ESXi host fails to join the Supervisor Cluster because the vds-vsip module is not loaded.

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

Occasionally, ESXi hosts might fail to join a Supervisor cluster because the vds-vsip module can't be loaded. When the ESXi hosts fail to join the Supervisor cluster, you can see the following error in the ESXi hosts log file /var/run/log/spherelet.log:

cannot load module vds-vsip: cmd '/bin/vmkload_mod /usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/vds-vsip' failed with status 1: stderr: '', stdout:'vmkmod: VMKModLoad: VMKernel_LoadKernelModule(vds-vsip): Failure\nCannot load module /usr/lib/vmware/vmkmod/vds-vsip: Failure\n'

Environment

vSphere with Tanzu 8.0.3

Cause

This problem might occur during a Supervisor cluster upgrade, certificate upgrade, or any other Supervisor configuration change that restarts spherelet.

Resolution

To workaround this, reboot the ESXi hosts that cannot load the vds-vsip module.

Additional Information

Reference: https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/vsphere-supervisor/8-0/release-notes/vmware-vsphere-supervisor-80-release-notes.html