Virtual machines deployed on an NSX-T cluster protected by service insertion fail to power on

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• You are using NSX-T with third party service insertion deployed.
• When you try to power on a VM, this fails with the following error:
  • All required agent virtual machines are not currently deployed on host 'hostname'

• Some time in the past, the compute manager (vCenter) in the NSX-T UI was removed, while the service VM (SVM) was deployed and then the compute manager was added back in the NSX-T UI.

Environment

VMware NSX-T Data Center 2.5.x
VMware NSX-T Data Center

Cause

When the compute manager is removed and added back, the SVM associations get changed in vCenter.
vCenter EAM detects the status of the SVM as unhealthy and prevents other VMs from being powered on.

Resolution

It is not supported to remove the compute manager when NSX-T components are deployed on vCenter.
From NSX-T version 2.5.3 onwards it will warn before you try to remove the compute manager from the NSX-T UI.
As can be seen in the administration guide here:

Workaround:
vSphere Cli commands can be used on the ESXi host to power on the VMs.
See the following KB for details: Powering on a virtual machine from the command line when the host cannot be managed using VMware vSphere Client