Nutanix ESXi Hosts Not Found in vCenter SearchIndex During LCM Patching

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• When attempting to patch ESXi hosts via the Nutanix Lifecycle Management platform it fails to locate the hosts in order to proceed with patching.  
• When performing a manual diagnostic query in the vCenter Managed Object Browser (MOB) using SearchIndex.FindByIp, the query returns no result (null) for the management IP of Nutanix ESXi hosts, while non-Nutanix hosts are found successfully.

Cause

The vCenter Inventory Service / SearchIndex fails to maintain a consistent mapping of the ESXi host management IP to the host object following environment changes or third-party software updates (AOS). This synchronization drift prevents external APIs (like Nutanix Prism) from locating the host within the vSphere inventory despite the host appearing connected in the vSphere Client.

Resolution

To restore host visibility in the vCenter SearchIndex, perform the following steps:

1. Restart Management Agents: Log in to the affected ESXi host(s) via SSH and run:
   • /etc/init.d/hostd restart
   • /etc/init.d/vpxa restart
2.  If restarting agents does not resolve the FindByIp null response, a full host reboot is required to re-register the host metadata within the vCenter inventory.

Verification:

1. Navigate to https://<vCenter_FQDN>/mob/?moid=SearchIndex&method=findByIp.
2. Set ip to the ESXi management IP.
3. Set vmSearch to false.
4. Click Invoke Method. A successful result will return the host MoID (e.g., host-####) instead of remaining empty.