PowerChute Network Shutdown fails to power down ESXi host and records in the error log "cannot obtain HostSystem using findByIP or findByDnsName for critical host:"
Issue:
PowerChute error log reports "cannot obtain HostSystem using findByIP or findByDnsName for critical host:" for the configured ESXi host listed in the host protection page, and the host fails to power down.
Product:
PowerChute Network Shutdown
Environment:
PowerChute configured with VMware vCenter Server
Cause:
This concerns how the host's name appears in the vCenter inventory.
Example: The vCenter inventory lists the host as apc-esxi01.somedomain.com , while on the ESXi host, the hostname appears as ABC-ESXI01. This mismatch causes the FindByDNSName API call to fail when issued against an ESXi host.
Solution:
Log in to each ESXi host via SSH and use esxcli to update the hostname to match what appears in vCenter:
esxcli system hostname set --fqdn apc-esxi01.somedomain.com