Error: Failed to start fdm service during vSphere HA configuration.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• An ESXi host in a cluster reports a vSphere HA agent error.The host status indicates HA state retry.

Error message: A general system error occurred: Failed to start fdm service on host [vim.HostSystem:host-XXXX, <hostname>].

• Manual attempts to reconfigure HA from vCenter fail to resolve the issue.
  
  

Environment

• VMware ESXi 9.x
• vCenter 9.x

Cause

The vmware-fdm (Fault Domain Manager) VIB (vSphere Installation Bundle) is missing or was not successfully pushed to the ESXi host from vCenter during the HA configuration process.

Resolution

1. Verify the VIB status

Log in to the ESXi host via SSH and check if the vmware-fdm VIB is installed:

esxcli software vib list | grep fdm

2. Download the correct vmware-fdm VIB version for your ESXi build from the Broadcom/VMware support portal in the ESXI ZIP bundle. Broadcom support portal

3. Install the VIB to the /tmp directory of the ESXi host and run the following command:

esxcli software vib install -v /tmp/VMware_bootbank_vmware-fdm_x.x.0-xxxxxx.vib

Once the installation is successful, Reconfigure HA 

1. Select the affected ESXi host.
2. Navigate to Actions > vSphere HA > Reconfigure for vSphere HA.
3. Verify that the HA agent starts correctly and the error clears.