ESXi configuration restore fails with blank DCUI

Products

• VMware NSX
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• At the end of the boot process after the ESXi configuration restore, you see an empty DCUI.
  
  
  
• The following commands return no result.
  

  esxcli network vswitch standard list
  esxcli network vswitch dvs vmware list

  
  
  
• You see messages similar to the following in /var/run/log/vmkernel.log:
  

  YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.031Z cpu44:2097723)NetDVS: 574: DVS enabled
  YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.031Z cpu44:2097723)Net: 1795: invalid Net_Create: class vswitch not supported
  YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.031Z cpu44:2097723)WARNING: NetDVS: 2557: Failed to create proxy portset DvsPortset-0, vswitch, 9216
  YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.031Z cpu44:2097723)WARNING: DVSDev: DVSDevConfigInit:149: failed to deserialize config data
  YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.032Z cpu44:2097723)NetDVS: 689: DVS disabled
  YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.045Z cpu44:2097723)Net: 3286: DVS not enabled
  YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.045Z cpu44:2097723)WARNING: Tcpip_Vmk: 1771: Could not open a port to ########-####-####-####-############: Failure
  YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.045Z cpu44:2097723)WARNING: Tcpip_Vmk: 1349: Unable to attach vmk10 to ########-####-####-####-############ [error = 0xbad0001]
  YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.049Z cpu44:2097723)Net: 3286: DVS not enabled
  YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.049Z cpu44:2097723)WARNING: Tcpip_Vmk: 1771: Could not open a port to ########-####-####-####-############: Failure
  YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.049Z cpu44:2097723)WARNING: Tcpip_Vmk: 1349: Unable to attach vmk50 to ########-####-####-####-############ [error = 0xbad0001]
  YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.063Z cpu46:2097833)Jumpstart plugin restore-networking activation failed: restore-networking->start() failed: error while executing the cli

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x , 8.x
VMware NSX

Cause

• If you have taken a backup with the DVS prepared by NSX, the NSX VIBs must be installed when restoring. If NSX VIBs is not installed, restoring the DVS will fail.

Resolution

• Manually install NSX VIBs and reboot the host before the ESXi configuration restore referring to Manually Install NSX Kernel Modules on ESXi Hypervisors.
  
  
• After the restore, you may face the followings:
  
  • The host is disconnected from the vCenter Server. Select the host in vSphere Client > Connection > Connect.
  • NSX Manager > System > Fabric > Hosts > Clusters shows some errors.  Re-apply the transport node profile.