Powering on a VM (from vCenter, direct UI, or shell) causes the host to disconnect from vCenter and Hostd to restart.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Powering on a VM (from vCenter, direct UI, or shell) causes the host to disconnect from vCenter and UI services to restart.
• It also creates /var/core/hostd-worker-zdump.000

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5

Cause

• This usually happens because of an invalid entry in the VM's configuration file (VMX). 
• In some cases you may find sched.swap.derivedName = " " 
• Sometimes this can be caused by the source ova/ovf (by 3rd party).

Resolution

• Check the VM's VMX file for any invalid or unusual attributes.
• Take a backup from the VMX file before making any edits.
• Edit the VM's .vmx file and add # at the beginning of the invalid attribute to comment it out.
  • Example:  #sched.swap.derivedName = " "

Additional Information

Impact/Risks:
Impacts: 

• Cannot power on the VM in question.
• Each time you power on this VM "Hostd" service will crash.