ESXi host is not responding.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

1. Host went not responding and lost connectivity to vCenter.
2. ESXi host is not reachable over the network.
3. ping to the gateway from the ESXi host DCUI console is failing.
4. ARP cache of the ESXi host shows as incomplete Mac Address using command esxcli network ip neighbor list   

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x/8.x
VMware vCenter Server 7.x/8.x

Cause

The issue is related to the physical environment towards ARP cache entries on the physical switch.

Resolution

Engage physical networking team to check the ARP issue at physical switch.

To isolate the issue, perform the packet capture via KB "341568" on ESXi using the pktcap-uw tool to verify whether the ARP request is being sent out from the ESXi host VMKernel adapter and physical NIC vmnicX.

If the above resolution does not fix the issue, then raise a support request with Broadcom support using KB "206567"