vCenter Server produces the alarm: Agent can't send heartbeats.msg size: xxx, sendto() returned: Operation not permitted

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• When making firewall changes either manually or though a script, you see this alarm in vCenter Server:
  
  Error detected on 192.168.254.2 in Datacenter: Agent can't send heartbeats.msg size: xxx, sendto() returned: Operation not permitted
  
• This alarm is triggered repeatedly.
• The /var/log/vmware/vpx/vpxa.log file contains this entry:
  
  [2010-02-17 12:52:42.500 0xf7afbb90 error 'Heartbeat'] Agent can't send heartbeats.msg size: xxx, sendto() returned: Operation not permitted

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 4.1.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x

Resolution

To work around this issue, modify the Host Error alarms definition to disable the alarm during the firewall reconfiguration of the ESX host.

To modify the Host Error alarm definition:

1. In the vSphere Client Hosts and Cluster view, click the icon at the highest level.
2. Click the Alarms tab.
3. Click Definitions.
4. Right-click the Host Error alarm and click View Settings.
5. Click the Triggers tab.
6. Click Advanced under Conditions for the Host Error event.
7. Click Add.
8. Set the Argument to Full Message from the dropdown menu.
9. Set the Operator to Not Equal to from the dropdown menu..
10. Enter a value for Agent can't send heartbeats.msg size.
11. Click OK to save the Trigger Conditions.
12. Click OK to apply the Alarm Settings.