Hostd constantly crashing on ESXi

Products

• VMware

Issue/Introduction

You cannot connect ESXI to vCenter.

ESXi UI is not available.

Hostd service crashing few seconds after manual start.

 

In vobd.logs you see similar entries 

 

In(###) Hostd[###]: [Originator@### sub=Vimsvc.ha-eventmgr] Event 128 : /bin/hostd crashed (17 time(s) so far) and a core file might have been created at /var/core/hostd-zdump.000. This might have caused connections to the host to be dropped.

 

Issue persist over reboots.

One or more Virtual Machines cannot be registered on other hosts.

 

Environment

ESXi 8.x

Cause

Potential cause are incorrect or missing entries in vmx files for VM that cannot be registered on another hosts.

For any further information core dump needs to be reviewed.

 

 

Resolution

Open case with Broadcom Support and provide ESXi logs bundle with core dumps.

 

Workaround 

Remove suspected VM from inventory file.

File is located  /etc/vmware/hostd/

 

Take backup of file 

cp vmInventory.xml vmInventory.xml.bak

 

Then using vi remove that VM from file.

 

Restart hostd with 

/etc/init.d/hostd start