Adding ESXi Hosts to vSAN Cluster Fails with error "vmk ping check failed from host <esxi_host_fqdn> to vSAN storage IP"

Products

• VMware vSAN

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Attempting to add new ESXi hosts to an existing vSAN cluster using SDDC Manager fails with the following error:
  
  
  vmk ping check failed from host <esxi_host_fqdn> to vSAN storage IP


• The /var/log/vmware/vcf/domainmanager/domainmanager.log file confirms the failure during ping test:
  
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM.SS.sss+#### ERROR [vcf_dm,################################,####] [c.v.e.s.o.model.error.ErrorFactory,dm-exec-$$]  [I837JH] VMKPING_CHECK_FAILED_FROM_VSAN_CLUSTER vmk ping check failed from host <esxi_host_fqdn> to vSAN storage IP com.vmware.evo.sddc.orchestrator.exceptions.OrchTaskException: vmk ping check failed from host <esxi_host_fqdn> to vSAN storage IP
  
  

Environment

• VCF 9.x
• SDDC Manager 9.x

 

Cause

• During the validation of vmkping, SDDC Manager queries its internal database to retrieve the vSAN IP addresses of existing hosts in the cluster. But vsan ip address in the SDDC manager database shows empty. 
• Because the database contains empty vSAN IP adress, the query returns a NULL value. As a result, the validation engine cannot initiate the ping test, causing the validation to fail.
• The /var/log/vmware/vcf/domainmanager/domainmanager.log file indicate that the validation engine attempts to perform a vmkping test against a null target IP address, resulting in a "Name or service not known" error. This occurs because the SDDC Manager database does not have the correct vSAN IP addresses populated for the existing hosts in the cluster.
  
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM.SS.sss+#### INFO  [vcf_dm,################################,####] [c.v.e.s.v.v.SinglePortgroupValidator,dm-exec-##]  Performing ping test from host ###################### with IP address version IPv4
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM.SS.sss+#### INFO  [vcf_dm,################,####] [c.v.e.s.v.v.SinglePortgroupValidator,dm-exec-##]  Trying to do vmkping using nic interface vmk30 from the host ###################### to null
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM.SS.sss+#### INFO  [vcf_dm,################,####] [c.v.e.s.v.v.SinglePortgroupValidator,dm-exec-##]  Trying to do vmkping using nic interface vmk30 from the host ###################### to null
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM.SS.sss+#### INFO  [vcf_dm,################,####] [c.v.e.s.v.v.SinglePortgroupValidator,dm-exec-##]  Trying to do vmkping using nic interface vmk30 from the host ###################### to null
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM.SS.sss+#### INFO  [vcf_dm,################,####] [c.v.e.s.v.v.SinglePortgroupValidator,dm-exec-##]  Trying to do vmkping using nic interface vmk30 from the host ###################### to null
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM.SS.sss+#### ERROR [vcf_dm,################,####] [c.v.e.s.c.c.v.esx.EsxCommandExecutor,dm-exec-##]  ######################: esxcli method vim.EsxCLI.network.diag.ping failed: getaddrinfo() for "null" failed (-2: Name or service not known)
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM.SS.sss+#### ERROR [vcf_dm,################,####] [c.v.e.s.c.c.v.esx.EsxCommandExecutor,dm-exec-##]  ######################: esxcli method vim.EsxCLI.network.diag.ping failed: getaddrinfo() for "null" failed (-2: Name or service not known)
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM.SS.sss+#### ERROR [vcf_dm,################,####] [c.v.e.s.c.h.n.EsxiHostNetworkingUtil,dm-exec-##]  Unable to ping null via VM Kernel vmk30 with MTU 8972 with ip address version IPv4 from ESXi host ###################### and netStack null:. Cause: null com.vmware.evo.sddc.common.client.vmware.esx.models.LocalizedMethodFault:  getaddrinfo() for "null" failed (-2: Name or service not known)
YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM.SS.sss+#### ERROR [vcf_dm,################,####] [c.v.e.s.c.h.n.EsxiHostNetworkingUtil,dm-exec-##]  Unable to ping null via VM Kernel vmk30 with MTU 1472 with ip address version IPv4 from ESXi host ###################### and netStack null:. Cause: null com.vmware.evo.sddc.common.client.vmware.esx.models.LocalizedMethodFault:  getaddrinfo() for "null" failed (-2: Name or service not known)

Resolution

1. Engage Broadcom Support to update the host table with valid vSAN IPs.