Identifying and Cleaning Up Orphan/Stale Host Entries in NSX Manager

Products

• VMware NSX
• VMware NSX-T Data Center

Issue/Introduction

• This article provides instructions on how to identify if any orphan or stale host entries are present in NSX Manager.
• These stale host entries can cause an upgrade pre-check to fail, resulting in an error indicating the presence of a host that should not exist.

Environment

VMware NSX

VMware NSX-T Data Center

Resolution

There are two scenarios to consider to identify stale host entries in NSX Manager:

1. Stale Presence on the UI

This occurs when a host is no longer part of the vCenter inventory or is scheduled for decommissioning, and NSX has already been uninstalled. To identify these entries, follow these steps:

• Access the NSX management UI and navigate to the inventory or host section.

• Look for any hosts that do not exist in the vCenter inventory or have NSX uninstalled.

• If any such hosts are found, they can be considered stale entries and should be removed from the NSX inventory.

These host entries can be removed from the UI by selecting the host in question and clicking "Remove NSX" or using the API:

          DELETE https://<nsx-mgr-ip>/api/v1/transport-nodes/<transport-node-UUID>?force=true

2. Stale Host Entry Present Within the Database but Not in the NSX Management UI

To identify and validate stale host entries in the database, follow these steps:

1. From the NSX Manager root CLI, run the following command to validate the stale entries:

/opt/vmware/bin/corfu_tool_runner.py --tool corfu-editor -n nsx -o showTable -t HostTransportNode | grep "host-transport-nodes"

2. Return to the NSX Management UI, navigate to the inventory or host section, and ensure the number of hosts matches.
   
   If the stale Transport node entry exists, follow the KB: Installing NSX on Host fails with "already exists" error or upgrade fails with "Failed to get Host status" resolution section to clear the stale entries.

If the issue still exists and assistance is required in deleting any of the stale database entries, open a Broadcom Technical Support case.

Additional Information

If the issue persists after the above, a rolling reboot of the NSX Manager nodes may be required. After the reboots complete, the nodes may be deleted following the steps above.

NOTE: After a reboot, the orphaned nodes may now appear in the "Standalone Node" section