NSX Manager VM Fails to Boot During VCF Deployment Due to Invalid Multicast MAC Address Allocation - vmxnet3 Network Interface Activation Error

Products

• VCF Operations/Automation (formerly VMware Aria Suite)

Issue/Introduction

During the deployment of a new NSX-T Manager, the virtual machine fails to boot successfully and times out. The deployment task hangs for approximately 40 minutes before rolling back and removing the VM.

The primary network interface (eth0) remains down, and the boot sequence reports the following error:

 

vmxnet3 0000:03:00.0 eth0: Failed to activate dev: error 1.

The SDDC Manager logs (domainmanager.log) report timeout failures while waiting for the NSX-T Manager to become operational:

 

TIMESTAMP+0000 ERROR [vcf_dm,69aebd744bc6e126b7b5d9fe40ea94cf,ba6e] [c.v.evo.sddc.common.util.SslUtil,dm-exec-35] Error occurred while getting certificate chain for 'hostname.example:443'. java.net.ConnectException: Connection timed out TIMESTAMP+0000 ERROR [vcf_dm,69aebd744bc6e126b7b5d9fe40ea94cf,ba6e] [c.v.v.c.f.p.n.a.DeployNsxtManagerAction,dm-exec-35] NSX manager hostname.example SSH/connection error: Connection timed out TIMESTAMP+0000 DEBUG [vcf_dm,69aebd744bc6e126b7b5d9fe40ea94cf,ba6e] [c.v.v.c.f.p.n.h.NsxtCommonOperations,dm-exec-35] Timeout waiting for NSX manager to become operational TIMESTAMP+0000 ERROR [vcf_dm,69aebd743c33bfbe0e47e8a9759d48f0,db83] [c.v.e.s.o.model.error.ErrorFactory,dm-exec-12] [U5J6JV] NSXT_MANAGER_NON_OPERATIONAL NSX Manager operation status is false on hostname.example com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.exceptions.OrchTaskException: NSX Manager operation status is false on hostname.example 

Analysis of the vCenter Server vpxd logs confirms that the NSX Manager VM ConfigSpec assigns a MAC address starting with a multicast prefix (01:50:56 or 01:50:57):

-->             addressType = "Assigned", 
-->             macAddress = "01:XX:XX:##:##:##", 
-->          }, 

 

Environment

VMware Cloud Foundation 9.x
VMware NSX 9.x
VMware vCenter Server 9.x

Cause

The vCenter Server MAC allocation scheme was improperly configured with a multicast prefix (01XXXX) during deployment. The guest OS network driver correctly rejects the activation of the vmxnet3 device because a vNIC requires a valid unicast MAC address.

Resolution

Modify the vCenter Server MAC allocation scheme to use a valid locally administered unicast prefix (e.g., 025056 or 005056), and restart the management services.

1. Log in to the vSphere Client as an Administrator.

2. Select the vCenter Server object in the inventory tree.

3. Navigate to Configure > Settings > Advanced Settings.

4. Click Edit Settings.

5. Search for macAllocScheme.prefixValue.

6. Change the value from 015056 to 025056 (Note: 005056 may be rejected by the UI; 025056 is a valid locally administered unicast prefix).

7. Click Save.

8. Open an SSH session to the vCenter Server Appliance (VCSA).

9. Restart the vpxd service to load the new scheme into memory: service-control --restart vmware-vpx

10. Start the NSX Manager VM to confirm network interface initialization.

11. Execute an inventory sync from VCF Operations / SDDC Manager UI.

Additional Information

Reference KB 424870 for related SDDC Manager deployment troubleshooting guidelines.