Error: "Unknown feature 'VMODL_LIFECYCLE'. ASSUMING DISABLED" logged on ESXi

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Administrators may observe error logs similar to the following on an ESXi host.

hostd.log

YYYY-mm-DDTHH:MM:SS.zzzZ In(166) Hostd[####]: error -[####] [Originator@6876 sub=VMOMI-FSS] Unknown feature 'VMODL_LIFECYCLE'. ASSUMING DISABLED

vpxa.log

YYYY-mm-DDTHH:MM:SS.zzzZ Er(163) Vpxa[####]: [Originator@6876 sub=VMOMI-FSS] Unknown feature 'VMODL_LIFECYCLE'. ASSUMING DISABLED

healthdPlugins.log

YYYY-mm-DDTHH:MM:SS.zzzZ Er(163) healthdPlugins[#####]: error vsanHealth[#####] [Originator@6876 sub=VMOMI-FSS] Unknown feature 'VMODL_LIFECYCLE'. ASSUMING DISABLED

 

Note: These log entries may also appear in log files other than the examples listed above.

Environment

VMware vSphere 8.0 U1 or later

Cause

Services on ESXi execute a common initialization function during their startup sequence. Within this function, a feature named VMODL_LIFECYCLE is checked. Since the VMODL_LIFECYCLE feature is not implemented in ESXi, an error-level log entry is recorded.

Resolution

This log entry is cosmetic and does not indicate any system failure, so it can be safely ignored.
The entry is simply generated during the process of verifying whether the feature exists, and the absence of the VMODL_LIFECYCLE feature causes no operational impact.