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-####-####-####-########406-5d-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-####-####-####-########4c0/1d2ae76e-####-####-####-########c0f/TEST-VM8-1_26783ca4-####-####-####-########727.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-####-####-####-########406 | transferService-pool-7-thread-99 | TransferEndpointImpl | Session 440a2893-####-####-####-########fdc, 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