VMware High Availability fails with the error: Misconfiguration in the host Network setup
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VMware High Availability fails with the error: Misconfiguration in the host Network setup

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Article ID: 328875

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Updated On:

Products

VMware vCenter Server VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
  • Cannot enable or reconfigure VMware High Availability (HA)
  • Enabling or reconfiguring HA fails
  • You see the error:

    Misconfiguration in the host Network setup

  • In the /var/log/vmware/aam/aam_config_util_monitornodes.log file, you see entries similar to:


    07/20/11 12:53:49 [issue_cli_cmd ] command is '/opt/vmware/aam/bin/ftcli -domain vmware -port 8042 -timeout 5 -cmd listnodes'
    07/20/11 12:53:49 [issue_cli_cmd ] Trying to talk to self ('<<hostname>>'), yet there is no sites file.
    07/20/11 12:53:49 [myexit ] Failure location:
    07/20/11 12:53:49 [myexit ] function main::myexit called from line 247
    07/20/11 12:53:49 [myexit ] VMwareresult=failure


  • The /etc/opt/vmware/aam folder contains an invalid configBackup file of 0 bytes

    For example:

    /etc/opt/vmware/aam # ls -lh
    -rw-r--r-T 1 root root 0 Apr 13 2010 configBackup.tar.gz


Note: The preceding log excerpts are only examples. Date, time, and environmental variables may vary depending on your environment.

Environment

VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x
VMware vCenter Server 4.1.x

Resolution

To resolve this issue:
  1. Review the network configuration in the cluster to ensure that the HA heartbeat interfaces match between hosts.

    • ESX – HA will heartbeat over all Service Consoles.
    • ESXi – HA will heartbeat over all VMkernels with the Management Traffic option enabled.

  2. Ensure that there are no extra or missing HA heartbeat interfaces on any hosts.
  3. Ensure that all hosts have the same network configuration on HA heartbeat networks:

    • ESX – service console network
    • ESXi – VMkernel network (With Management Traffic).

  4. Reconfigure the VMware HA on the affected host again.
Note: When HA is configuring on a host, it checks that the host network configuration matches any other host in the cluster by comparing HA heartbeat interfaces. ESX and ESXi can be mixed in the same cluster.

For more information, see:


Additional Information

Troubleshooting VMware High Availability (HA) in VMware vSphere 4.x
TCP and UDP Ports required to access VMware vCenter Server, VMware ESXi and ESX hosts, and other network components
Cannot configure HA for a new ESXi host added to a cluster of ESX hosts