Heartbeat connectivity errors after ESXi 9.0.2 upgrade VCF

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

During an upgrade to ESXi 9.0.2 in a VCF environment, NSX transport nodes may report the following error in the NSX Manager Fabric UI:

• "Heartbeat between NSX management node and host [HOST_UUID] is down."

Attempts to resolve the issue may trigger a SOAP fault:

• SoapFaultException ['UserVars.NSX_Token' is invalid or exceeds the maximum number of characters permitted.]

 

 

Environment

VCF 9.0.2

Cause

This issue is caused by a character length validation error in ESXi 9.0.2 for the UserVars.NSX_Token variable during the host preparation phase, particularly in stateless/Auto Deploy environments.

Resolution

Workaround

1. Log in to the NSX Manager UI.
2. Navigate to System > Fabric > Nodes > Host Transport Nodes.
3. Click the Error link for the affected host.
4. Select Resolve to force a retry of the configuration push.

Permanent Fix

• This issue is scheduled to be resolved in NSX 9.1.2.

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Additional Information

The issue specifically affects stateless Auto Deploy environments where the system waits indefinitely for a realization state that was modified in the 9.x release cycle.