Error in host profile : - VPXA configuration differs

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

To make the host profile compliant

Symptoms:
Host profile would show up a non-compliant with error "Error in host profile : - VPXA configuration differs"

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5

Cause

This can happen if the vpxa.cfg is corrupted or do not have the complete entries in the file.

Resolution

Identify an identical host
Compare the vpxa.cfg on both working and non-working host.
Compare the difference in the files using some text editor or other tools (eg: https://www.diffchecker.com/)
Rectify the faults in the files. 

Note: The below entries are unique to every host and should be modified accordingly:
<hostIp>#.#.#.#</hostIp> ----------This is ESXi IP
<hostKey>52acb7ea-5e5b-9865-c422-d0ee33b13ab0</hostKey> --This is unique host key. Can be validated from the vpx_host table for confirmation
<serverIp>#.#.#.#</serverIp> ---------This is vCenter Server IP

After the file is created with proper details follow the below steps:

1) Put the host in maintenance mode
2) Open ssh to the affected esxi
3) Stop the vpxa service : /etc/init.d/vpxa stop
4) Create a backup of the existing vpxa.cfg : mv /etc/vmware/vpxa/vpxa.cfg /etc/vmware/vpxa/orig.vpxa.cfg
5) Winscp the modified vpxa.cfg to the location /etc/vmware/vpxa/
6) Validate the file is copied successfully
cd /etc/vmware/vpxa/
ls -lrth
7)Change the  permission of the file : cd /etc/vmware/vpxa/
chmod 444 vpxa.cfg
8) Confirm the file has more than 70 lines : cat /etc/vmware/vpxa/vpxa.cfg |wc -l
9) Restart the vpxa.cfg service : /etc/init.d/vpxa start
10)Run the compliance and remediate the host to fix the error.