ESXi hosts are being disconnected from the vCenter Server after changing the host management IP address

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

After the management IP address of an ESXi host was changed, it is disconnected from the vCenter Server.
When trying to manually reconnect the host, it is automatically being disconnected immediately or after a very short amount of time.

Environment

vSphere 7.0

Resolution

To fix this issue, you need to update the ESXi host management address in the vpxa configuration. Up until ESXi 7.0 Update 2 this configuration can be found in /etc/vmware/vpxa/vpxa.cfg.
Starting with ESXi 7.0 Update 3, this configuration is no longer stored in a specific configuration file, but instead has been moved into the ESXi configuration store.

Please follow the steps below for the specific version you are using:

 

ESXi 7.0 Update 2 and earlier

1. Take a backup of /etc/vmware/vpxa/vpxa.cfg:

   # cp /etc/vmware/vpxa/vpxa.cfg /etc/vmware/vpxa/vpxa.cfg_old

2. Edit the file using the vi editor, and replace the hostIp value with the new management IP address
3. Restart both vpxa and hostd to apply the change:

   # /etc/init.d/hostd restart
   # /etc/init.d/vpxa restart

4. Reconnect the host to vCenter using the vSphere Client

 

ESXi 7.0 Update 3 and later:

1. Start with exporting the current vpxa solution user configuration from the config store:

   # configstorecli config current get -c esx -g services -k vpxa_solution_user_config -outfile vpxa.json

2. Now create a backup of the exported file:

   # rm -f vpxa.json.bak; cp vpxa.json vpxa.json.bak -f

3. Next, edit the exported file and replace the address in the line "host_ip: " with the new address of the host
4. Verify that the line "server_ip: " has the correct IP address of the vCenter Server
5. Save the file and re-import the updated configuration into the ESXi config-store:
6. Verify that the IP was correctly changed:

   # configstorecli config current get -c esx -g services -k vpxa_solution_user_config

7. Restart both hostd and vpxa to apply the change:

   # /etc/init.d/hostd restart
   # /etc/init.d/vpxa restart

8. Reconnect the host to vCenter using the vSphere Client

 

After taking the steps applicable to your ESXi version, in vSphere Client, refresh the ESXi host certificate. For this

1. In vSphere Client, select the host
2. Go in Configure > System > Certificate
3. Click on "Refresh CA Certificates" to push the current trusted certificates to the host
4. Click on "Renew" to renew the ESXi host certificate