Unable to select storage when trying to migrate a virtual machine to another datastore or when trying to create a new virtual machine.

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vCenter Server 7.0
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

The following issues are observed on the vCenter Server:

1. While trying to migrate a virtual machine to a different datastore, the 'Select storage' page keeps loading and does not show datastore to pick from the list.

2. When creating a new virtual machine, 'Select storage' page just keeps validating until it fails with error: "No storage is available for the selected compute resource".

In the /var/log/vmware/vpxd/vpxd.log, we see the 

[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM] warning vpxd[07499] [Originator@6**6 sub=InvtHostCnx opID=HostSync-<host moid>-*****197] Exception occurred during host sync; Got method fault; [vim.HostSystem:<host moid>,<hostname in fqdn>], e: N3Vim5Fault15PasswordExpired9ExceptionE(Fault cause: vim.fault.PasswordExpired

Cause

This issue is caused by an out of sync ESXi host in the vCenter Server.

Resolution

Disconnect and reconnect the impacted host in vCenter Server.

Note: Before implementing the action plan, put the host in to maintenance mode to ensure the virtual machines are evacuated from the host. 

Additional Information

In the vpxd logs you may have a disconnected host.

grep "Failed to login on host" vpxd.log | less

or 

grep "Exception occurred during host sync" vpxd.log | less

Example:
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM] error vpxd[28844] [Originator@6**6 sub=Vmomi opID=HostSync-<host moid>-*****188] Failed to login on host; <<last binding: <<TCP '1.2.3.4 : 54088'>, <TCP '1.2.3.5 : 443'>>>, /sdk>, N3Vim5Fault15PasswordExpired9ExceptionE(Fault cause: vim.fault.PasswordExpired

To identify what host is out of sync from the logs, connect to the vCenter database and run this query:

To connect to VCDB:
/opt/vmware/vpostgres/current/bin/psql -d VCDB -U postgres

Run the query:
select id,dns_name from vpx_host where id='<Host moid>';

Example:
select id,dns_name from vpx_host where id='12345';