VMware ESXi 9.0.2 successfully joins Active Directory but automatically disjoins after AD User login attempt

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware Cloud Foundation

Issue/Introduction

• Active Directory configuration on ESX version 9.0.2 (25148076) is successful. However, user login fails with error 'Cannot complete login due to incorrect user name or password'.
  
  
• The Likewise Service Manager and the related daemons are in stopped state on the ESX host:
  
  

  #/usr/lib/vmware/likewise/bin/lwsm list
  
  lwreg           running (sm: #####)
  eventlog        stopped
  lsass           stopped
  lwio            stopped
  netlogon        stopped
  rdr             stopped  

   

• In /var/run/log/syslog.log, the entry for lwsmd service crash is observed:
  
  

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS Er(27) watchdog-lwsmd[######]: '/usr/lib/vmware/likewise/sbin/lwsmd ++securitydom=lwsmdDom --syslog' exited after 154748 seconds 134

   

• In /var/run/log/hostd.log, authentication failures are reported for the user that attempted to login to the ESX:
  
  

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS Wa(164) Hostd[#####]: [Originator@6876 sub=Vimsvc.HaSessionManager opID=esxui-##### sid=######] Rejected password for user <user>@<domain> from <Client_IP> - session=<session_id>

Environment

VMware ESX 9.0.2

Cause

This is a known issue in ESX 9.0.2 where the lwsmd (Likewise) daemon crashes during Active Directory authentication or permission assignment operations.

Resolution

The issue is resolved in ESX version 9.1.

Update the VCF environment to version 9.1 to apply the fix.

Refer: Upgrading to VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1