vMotion or Port Group creation fails with "DVS error" due to Hostd/Vpxa service failure and storage latency

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• Attempts to vMotion virtual machines from an affected ESXi host fail.
• The vSphere Client displays the error: A general system error occurred: DVS error: see fault Cause Cannot create Distributed Port Group dvportgroup-#### of VDS [VDS-NAME] on the host [HOST-NAME] Cause: Cannot complete a vSphere Distributed Switch operation for one or more host members.
• The ESXi host may show as "Out of Sync" with the vSphere Distributed Switch (vDS) configuration.
• Management services hostd and vpxa are found in a stopped or unresponsive state on the ESXi host.

Environment

vSphere ESXi 8.0

Cause

The issue is typically triggered by extreme storage latency or bottlenecks. When storage performance deteriorates (e.g., I/O latency exceeding several hundred milliseconds), the hostd service may become unresponsive or stop while attempting to write vDS metadata to the .dvsData directory on the datastore. This results in the host falling out of sync with the vCenter Server vDS configuration

Resolution

Follow these steps to restore services and synchronize the network configuration:

1. Address Storage Latency:

   • Review VMkernel logs for ScsiDeviceIO warnings indicating performance deterioration.
   • Consult with your storage vendor to conduct a diagnostic review of the storage array and backend fabric. 

2. Restore Host Services:

   • Attempt to restart management agents via SSH or the DCUI: services.sh restart.
   • If services fail to start, reboot the affected ESXi host.

3. Resynchronize vDS Configuration:

   • Place the host in Maintenance Mode.
   • Right-click the vDS in the Networking view and select Add and Manage Hosts.
   • Select Remove hosts and remove the affected ESXi host from the vDS.
   • Once removed, use the same wizard to Add hosts and re-attach the ESXi host to the vDS. This forces a fresh synchronization of the network state. 
   • Exit Maintenance Mode.