Host status displays as "Unknown" in NSX Manager

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

In  NSX Manager, one or more ESXi hosts display an "Unknown" status, even though the hosts are accessible and operating normally via an SSH session.

 

Environment

VMware NSX 4.X

Cause

This issue occurs when the NSX proxy falls into a failed state because the nsx-nestdb service is no longer running.

When checking the services via command line, you will see output similar to the following, indicating that the service has stopped and needs to be restarted:

[root@<hostname>:/etc/init.d] ./nsx-nestdb restart
NSX-NESTDB service is not running
NSX-NESTDB started
[root@<hostname>:/etc/init.d] ./nsx-opsagent restart
Shutting down opsAgent watchdog
watchdog-opsAgent[10596520]: Terminating watchdog process with PID 2945770
Shutting down opsAgent service
..........
Unable to shutdown opsAgent service
Terminating opsAgent service
opsAgent service is stopped
sh: you need to specify whom to kill
opsAgent service is stopped
/var/log/nsx exists
opsAgent start watchdog
opsAgent started
[root@<hostname>:/etc/init.d] ./nsx-proxy restart
Shutting down nsx-proxy watchdog
watchdog-nsx-proxy[10597380]: Terminating watchdog process with PID 2945501
Shutting down nsx-proxy service
.....
Unable to shutdown nsx-proxy service
Terminating nsx-proxy service
nsx-proxy service is stopped
host/vim/vmvisor/nsx-proxy
Resource pool 'host/vim/vmvisor/nsx-proxy' released.
nsx-proxy is stopped
tnuuid = 
NSX Host Certificate exists
nsx-proxy starts

Resolution

To resolve this issue, you must restart the affected NSX services on the host.

1. Open an SSH session into the ESXi host(s) displaying the "Unknown" status.

2. Run the following commands in order to restart the required services:

   • /etc/init.d/nsx-nestdb restart

   • /etc/init.d/nsx-proxy restart

   • /etc/init.d/nsx-opsagent restart

3. Check the NSX Manager UI to verify if the host status has updated from "Unknown" to "Up".

4. If the above steps do not resolve the condition, reboot the affected ESXi host.

Additional Information

If the host continues to show an "Unknown" state after a reboot, please open a Support Request with Broadcom and include the following information:

• Log bundle from the affected ESXi node.

• NSX Manager log bundle (Management plane only, unless an edge node is also affected).