VPXD is crashing and creating core dump if there are hosts in not responding state in the SDRS enabled cluster

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
VPXD service crashes frequently if there are hosts in not responding state in the Storage DRS enabled (SDRS) cluster

• vpxd.log

<YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS> info vpxd[61318] [Originator@6876 sub=drmLogger opID=lro-4-409434ca-0a] Ignoring host [vim.HostSystem:host-<Host ID>,<Host FQDN>]: host Config information is nullptr
<YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS> info vpxd[61318] [Originator@6876 sub=drmLogger opID=lro-4-409434ca-0a] Ignoring host [vim.HostSystem:host-<Host ID>,<Host FQDN>]: host Config information is nullptr
<YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS> info vpxd[61318] [Originator@6876 sub=drmLogger opID=lro-4-409434ca-0a] Ignoring host [vim.HostSystem:host-<Host ID>,<Host FQDN>]: host Config information is nullptr
<YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS> info vpxd[61318] [Originator@6876 sub=drmLogger opID=lro-4-409434ca-0a] Ignoring host [vim.HostSystem:host-<Host ID>,<Host FQDN>]: host Config information is nullptr

Environment

VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.7.x

Cause

The issue is seen if there is a stale entry for ESXi hosts de-commissioned from the inventory and listed as 'Not Responding'

Resolution

The entries should be isolated from the vpxd logs and removed manually. VMware engineering is already aware and the fix would be included with a future release of vSphere.

Workaround:
Caution: This procedure modifies the database. Ensure to take a full backup of your existing vCenter Server  before proceeding with this workaround.

• Log in to the vCenter server appliance via ssh
• Navigate to the vpxd log location (/var/log/vmware/vpxd)
• Execute the below command:
  • Command: grep -irns "No heartbeats received from host" vpxd.log | awk -F ' ' '{print $16}' | sort -u
• Check for the status of the hosts and remove the host(s) in case of decommissioned servers. For further information, refer to Manually removing an ESX\ESXi host from the vCenter Server database