VM operations fail with error "Waiting for ESX Agent Virtual Machines to be ready"

Products

• VMware NSX Networking
• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• The error reported in the user interface is "Waiting for ESX Agent Virtual Machines to be ready"
• The issue occurs only on NSX guest introspection-protected clusters
• The issue can affect several different virtual machine operations, such as:
  • VM power on
  • vMotion by DRS, such as when putting ESXi hosts into maintenance mode
  • Horizon View VM operations

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 6.7.x
VMware vCenter Server 7.0.x

Cause

Guest Introspection VMs are in a bad state:

• They may have an insufficient IP pool available for them
• They may have guest OS errors in memory, notably with the VMware Tools application

Resolution

1. Ensure to power on any NSX Guest Introspection monitoring VMs which were powered off
2. Ensure that there is an adequate IP pool for NSX GI monitoring VMs to access
3. If the problem persists, reboot the NSX GI VMs
4. If the problem persists, redeploy the NSX GI VMs

Workaround:
The following work-arounds exist:

• Trigger operations directly from the ESXi host.
• Remove NSX GI monitoring from the affected ESXi hosts/cluster