SDDC Manager host prechecks fail: "VPXA service not running" and "ESXi third party VIBs internal error validation"

Products

• VMware SDDC Manager

Issue/Introduction

• VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) SDDC Manager host pre-checks fail for one or more ESXi hosts.
• The pre-check validation results report the following errors:
  • VPXA service not running or vCenter agent service failures
  • ESXi third party VIBs internal error validation
• Executing /etc/init.d/vpxa status on the affected ESXi host confirms the service is running, indicating the SDDC Manager pre-check error is a false negative during inventory polling.

Environment

• VCF 5.x
• VCF 9.x

Cause

• This issue occurs due to a hostname mismatch between the configured ESXi host and the corresponding record in the SDDC Manager database. The ESXi hostname must exactly match the SDDC Manager database entry, including case sensitivity.
• During host communication and inventory polling, this discrepancy causes the SDDC Manager pre-check validation scripts to fail. This failure results in false-negative service status reports such as VPXA service not running and internal VIB validation errors.

Resolution

• Log in to the SDDC Manager via SSH as the vcf user and switch to the root user.
• Connect to the platform database to identify the expected hostname for the affected ESXi host
  • psql -h localhost -U postgres -d platform -c "select id, hostname, status from host";
• Log in to the affected ESXi host via SSH as the root user.
• Verify the current hostname configured on the ESXi host:
  • esxcli system hostname get
• Place the affected ESXi host into maintenance mode using the vSphere Client.
• Update the ESXi hostname so that it matches the SDDC Manager database output exactly (including case sensitivity):
  • esxcli system hostname set --host='<HOSTNAME_FROM_SDDC_DB>'
• Exit maintenance mode on the ESXi host.
• Re-run the host pre-checks from the SDDC Manager UI to confirm the validation passes.