Browsing datastores from VMware VirtualCenter 2.5.x fails: Failed to log into NFC server

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Downloading a file to local machine with the VMware vCenter Server datastore browser fails with the error:
  
  Failed to log into NFC server
  
• Connecting vCenter Server directly to ESX hosts works without error.
• The ESX host's /etc/vmware/config files contain the lines:
  
  authd.soapServer = "TRUE"
  prefvmx.consolidateDeleteNFSLocks = "TRUE"authd.proxy.vpxa-nfc = "vmware-vpxa:vpxa-nfc"
  authd.proxy.vpxa-nfcssl = "vmware-vpxa:vpxa-nfcssl"

Environment

VMware VirtualCenter 2.5.x
VMware ESX Server 3.5.x

Cause

This issue occurs when a carriage return is missing from /etc/vmware/config.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, add the carriage return to /etc/vmware/config.

To add the carriage return to /etc/vmware/config:

1. Connect to the ESX host using SSH. For more information, see Connecting to an ESX host using an SSH client (1019852).
   
   
2. Take a backup of the /etc/vmware/config file using this command:
   
   cp /etc/vmware/config /var/tmp/
   
   
3. Edit the /etc/vmware/config file, so that there is a carriage return after this line:
   
   prefvmx.consolidateDeleteNFSLocks = "TRUE"
   
   For example, the entries should appear similar to:
   
   authd.soapServer = "TRUE"
   prefvmx.consolidateDeleteNFSLocks = "TRUE"
   authd.proxy.vpxa-nfc = "vmware-vpxa:vpxa-nfc"
   authd.proxy.vpxa-nfcssl = "vmware-vpxa:vpxa-nfcssl"
   
   
4. Restart the hostd management agent using this command:
   
   service mgmt-vmware restart
   
   For more information, see Restarting the Management agents on an ESX or ESXi Server (1003490).

Additional Information

Ensure that you do not have any name resolution issues in your environment. This may also cause issues.

For help troubleshooting name resolution issues in your environment, see Testing network connectivity with the ping command (1003486).

Testing network connectivity with the ping command
Restarting the Management agents in ESXi
Connecting to an ESX host using an SSH client
VMware VirtualCenter 2.5.x からデータストアを参照しようとすると、「NFC サーバへのログインに失敗しました」というエラーで失敗する
从 VMware VirtualCenter 2.5.x 浏览数据存储失败：无法登录到 NFC 服务器