Password remediation fails for ESXi host in VCF Workload domain

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware SDDC Manager / VCF Installer

Issue/Introduction

• ESXi host is showing as disconnected in VCF Password management UI.
• Standard remediation workflows fail to resolve issue (https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/436398/esxi-root-account-is-shown-as-disconnect.html). 
• No evidence of resource locks is found (https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/449686/esxi-password-remediation-fails-in-vcf-o.html).

Cause

Possible causes include, but are not limited to:

• Local password on ESXi host is lost or otherwise unavailable.
• SDDC service account missing or corrupted. 

Resolution

1. Remove host from WLD https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vcf/vcf-9-0-and-later/9-1/building-your-private-cloud-infrastructure/working-with-workload-domains/reduce-a-workload-domain-1/remove-a-host-from-a-cluster-in-a-workload-domain.html
2. De-commission impacted ESXi host. https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vcf/vcf-9-0-and-later/9-1/building-your-private-cloud-infrastructure/host-management/decommission-hosts.html
3. Reimage the impacted host.
4. Commission the re-imaged host: https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vcf/vcf-9-0-and-later/9-1/building-your-private-cloud-infrastructure/host-management/commission-hosts.html

5. Add host to cluster in workload domain:

   https://knowledge.broadcom.com/external/article/442933/steps-for-adding-new-host-to-workload-do.html

    

   https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vcf/vcf-9-0-and-later/9-0/building-your-private-cloud-infrastructure/working-with-workload-domains/expand-a-workload-domain/add-a-host-to-a-vsphere-cluster-using-the-sddc-manager-ui.html