Configuring High Availability on a HA/DRS cluster fails with the error: error while running health check script

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Unable to configure High Availability (HA) on a HA/DRS cluster
• Configuring HA on a HA/DRS cluster fails
• You see this error:
  
  HA agent on xxxxxx in cluster xxxxx in xxxxxxx has an error: error while running health check script

Environment

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

Resolution

This issue can occur due to Distributed Power Management.

To resolve this issue:

• Bring the host out of Standby Mode
• Edit setting on the cluster and disable Distributed Power Management
• Reconfigure high availability on any host that has this error
• Enable Distributed Power Management

Alternatively, you can disable and then enable HA. This causes a re-push of the HA agents and results in these alerts to cease.

To disable and re-enable HA:

• In the vSphere Client, right-click the cluster and click Edit Settings.
• Deselect the Turn On VMware HA option.
• Click OK.
• In the vSphere Client, right-click the cluster and click Edit Settings again.
• Select the Turn On VMware HA option.
• Click OK.