VC/hostd/vmx are out of sync when using vCloud Director

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• VMs are being detected out of sync when using vsan.check_state in RVC.
• vCloud Director is used in the environment and VMs are created by vCD.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0

Cause

BIOS UUIDs in vCloud Director are not unique when virtual machines are deployed from catalog templates.

VSAN health checking has a requirement for unique bios.uuids.

Duplicate bios.uuids will give false positives for vsan.check_state.

Resolution

To resolve this issue:

1. Edit the vmx and comment or delete the bios.uuid line.
2. Log in to the ESXi host.
3. Run the following command to identify the vmid:
   
   vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms
    
4. Run the following command to refresh the vmx after changes:
   
   vim-cmd vmsvc/reload vmid
    
5. Run the vsan.check_state command again in RVC.
   
   In addition, ensure to check that the value of CloneBiosUuidOnVmCopy is set to 0 while using vSAN. For more information, see the Knowledge Base article BIOS UUIDs in vCloud Director are not unique when virtual machines are deployed from catalog templates (2002506).

Additional Information

• VM BIOS UUIDs are not unique when virtual machines are deployed from vApp templates

• ESXi hosts showing out of sync with distributed switch