NSX Installation Fails on Host with error: "Failed to install software on host"

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

- NSX installation fails on the ESXi host with the error "Failed to install software on host" due to a timeout while joining the NSX Managers.

- vmkping tests  towards NSX managers reveal that communication is only successful when explicitly specifying the vmk0 interface but performing a regular ping from the host to managers fail

- vmk1 configuration has incorrect subnet mask which includes the management network and Override Default Gateway is also enabled:

Environment

VMware NSX

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

The failure to install NSX and join the NSX Managers is caused by a networking misconfiguration on the vmk1 interface. The "Override Default Gateway" option is incorrectly enabled, the subnet mask is improperly configured as /23 instead of /24, preventing proper routing and communication between the host and the NSX Managers.

Resolution

1. Log in to the vSphere Client or directly to the ESXi Host Client.

2. Navigate to the affected ESXi host's networking settings.

3. Edit the properties for the vmk1 VMkernel adapter.

4. Disable the "Override Default Gateway" option.

5. Change the subnet mask from /23 to /24.

6. Save the networking configuration changes.

7. Return to the NSX Manager UI and retry the NSX configuration/installation on the ESXi host.