ESXi command "esxcli network ip connection list" can not be executed due to high memory utilization of ESXi

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Issue/Introduction

• ESXi command "esxcli network ip connection list" can not be executed and has below error
   "Unable to get connection list" 
 "Unable to Get Instance List: Failure"

 

• In the /var/log/vmkernel.log, there are entries similar to:
  YYYY/MM/DDTHH:MM:SS In vmkernel: opID=######World: <World ID>: VC opID esxcli-cf maps to vmknerel opID ######
YYYY/MM/DDTHH:MM:SS Wa vmkwarning: opID=###### WARNING: Heap: Could not allocate <number of bytes> bytes for dynamic heap tcpip. Request returned Out of memory

 

• From vCenter GUI--->Cluster--->Hosts, it shows the particular ESXi "Consumed Memory%" is high, for example 90%

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

ESXi has high memory utilization and so lead to failure in executing command "esxcli network ip connection list" 

Resolution

Migrate some virtual machines to other ESXi or power off some unused virtual machines to get enough memory

Additional Information

For more general memory information, check below

https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/vsphere/8-0/vsphere-resource-management-8-0/memory-virtualization-basics.html#GUID-9D2D0E45-D741-476F-8DB1-F737839C2108-en