Duplicate Email Alerts Triggered by alarm.host.connectionState When Hosts Are in Not Responding State

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• When a host becomes Not Responding, the alarm.host.connectionState alarm definition may trigger more than once for the same event. In such cases, vCenter sends multiple SNMP trap notifications or email alerts for a single host connectivity issue.
• Below is an example of the email notification.

Environment

vCenter Server 8.x
vCenter Server 7.x

Cause

The issue is caused by a misconfiguration of the “Host Connection and Power State” alarm, where multiple additional alarm rules are incorrectly defined within a single alarm configuration.

Resolution

1. Navigate to the object where the alarm is defined (the default is the vCenter Server).
2. Click the Alarms tab and select the Definitions view.
3. Right-click the Host connection and power state alarm and select Edit Settings...
4. Remove the Additional rule which is not by default
   
   
   
   
   Note: By default, the alarm.host.connectionState includes Host Connection State = Not Responding, as shown in the image.