Error Enabling Fault Tolerance "A general system error occurred: Launch failure"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• When attempting to enable Fault Tolerance, the following error message is observed:

Host <hostname> has some Fault Tolerance issues for virtual machine. Refer to the errors list for details. A general system error occurred: Launch failure

• Entries similar to the below are observed in the ESXi host var/run/log/hostd.log
  

Hostd[2099484]: [Originator@6876 sub=Vimsvc.ha-eventmgr] Event 68186 : Error message on <vm_name> on <host_name> in <datacenter_name>: Module 'FTCpt' power on failed.

• The vmware.log file for the VM (/vmfs/volumes/datastore/VM_folder/vmware.log) contains the following error:

2025-10-30T11:18:29.770Z Wa(03) vmx - FTCpt: (4592378988822254576 snd) Error connecting to primary: Timeout
2025-10-30T11:18:29.770Z In(05) vmx - Module 'FTCpt' power on failed

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi

Cause

This issue occurs if there are any firewall rules between the Fault Tolerance IP addresses. 

Resolution

Check the ESXi host to verify whether any firewall rules are configured.

• In the vSphere Client, Clink on the host > Configure > System > Firewall > Edit > Search for Fault Tolerance.
  

If no firewall rules are present, contact your network team to confirm whether any external firewalls are in place.

Additional Information

Port requirements for VMware vSphere ESXi
Troubleshooting network and TCP/UDP port connectivity issues on Hosts