Host Maintenance Mode Mismatch between vCenter UI and ESXi/vSAN Layer.

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

This article provides a resolution for a synchronization issue where vCenter displays an incorrect maintenance mode status for an ESXi host that is confirmed to be in maintenance mode at the host and vSAN layer.

• An ESXi host successfully enters Maintenance Mode (MM) at the host layer (verified via esxcli vsan cluster get or vim-cmd /hostsvc/hostsummary).
• The vCenter Server UI continues to reflect the host as "Not in Maintenance Mode."
• Attempts to migrate VMs or perform host actions result in the error: "The selected host is changing its maintenance mode status."
• Maintenance Mode tasks in the vCenter UI appear grayed out or stuck.

Environment

• VMware vCenter Server 7.x / 8.x
• VMware vSAN 7.x / 8.x

Cause

A synchronization mismatch occurs between the vCenter Server (vpxd) and the host agent (hostd), where the vCenter database does not correctly update to reflect the successful state transition of the host.

Resolution

1. Verify the host state via CLI to confirm it is indeed in Maintenance Mode.
2. If the host is confirmed to be in MM at the host layer but "Changing status" in vCenter, reboot the impacted ESXi host.
3. Once the host reboots and reconnects to vCenter, verify the status reflects correctly in the UI.
4. If the issue persists, restart the vCenter Server services or contact Broadcom Support