All hosts status is showing as Down in NSX Manager due to TEP DHCP lease failure

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

Multiple ESXi hosts report a Down status within the NSX Manager UI. This condition often results in the NSX-NCP pod entering a CrashLoopBackOff state because it cannot reach the API server. 

 

• All ESXi hosts show a status of Down in the NSX Manager.
  • 
• The NSX_VDL2 agent on the ESXi host is reported as down.
• Running net-dvs -l on the host shows: com.vmware.common.opaqueDvs.status.component.vdl2 = down
• Log entries in /var/log/vobd.log indicate TEP vmkernel interfaces (e.g., vmk10) are unable to obtain a DHCP lease. 

  Unable to obtain a DHCP lease on interface vmk10

   
  • 
• Log entries in vmkernel.log show:

    No valid v4 tep ip for a long time of vmnic[vmk10] on VDS

• • 

Environment

• VMware NSX
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Cause

The issue occurs when the Transport Node Profile applied to the cluster is configured to use DHCP for IPv4 Assignment, but the environment does not provide a DHCP server for the TEP network, or the deployment requires an IP Pool. This prevents the TEP interface from receiving an IP address, breaking control plane connectivity.

Resolution

Update the Transport Node Profile to use an IP Pool for TEP address assignment:

1. Log in to the NSX Manager UI.
2. Navigate to System > Fabric > Hosts > Transport Node Collections.
3. Identify the cluster and the associated Transport Node Profile.
4. Navigate to System > Fabric > Profiles > Transport Node Profiles.
5. Edit the affected profile.
6. Under the Nodes overvirew or Host Switch configuration, locate IPv4 Assignment.
7. Change the setting from DHCP to Use IP Pool.
8. Select the appropriate IP Pool from the dropdown menu.
9. Save the profile.
10. The configuration will automatically push to the ESXi hosts. Verify that the host status returns to Up and that vmk10 receives a valid IP address.

Additional Information

For general port connectivity verification, ensure ports 1234, 1235, and 443 are open between ESXi hosts and the NSX Manager cluster.

nc -zv <NSX-Manager-IP><port>