS/Domain Controller VM from another type of backup, configuring the network card, and boucing the netbackup services to pick up the changes.

I did forget about (and thus didn't try) the Master Server setting for "reverse name lookup" but I'm also getting the impression from the error logs that I saw (no longer have access to the systems, they were provided as part of the DR test) that ESX also requires DNS to authenticate....

So..if you are starting with only a netbackup server and and ESX server, is there a way to restore a VM to ESX without DNS?

Or is this a "key inside the vault" situration and I need to think about restoring to a hard server or some other DNS option?  And no, Wk28 Standard doesn't provide the ability to install local DNS unless I promote the server to DC which will never happen......

[GlenG]

I do not know if this relates to our problem (I am NOT backing up/restoring VMware) but we were advised by our vendor to use /etc/hosts entries for all the NBU clients.  It does require extra work to keep it up to date but it seems to avoid DNS issuses.

have a good weekend,

GlenG

[D_Flood]

Thanks GlenG.  We did try that but there's no easy way to add/edit the HOSTS file on an ESX appliance....so without working DNS the handshaking fails...

[Anonymous]

ESX has a service console you can logon to. Just add yourself in as a user using the vsphere client. And add yourself to the wheel group. Then vi the /etc/hosts file.

See here for editing 

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&externalId=1020302

[D_Flood]

Thanks!  I'll pass that on to our VMware Admin.  Functions are highly compartimentalized so I have no access at all to the VMware side of things.

[pikachu]

I have been working many vStorage cases and we prefer to use DNS over hosts. I  have had cases in which case a DNS was required to do the restore no matter how much we edited the hosts file on all the necessary machines.