ESXi host intermittently disconnects from vCenter due to InvalidName fault for deprecated setting
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ESXi host intermittently disconnects from vCenter due to InvalidName fault for deprecated setting

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Article ID: 426479

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Updated On:

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Your ESXi host intermittently shows as disconnected in vCenter Server. When you attempt to reconnect the host, the operation fails initially but eventually succeeds.

The hostd.log on the affected ESXi host shows entries similar to:

Failed to read advanced option subtree Disk.SchedNumReqOutstanding: N3Vim5Fault11InvalidName9ExceptionE(Fault cause: vim.fault.InvalidName

Throw vim.fault.InvalidName
(vim.fault.InvalidName) {
   name = "Disk.SchedNumReqOutstanding",
   msg = "",
}

The vpxa.log shows corresponding errors:

[VpxLRO] -- ERROR lro-#### -- EsxHostAdvSettings -- vim.option.OptionManager.queryView: vim.fault.InvalidName

Additional symptoms reported:
• Host shows as disconnected while working in vCenter
• Clicking "Reconnect" produces the error: "Cannot contact the specified host. The host may not be available on the network, a network configuration problem may exist, or the management services on this host may not be responding."		 • Host eventually reconnects successfully
• Similar behavior observed on multiple ESXi hosts

Environment

  • VMware vCenter Server 7.x or 8.x
  • VMware ESXi 7.x or 8.x
  • Environments upgraded from ESXi 6.x, or managed by vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) / VMware Update Manager (VUM) with legacy baseline references

Cause

The Disk.SchedNumReqOutstanding advanced setting was deprecated in vSphere 5.5 and removed entirely in ESXi 7.0. However, stale references to this setting can persist in the environment from two potential sources:

  • The vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) or VMware Update Manager (VUM) database, which may retain references from older baseline configurations
  • Third-party management tools designed for earlier ESXi versions, which may query ESXi advanced settings that no longer exist

When vLCM/VUM or an external tool attempts to query this setting on an ESXi 7.x or 8.x host, the host returns an InvalidName fault because the setting no longer exists. These repeated faults destabilize the communication between the hostd and vpxa services, causing the host to intermittently appear disconnected in vCenter.

Resolution

  1. Connect to the vCenter Server Appliance using SSH or the VAMI console.

  2. Create a powered-off snapshot of the vCenter Server Appliance before proceeding.

  3. Reset the vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) / VMware Update Manager (VUM) database by following the steps in Resetting the VMware Update Manager Database (316581).

  4. If you use Broadcom download token URLs for vLCM patch downloads, re-add these URLs after the database reset. The reset removes custom download source configurations.

  5. Monitor the environment over the following days to confirm the ESXi host disconnection events do not recur.

If the issue persists after completing the database reset, investigate whether any third-party management tools are configured to query ESXi advanced settings. Tools designed for older ESXi versions may query deprecated settings such as Disk.SchedNumReqOutstanding.

Additional Information

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