Symptoms:
In the /var/log/syslog.log file of the ESXi host, you see entries similar to:
2017-08-03T08:47:44Z EPSecMux[358242]: [INFO] (EPSEC) [0x57762] Could not identify the USVM for the MuxEventHandler, health status cannot be sent.
[ ... ]
2017-08-03T08:48:01Z EPSecMux[358242]: [INFO] (EPSEC) [0x57762] [948959849] Connected to SVM 4219A3EA-5307-6C37-67EE-CCE7388FXXXX : /vmfs/volumes/vsan:52d0ac101a2f0c5d-919ebea82726XXXX/546d6359-1497-ef87-b308-0025b5a3XXXX/Guest Introspection (7).vmx
2017-08-03T08:48:01Z EPSecMux[358242]: [INFO] (EPSEC) [0x57762] Received new configuration
2017-08-03T08:48:01Z EPSecMux[358242]: [ERROR] (EPSEC) [0x57762] Failed to find element: vmxPath.
2017-08-03T08:48:01Z
In the vsm.log file of the NSX Manager, you see entries similar to:
2017-08-04 06:42:50.822 GMT ERROR pool-16-thread-1 EndpointConfigurationManagerImpl:1093 - vm vm-268 has null vmxPath for host host-24 - will retry
Note: Where the vm-id corresponds to the orphaned VM.
In the NSX Manager logs, you see entries similar to:
2017-08-04 06:42:50.822 GMT ERROR pool-16-thread-1 EndpointConfigurationManagerImpl:1093 - vm vm-268 has null vmxPath for host host-24 - will retry
2017-08-04 06:42:50.822 GMT ERROR pool-16-thread-1 EndpointConfigurationManagerImpl:1103 - vm has null uuid for host host-24 - will retry
2017-08-04 06:42:50.844 GMT ERROR pool-16-thread-1 EndpointConfigurationManagerImpl:1093 - vm vm-230 has null vmxPath for host host-18 - will retry
2017-08-04 06:42:50.844 GMT ERROR pool-16-thread-1 EndpointConfigurationManagerImpl:1103 - vm has null uuid for host host-18 - will retry
2017-08-04 06:42:50.854 GMT INFO pool-16-thread-1 EndpointConfigurationManagerImpl:1165 - Configuration update rpc messages sent to hosts: [host-25, host-22, host-23, host-24, host-18] - scheduling ret ry to check their status
2017-08-04 06:42:50.854 GMT INFO pool-16-thread-1 EndpointConfigurationManagerImpl:826 - scheduleConfigurationUpdateCheck: scheduling update check in 60 seconds.
2017-08-04 06:42:50.855 GMT INFO messagingTaskExecutor-7 EndpointConfigurationManagerImpl:455 - Configuration successfully applied to host host-22.
2017-08-04 06:42:50.864 GMT ERROR messagingTaskExecutor-4 EndpointConfigurationManagerImpl:451 - Configuration of host host-18 failed: failed to send configuration to mux: Status code: 65538, Message: "Error - Mux Parsing config"
Note: The preceding log excerpts are only examples. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.