LLDP information (enabled on vDS) goes missing on VxRail Environment

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

LLDP is enabled on vDS
vCenter webclient shows "LLDP information is not available on this physical adapter"
after host reboots or port-lldpd service restarts no LLDP information is displayed

Environment

VxRail
ESXi 7.x
ESXI 8.x

Cause

This is a known issue that occurs when both port-level LLDP and vDS-level LLDP are enabled in ESXi. The ESXiPort-lldpd service, which is specific to VxRail, was introduced and enabled by default starting with VxRail 4.7.x and in versions that support Dell SmartFabric switches.

This service activates LLDP at the port level/uplink ports  on the vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS) used by VxRail. 

The LLDP information collected is used during automated Day-0 deployments of VxRail in environments with Dell SmartFabric switches.

Resolution

Workarounds

1. Change the discovery protocol for the VxRail vDS to CDP or disabled and apply the changes. Change the discovery protocol back to LLDP, and apply the changes.LLDP information will now be displayed, however, the issue will arise after host reboots or if port-lldpd service running in ESXi hosts were restarted due to any means.
2. Disable port-lldpd service running on ESXi hosts. Go to Configure->System->Services->port-lldpd->edit startup policy and choose start and stop manually for the  port-lldpd  service for every ESXi host in the cluster. After changing start-up policy for the service, manually stop the service   this will ensure port-lldpd service doesn't get automatically started following reboots.