SDDC Manager upgrade precheck failed for ESXi host with an error 'vpxa Service Not Running'

Products

• VMware SDDC Manager

Issue/Introduction

During a precheck for an ESXi host update in VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF), the error "vpxa service is not running" appears on all hosts, even though the vpxa service is running correctly on the ESXi hosts. The error persists despite restarting the agent on the host.

From the /var/log/vmware/vcf/operationsmanager/operationsmanager.log, We can see the following error:

2025-04-14T14:42:46.857+1000 ERROR [vcf_om,58b967a975b54e7f,29e0] [c.v.v.b.p.t.ResourceStateValidator,pool-2-thread-14] Entity constraint validation with expression isVpxaRunning == true on entity with name <esxi hostname> of type host failed with exception {} org.springframework.expression.spel.SpelEvaluationException: EL1008E: Property or field 'isVpxaRunning' cannot be found on object of type 'java.util.HashMap' - maybe not public or not valid?
 at org.springframework.expression.spel.ast.PropertyOrFieldReference.readProperty(PropertyOrFieldReference.java:217)
 at org.springframework.expression.spel.ast.PropertyOrFieldReference.getValueInternal(PropertyOrFieldReference.java:104)

Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation 5.x

Cause

This error suggests that the system is unable to properly evaluate the isVpxaRunning field due to its absence or an invalid reference within the context of the check. The vpxa service is running, but the precheck process cannot confirm it due to a validation issue.

Resolution

1. Verify Service Status:

Ensure that the vpxa service is running correctly on the ESXi hosts. You can check this by running the following command on the ESXi host:

/etc/init.d/vpxa status

If the service is running, continue with the following steps.

2. Ignore Precheck Failure:

Since the vpxa service is indeed running, and the failure is related to the precheck validation process, you can proceed with the ESXi host update despite this error. The update process should continue as expected without issues related to the vpxa service.

Additional Information

The vpxa service is crucial for communication between the ESXi host and the vCenter Server, and while the error may cause confusion during prechecks, it does not affect the update process itself. This issue is isolated to the precheck validation logic and does not impact the host’s functionality.