NSX installation on ESXi is stuck at 0%

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

• You install NSX on an ESXi but the installation is stuck at 0% forever.

Environment

VMware NSX-T

VMware NSX 4.1

Cause

Please note that installation process might run on any Manager node regardless of VIP owner or which node you use to install NSX.
If at lease one Manager node, but not all NSX Manager nodes, has trouble in resolving the vCenter FQDN, it is possible that you can initiate installing NSX but the installation is stuck at 0%.

Check /var/log/proton/nsxapi.log for UnknownHostException on each Manager node.

<Timestamp>  INFO providerTaskExecutor-1-40 VCExecuteOperationImpl 96151 FABRIC [nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" level="INFO" subcomp="manager"] Request compute-manager for creating ESX user nsxuser on host host-****.
<Timestamp>  INFO providerTaskExecutor-1-40 VCSoapServiceImpl 96151 FABRIC [nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" level="INFO" subcomp="manager"] Calling CM: <CM UUID> for creating ESX user
<Timestamp>  INFO providerTaskExecutor-1-40 VCSoapServiceImpl 96151 FABRIC [nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" level="INFO" subcomp="manager"] Create user nsxuser on host host-**** with cmId <CM UUID>
<Timestamp>  WARN providerTaskExecutor-1-40 VcUtils 96151 SYSTEM [nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" level="WARNING" subcomp="manager"] Unable to find ip addresses for <vCenter FQDN>
java.net.UnknownHostException: <vCenter FQDN>: Name or service not known
        at java.net.Inet4AddressImpl.lookupAllHostAddr(Native Method) ~[?:1.8.0_382]
        at java.net.InetAddress$2.lookupAllHostAddr(InetAddress.java:867) ~[?:1.8.0_382]
        at java.net.InetAddress.getAddressesFromNameService(InetAddress.java:1302) ~[?:1.8.0_382]
        at java.net.InetAddress$NameServiceAddresses.get(InetAddress.java:815) ~[?:1.8.0_382]

Resolution

Make sure all the Manager nodes can resolve vCenter FQDN.

You can use nslookup command on NSX Manager to check name resolution.

If NSX Manager fails to resolve vCenter FQDN, configure correct DNS servers or fix your DNS servers.