vSphere APIs for I/O Filters (VAIO) vendor provider on esxi.domain.com registration has failed. Reason : Fault cause: vmodl.fault.HostCommunication

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

After ESXi server reboot, the server is connected to vCenter, but an alarm is observed:  

vSphere APIs for I/O Filters (VAIO) vendor provider on esxi.domain.com registration has failed. Reason : Fault cause: vmodl.fault.HostCommunication

Environment

vCenter Server 8.X

ESXi 8.X

Cause

When an ESXi server boots and starts communicating with vCenter, the built-in IO filters and storage providers are pushed to the ESXi host.  If the ESXi hostd service is not completely up, the first attempt at IO filter registration will fail, causing the alarm.

This is more likely to occur during a large scale outage like a planned power outage for maintenance (other infrastructure services may also be slow to resume full functionality).

If the ESXi server is disconnected from vCenter, then this alert is expected as the host is unavailable.

Resolution

As subsequent registration attempts will succeed, clear the alarm.