Cannot install the vSphere HA (FDM) agent on an ESXi 5.0 host when in Lockdown Mode

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• HA fails to configure on an ESXi host
• Installing HA (FDM) on an ESXi host in lockdown mode fails
• Unable to configure HA on an ESXi host.
• In the vSphere Client connected to vCenter Server, you see these errors:
  
  
  • Cannot install the vCenter agent service
  • vSphere HA agent cannot be correctly installed or configured.
  
  
• In the /var/run/log/fdm-installer.log file, you see entries similar to:
  
  fdm-installer: [5719] 2011-09-07 07:41:40: Logging to /var/run/log/fdm-installer.log
  fdm-installer: [5719] 2011-09-07 07:41:41: extracting vpx-upgrade-installer/VMware-fdm-eesx-3-linux-455964.tar.gz...
  [5719] 2011-09-07 07:41:41: exec rm -f /tmp/vmware-root/ha-agentmgr/upgrade
  [5719] 2011-09-07 07:41:41: status = 0
  [5719] 2011-09-07 07:41:41: exec cd /tmp/vmware-root/ha-agentmgr/vpx-upgrade-installer
  [5719] 2011-09-07 07:41:41: status = 0
  fdm-installer: [5719] 2011-09-07 07:41:41: Installing the VIB
  fdm-installer: [5719] 2011-09-07 07:41:41: Result of esxcli software vib install -v=/tmp/vmware-root/ha-agentmgr/vpx-upgrade-installer/vmware-fdm.vib: Connect to localhost failed: Permission to perform this operation was denied.
  
  
• If the ESXi host is in Lockdown mode before the upgrade when it re-connects to the vCenter Server after the upgrade the following error may be reported when HA attempts to re-configure:
  
  unknown installer error

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 5.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0

Cause

This issue occurs when the lockdown mode is enabled in the ESXi host. The esxcli operations fail with the Permission to perform this operation was denied error.

Resolution

To workaround this issue:

1. Disable lockdown mode in the ESXi host. For more information, see Enabling or disabling Lockdown mode on an ESXi host (1008077)
2. In vCenter Server, right-click the host and click Reconfigure HA.
3. After HA is reconfigured, you can re-enable lockdown mode.

Additional Information

Note: Issue was also found to occur when the /root partition on an ESXi 4.0 was showing as a 100% full. Freeing up space on the / partition, resolved the issue.
Enabling or disabling Lockdown mode on an ESXi host
Configuring HA after upgrading to vCenter Server 5.0 fails with the error: Cannot complete the configuration of the vSphere HA agent on the host. Misconfiguration in the host setup