"An error occurred while communicating with the remote Host" / Storage LUNs going into inaccessible / Not able to complete Storage Rescan task

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vSphere ESX 7.x
• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Issue/Introduction

In the vSphere Client you observe that initiated task(s) are failing with the error "An error occurred while communicating with the remote Host" 

For the same Host(s), you observe Events stating one or more of the following errors:

• Cannot synchronize host
• Agent can't send heartbeats because socket initialization is failing

 

Example Outputs:

• Host --> Monitor --> Tasks:

 

• Host --> Monitor --> Events

 

Environment

ESXi 7.x

ESXi 8.x

 

Cause

Communication issue between vCenter and affected Host(s).

Resolution

1.) Log into the affected Host(s) via SSH/Putty and restart the following services by executing:

 

/etc/init.d/hostd stop

/etc/init.d/hostd start

/etc/init.d/vpxa stop

/etc/init.d/vpxa start

 

 

2.) Verify that both Services are in running state by executing:

 

/etc/init.d/hostd status

/etc/init.d/vpxa status

 

3.) Re-evaluate status in the vSphere Web Client

Remark: If Host is showing as "disconnected", proceed with reconnecting the Host

 

 

4.) If one or more of the errors outlined above still occur, consider to reboot the Host by using the Host Client

It is recommended to put the Host in Maintenance Mode for the reboot.

VMs need to be shutdown or migrated off before rebooting the Host, otherwise they will go offline (if running)