Error: "A general system error occurred: vDS host error: see faultCause Cannot create DVPort <Port ID> of VDS <DVS Name> on the host <Hostname>" when attempting to remove ESXi host from vCenter inventory

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• ESXi hosts that have been powered off and physically removed from the environment cannot be removed from the vCenter inventory.
• Unable to remove ESXi hosts from vCenter
• You may see the following errors when trying to remove or edit the host in the vCenter:
  
  A general system error occurred: vDS host error: see faultCause Cannot create DVPort ### of VDS <DISTRIBUTED SWITCH NAME> on the host <hostname.example.com>
  
  

Environment

• vSphere 7.x
• vSphere 8.x

Cause

Stale VMs or templates are still registered to the vCenter through the ESXi host which is trying to remove.

This can be verified by:

1. Log into the vCenter UI
2. Navigate to the Hosts and Clusters tab
3. Select the ESXi host from the Inventory
4. Click on VMs tab
5. Click on the VM Templates tab

Resolution

1. Unregister the VM Templates from the inventory by following the Techdocs Remove VMs or VM Templates from vCenter Server
   • If stale VMs are present, refer to KB Manually removing a stale VM from the vCenter Server vpostgres database for instructions to manually remove stale VMs from the vCenter database.
2. Retry the Remove Host operation after all the VM Templates and/or stale VMs are unregistered from the affected host.

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Additional Information

Review the following documentation for the correct process to remove an ESXi host from a vCenter environment: How to Remove an ESXi Host from Your vCenter Server Instance.