Adding or reconnecting an ESX/ESXi 4.x host to vCenter Server fails with the error: Failed to configure the VIM account on the host

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Cannot add or reconnect an ESX/ESXi host to vCenter Server
• Adding or reconnecting an ESX/ESXi host to vCenter Server fails
• You see one of these errors:
  
  
  • Failed to configure the VIM account on the host
  • Failed to configure the VIM account on the host: at line number 7, not well-formed (invalid token)
  • Failed to configure the VIM account on the host: Operation timed out

Environment

VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable

Cause

This issue occurs when vCenter Server is unable to create/reconfigure the necessary user account on the host.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, delete the vpxuser account. Once you add/reconnect the host to vCenter Server, the vpxuser account is automatically recreated.

To delete the vpxuser account:

1. Ensure to remove the ESX/ESXi host from vCenter Server if it is already connected.
2. Log in to the host as the root user using the Virtual Infrastructure Client
3. Navigate to the Local Users & Groups tab.
4. Right-click the VPXUser account and click Delete.
5. Restart the vpxa and hostd services on the host using these commands:
   
   service vmware-vpxa restart
   service mgmt-vmware restart
   
   

   For information on restarting ESXi hosts, see Restarting the Management agents on an ESX or ESXi Server (1003490).
   

6. Add/reconnect the host to vCenter Server. After the host is added to vCenter Server, the vpxuser account is automatically recreated and appropriate relationships are established between the host and management server.
   
   Note: Ensure that there is no host configuration that prevents the account creation.

Additional Information

Restarting the Management agents in ESXi