ESXi hostd service continuously crashes due to a missing vSAN module.'VsanMetadataNode'.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Issue/Introduction

• On ESXi 8.x, the hostd service fails to start, and you may see log messages similar to the following in the /var/log/hostd.log file: 

2024-04-10T12:48:05.617Z Wa(164) Hostd[2270383]: [Originator@6876 sub=Libs] VsanUtil: Failed to read advanced setting /VSAN/VsanMetadataNode, error: Unable to complete Sysinfo operation.  Please see the VMkernel log file for more details.: Invalid or missing namespace
2024-04-10T12:48:05.625Z Cr(162) Hostd[2270383]: [Originator@6876 sub=Default] error: N7HostCtl3Lib4Vsan16VsanCtlExceptionE(Unable to complete Sysinfo operation.  Please see the VMkernel log file for more details.: Invalid or missing namespace)

 

Environment

VMware vSphere 8.0.x   

Cause

Hostd initialization problem when 'vsan' namespace is absent from vsi context

Resolution

This is a known issue impacting VMware ESXi 8.x, If you believe you have encountered this issue and are unable to upgrade, please open a support request with Broadcom support and refer to this KB article.
For more information, see Creating and managing Broadcom support cases.