NSX-nestdb down and vMotions & NSX DHCP servers fail

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

NSX functions such as DHCP servers and vMotions stop occurring in your environment and the host appear as down in the NSX UI. 

Environment

VMware NSX

Cause

This issue can occur if your NSX host are in a down state due to the nsx-nestdb service being unable to start or stay running, and your host are configured to use a single scratch datastore. If you double check your datastore and see that it is inaccessible in vCenter and unable to be reattached. 

Resolution

A single host will need a cold reboot in order to bring up the nsx-nestdb service, which would then enable vMotions to work for the rebooted host. Once a single host is up, the rest of the environment can be remediated with a graceful reboot after vMotioning their workloads to a working host.