ESXi hosts shows as degraded in NSX-T ui

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

• ESXi host's status shows as 'Degraded' in NSX-T ui.
• 
• In the view details of ESXi hosts , the manager and controller connectivity was showing as 'Up':-
  
• The vmnic's link status was down which was connected to vSwitch0 for affected ESXi hosts:-
• 
• In desired_state_manager.json file in NSX manager, the below entries can be seen:-

  • "node_uuid": "######-f###-4###-a##7-5###########",
            "pnic_status": {
              "degraded_count": 0,
              "down_count": 1,
              "down_pnics": [
                {
                  "name": "vmnic0",
                  "nsx_type": "NONNSX",
                  "status": "DOWN",
                  "type": "PNIC"
                }
              ],
              "last_status_changed_time": 1756459833053, ===> 
    Friday, August 29, 2025 9:30:33.053 AM
    
    
              "status": "DEGRADED",
              "up_count": 2
            },
    
     "status": "DEGRADED",
            "status_description": "Status DEGRADED caused by [pnic], please check sub-status fields.",

• In nsx-syslog.log on ESXi host, the following entries of link down vmnic getting assigned to DVS used by NSX were seen:-

  • 2025-09-01T09:31:17.596Z  INFO TransportNodeStatusMessageListener-1-1 TransportNodeStatusMessageHandler 2353544 MONITOR
    ING [nsx@6876 comp="nsx-manager" level="INFO" subcomp="manager"] Received message for PnicBonds : 'rolled_up_status':DE
    GRADED, 'num_up':2, 'num_down':1, 'num_down':0, 'pnic_bonds':[{'name':DVSwitch, 'status':UP, 'type':BOND}, {'n
    ame':DVSwitch, 'status':UP, 'type':BOND}, {'name':vmnic0, 'status':DOWN, 'type':PNIC}, ] : ########-f###-4###
    -a###-5###########

• In the nsxdavim.log , the assign operation was there for vmnic0 :-

  • 025-09-01T10:07:54Z nsxdavim: nnectionCookie Operation=assign Value=1673507733 Name=config.network.nics.vnic.vmk50 Operation=assign Value=Changed Name=config.network.nics.vnic.vmk50.LportAttachmentId Operation=assign Value=empty Name=config.network.nics.vnic.vmk50.BackingType Operation=assign Value=DVS Name=config.network.nics.vnic.vmk50.BackingPortSwitchUuid Operation=assign Value=## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## Name=config.network.nics.vnic.vmk50.BackingPortPortgroupKey Operation=assign Value=empty Name=config.network.nics.vnic.vmk50.BackingPortPortKey Operation=assign Value=##### #### ##### #######
    Name=config.network.nics.vnic.vmk50.BackingPortConnectionCookie Operation=assign Value=1673507734 Name=config.network.nics.vnic.vmk2 Operation=assign Value=Changed Name=config.network.nics.vnic.vmk2.LportAttachmentId Operation=assign Value=empty Name=config.network.nics.vnic.vmk2.BackingType Operation=assign Value=DVS Name=config.network.nics.vnic.vmk2.BackingPortSwitchUuid Operation=assign Value=## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## Name=config.network.nics.vnic.vmk2.BackingPortPortgroupKey Operation=assign Value=dvportgroup-2179604 Name=config.network.nics.vnic.vmk2.BackingPortPortKey Operation=assign Value=484 Name=config.network.nics.vnic.vmk2.BackingPortConnectionCookie Operation=assign Value=867424528 Name=config.network.switches Operation=assign Value=Changed Name=config.network.switches.vmnic0 Operation=assign Value=vSwitch0 Name=config.network.switches.vmnic0.BackingType Operation=assign Value=Standard ChangeDataEnd done]

   

Environment

VMware NSX

Cause

NSX by default checks the PNIC status of all the virtual switches on the host transport node. If a PNIC is down on any of the virtual switches, the host will be marked as 'Degraded'.

Resolution

Unassign the uplink that is down and unused but mapped to a virtual switch. Otherwise, resolve the uplink issues and bring the uplink UP.