vCenter reports the ESXi host as not responding because the host is unreachable

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• ESXi host not responding in vCenter and cannot be reconnected.
• Attempting to reconnect the host gives error : "Cannot contact the specified host <host_fqdn>. The host may not be available on the network, a network configuration problem may exist, or the management services on this host may not be responding."
• ESXi host not reachable via the host UI or ping.
• From a remote console CLI session, the host is not able to ping the host gateway.

vpxd.log shows the following while trying to reconnect the host : 

####-##-###T#:##:##.#### info vpxd [10913] [Originator@6876 sub-HostCnx_opID=CheckforMissingHeartbeats-201d9e53] [VpxdHostCnx] No heartbeats received from host; cnx: ########-####-####-####- ############, h: host-15, time since last heartbeat: 90311ms
####-##-###T#:##:##.#### info vpxd [10913] [Originator@6876 sub-HostCnx opID=CheckforMissingHeartbeats-201d9e53] Marking the connection alive to false: ########-####-####-####-############ ####-##-###T#:##:##.#### info vpxd [10913] [Originator@6876 sub-InvtHostCnx opID=CheckforMissingHeartbeats-201d9e53] Got lost connection callback for host-15 ####-##-###T#:##:##.#### warning vpxd [08679] [Originator@6876 sub=InvtHostCnx opID=HostSync-host-15-41d59ab9] Connection not alive due to missing heartbeats; [vim.HostSystem:host-15, ####### x########.######.##.###.##.##], cnx: ########-####-####-####- ############

Environment

VMware vCenter Server

VMware vSphere ESXi

 

Cause

Upon accessing the ESXi Shell from the remote console of the host and running "esxcfg-vmknic -l", we noticed that the Management Kernel interface (VMK0) is missing.

 

Resolution

Re-create the Management Kernel (VMK0) on a new / existing standard switch by following this article : Recover ESXi host connectivity when management is on DVS

Additional Information

If the issue persists after following the above steps, please open a support request with Broadcom support and reference this KB.

Please refer to Creating and Managing Broadcom Support Cases for instructions on how to open a support request.