Adding host to vCenter fails due to wrong username or password.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptom: 

At vSphere Client, the following situation might be observed:

 - ESXi hosts status is "not responding" 

 - To solve the problem, when removing the hosts and adding them again into inventory, it failed with the following error:
 
"Cannot connect ###.###.###.### in $$$$: incorrect username or password"

You see the following errors at ESXi host: 

/var/run/log/vmkernel.log: 

YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.985Z cpu8:2099280)Admission failure in path: host/vim/vmvisor/esxtokend:esxtokend.2099218:pt.2099218
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.985Z cpu8:2099280)pt.2099218 (6344) extraMin/extraFromParent: 1/1, esxtokend (614) childEmin/eMinLimit: 9728/9728
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.228Z cpu12:50610154)Admission failure in path: host/vim/vmvisor/lsud:sh.50610155:uw.50610155

/var/run/log/esxtokend.log:

--> [context]-----------------=[/context]
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.982Z info esxtokend[2099280] [Originator@6876 sub=VapiHandler opID=create-525799d5-6482-1e98-9211-6715b5ad7cb4-0] Invoke-MethodId: com.vmware.esx.authentication.token.create
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.985Z error esxtokend[2099280] [Originator@6876 sub=VapiHandler opID=create-525799d5-6482-1e98-9211-6715b5ad7cb4-0] MethodResult [FAIL] (MethodId:com.vmware.esx.authentication.token.create),Error:
--> com.vmware.vapi.std.errors.unauthenticated
--> No messages!
-->

Environment

• VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0
• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Cause

• ESXi host esxTokenCPS leaked memory and generated the authentication error with vCenter Server when adding ESXi hosts to inventory. 

Resolution

As a workaround:

Step 1. Login to ESXi through SSH and execute the following command.

# /etc/init.d/esxTokenCPS restart

Step 2. From vSphere Client, add ESXi hosts to inventory and confirm the status of ESXi hosts back to normal. 

Note: 
When it still fails to add ESXi hosts to inventory at Step 2, execute the following command and try to add them again:

# /etc/init.d/vpxa restart 

This issue is solved by vSphere ESXi 7.0 Update 2 or the later versions.