Deploying virtual machines from content library templates fails with error: "Failed to deploy OVF package....Cannot connect to host"

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• In vCenter, you would see errors similar to:

Failed to deploy OVF package. ThrowableProxy.cause A general system error occurred: Transfer failed: Error during transfer of ds:///vmfs/volumes/datastore/vmfolder/vm1.vmdk: Cannot connect to host..

• In the /var/log/vmware/vpxd/vpxd.log you may find entries similar to:

2022-10-05T16:45:38.195+08:00 info vpxd[42107] [Originator@6876 sub=Default opID=6b376cbe-f506-44d5-bc8d-28f142d5a406-5d-fa] [VpxLRO] -- ERROR task-27880 -- nfcManager -- nfc.NfcManager.copy: vim.fault.HostCo
nnectFault:
--> Result:
--> (vim.fault.HostConnectFault) {
-->    faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
-->    faultMessage = <unset>
-->    msg = "Cannot connect to host."
--> }
--> Args:
-->
--> Arg spec:
--> (nfc.CopySpec) [
-->    (nfc.CopySpec) {
-->       source = (nfc.CopySpec.Location) {
-->          filePath = "/vmfs/volumes/datastore//contentlib-db48377d-4987-471d-92d9-b9dc954744c0/1d2ae76e-5e8e-4708-a6e2-a07ad9b61c0f/TEST-VM8-1_26783ca4-645a-433f-9a9d-0474a7343727.vmdk",
-->          cnxSpec = (nfc.CopySpec.CnxSpec) {
-->             host = "Source ESXi IP",
-->             port = 902,
-->       },
-->       destination = (nfc.CopySpec.Location) {
-->          filePath = "/vmfs/volumes/datastore/vmfolder/vm1.vmdk",
-->          cnxSpec = (nfc.CopySpec.CnxSpec) {
-->             host = "Destination ESXi IP",
-->             port = 902,

• In content library logs at  /var/log/vmware/content-library/cls.log you may find entries similar to:

2022-10-05T16:45:38.332+08:00 | ERROR    | 6b376cbe-f506-44d5-bc8d-28f142d5a406 | transferService-pool-7-thread-99 | TransferEndpointImpl | Session 440a2893-82ad-4f3f-9984-e0007d54afdc, Item TEST-VM8-1.vmdk, Endpoint ds:///vmfs/volumes/datastore/vmfolder/vm1.vmdk: Error during transfer of ds:///vmfs/volumes/datastore/vmfolder/vm1.vmdk: Cannot connect to host.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x
VMware vCenter Server 7.0.x
VMware ESXi 6.7.x
VMware vCenter Server 6.x

Cause

• This issue occurs if TCP port 902 is not open between the source and destination ESXi hosts.

Resolution

• Content library requires TCP port 902 to be open bidirectional between the ESXi hosts.
• To resolve this issue, disable any firewall rules which may be blocking traffic between ESXi hosts over TCP port 902.
• To test the connectivity between ESXi hosts over port 902, use the below command from a ssh session

nc -z <ESXi-IP> 902

Output of a successful connection:
[root@esxi-1:~] nc -z 192.168.0.82 902
Connection to 192.168.0.82 902 port [tcp/authd] succeeded!

Note: If a dedicated provisioning vmkernel interface is configured on the ESXi hosts, data is transferred across these interfaces

Additional Information

For more information, see VMware ports and Protocols