Adding an ESX host to the vCenter Server inventory fails with the error: vmodl.fault.HostCommunication

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Adding an ESX host to the vCenter Server inventory fails
• If you try to add an ESX host to the vCenter Server inventory, you see an error similar to the following in vCenter Server:
  
  A general system error occurred: internal error: vmodl.fault.HostCommunication.
  
• The vpxd.log on the vCenter Server contains an entry similar to:
  
  [2009-06-19 14:04:12.493 00664 error 'App'] [VpxdInvtHost] GetChanges failed on host /vpx/host/#2176/: vmodl.fault.HostCommunication
  
• Restarting the ESX Management Agents does not resolve this issue.
  
  Note: For more information, see Restarting the Management agents on an ESXi or ESX host (1003490).

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x

Resolution

This issue may occur if name resolution is configured incorrectly.

To resolve this issue:

• Verify that name resolution is correctly configured on the ESX host. For more information, see Identifying issues with and setting up name resolution on ESX/ESXi Server (1003735).
• Verify that name resolution is correctly configured on the VMware VirtualCenter Server. For more information, see Configuring name resolution for VMware vCenter Server (1003713).
• Verify that the version of ESX host is compatible with vCenter Server. For more information, see Adding an ESX/ESXi 4.1 host to vCenter Server 4.0 fails with the error: interal error:vmodl.fault.hostCommunication (1024381).

This issue may also occur if a Windows 2008 guest operating system is running on the ESX 3.5 Update 2 host, which is not supported. For more information, see the Compatibility Guide .

To resolve this issue, power off the virtual machine and then add the ESX host to the vCenter Server inventory.

Additional Information

For more information about other ESX host connection issues, see:

• TCP and UDP Ports for vCenter Server, ESX hosts, and other network components management access (1012382)
• Diagnosing an ESX Server that is Disconnected or Not Responding in VirtualCenter (1003409)
• Troubleshooting the vCenter Server Agent when it does not start (1006128)
  

Troubleshooting an ESXi/ESX host in non responding state
Restarting the Management agents in ESXi
Configuring name resolution for VMware vCenter Server
Identifying issues with and setting up name resolution on ESX/ESXi Server
Troubleshooting the vCenter Server Agent when it does not start
TCP and UDP Ports required to access VMware vCenter Server, VMware ESXi and ESX hosts, and other network components
Adding an ESX/ESXi 4.1 host to vCenter Server 4.0 fails with the error: interal error:vmodl.fault.hostCommunication
vCenter Server インベントリへの ESX ホストの追加が次のエラーで失敗する： vmodl.fault.HostCommunication
将 ESX 主机添加到 vCenter Server 清单失败，并显示以下错误：vmodl.fault.HostCommunication