NSX Manager UI does not load when accessed via the Manager cluster VIP address after the 'http' service is stopped.

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

• The 'http' service is stopped, either manually with the following command or for another reason, on the NSX Manager that currently owns the Manager cluster VIP. 
  admin> stop service http
• The NSX Manager UI is not available at the VIP and the browser reports some version of a 'Destination unreachable' error. 
• It is observed that the Manager with the 'http' service stopped is still the VIP owner when checking the output of the following command.
  admin> get cluster status verbose



  Group Type: HTTPS
Group Status: STABLE

  Members:
    UUID                                       FQDN                  IP               STATUS          
    cdb93642-####-####-####-####018cd727       nsx1       192.###.###.84        UP              
    51a13642-####-####-####-####6cc2a7ae       nsx2       192.###.###.156       UP              
    d0de3642-####-####-####-####d22e486b       nsx3       192.###.###.54        UP              

  Leaders:
    SERVICE                                    LEADER                                     LEASE VERSION                   
    api                                        cdb93642-####-####-####-####018cd727       8

Environment

VMware NSX 4.x

Cause

• In NSX 4.x the 'http' service is not monitored for VIP fail over due to changes made in NSX 4.0 Manager services. 
  • Stopping the 'http' service does cause the NSX Manager VIP to failover in NSX-T 3.x. 
  • This will be changed in a future release of NSX so that the VIP will failover when the 'http' service is stopped. 

Resolution

This will be fixed in a future version of NSX. 

Workarounds to fail over the NSX Manager VIP:

• Reboot the NSX Manager that owns the VIP
• Stop the 'auth' service.
  > stop service auth

Additional Information

See How to change the owner of the NSX Manager Cluster VIP for alternative way to failover a NSX Manager cluster VIP.