ESXi Host Intermittently Disconnects in NSX After Physical NIC Replacement

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

• An ESXi host intermittently shows as disconnected in VMware NSX following a physical NIC replacement.
• Within the NSX UI, the host details fluctuate between a disconnected and connected (green) state. During these fluctuations, the host UUID and external ID actively change, indicating an identity conflict.
• When you place the ESXi host into maintenance mode and move it outside of the NSX-prepared cluster, the host enters an "Orphaned" state within the NSX UI.

Environment

VMware NSX-T 

Cause

A stale host entry remains in the NSX database after the physical NIC hardware change, causing a synchronization conflict with the new host identifier.

Resolution

Workaround: 

Identifying and Cleaning Up Orphan/Stale Host Entries in NSX Manage