ESXi and ESX hosts randomly disconnect from VMware vCenter Server

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• VMware ESXi and ESX hosts randomly disconnect from VMware vCenter Server.
• The disconnected host alarm triggers.
• You are able to connect to a host using the vSphere Client and can manually connect the host to vCenter Server.
• In the vpxd.log file (located at C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Virtualcenter\logs), you see messages similar to:
  
  [06288 info 'vpxdvpxdHostCnx' opID=SWI-a4368d0] [VpxdHostCnx] No heartbeats received from host 52acdeec-71e3-e5c8-13a1-c782937826a9 within 79859000 ms
  [06288 info 'vpxdvpxdHostCnx' opID=SWI-a4368d0] [VpxdHostCnx] No heartbeats received from host 52acdeec-71e3-e5c8-13a1-c782937826a9 within 84797000 ms
  
  [06288 info 'vpxdvpxdHostCnx' opID=SWI-a4368d0] [VpxdHostCnx] No heartbeats received from host 52acdeec-71e3-e5c8-13a1-c782937826a9 within 79859000 ms
  [04084 info 'vpxdvpxdInvtHostCnx'] [VpxdInvtHost] Got lost connection callback for host-99999
  [02444 info 'commonvpxLro'] [VpxLRO] -- BEGIN task-internal-5734015 -- host-99999 -- VpxdInvtHostSyncHostLRO.Synchronize --
  [02444 warning 'vpxdvpxdInvtHostCnx'] [VpxdInvtHostSyncHostLRO] Connection not alive for host host-99999
  [02444 warning 'vpxdvpxdInvtHostCnx'] [VpxdInvtHostSyncHostLRO] Failed to fix not responding host host-99999
  [02444 warning 'vpxdvpxdInvtHostCnx'] [VpxdInvtHostSyncHostLRO] Connection not alive for host host-99999
  [02444 error 'vpxdvpxdInvtHostCnx'] [VpxdInvtHostSyncHostLRO] FixNotRespondingHost failed for host host-99999, marking host as notResponding
  [02444 warning 'vpxdvpxdMoHost'] [HostMo] host connection state changed to [NO_RESPONSE] for host-99999

Environment

VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded

Cause

This issue occurs because the vCenter Server agent on the host (vpxa) fails to send heartbeats to the vCenter Server.

Resolution

This is a known issue affecting ESXi/ESX 4.x and ESXi 5.x.

This issue is resolved in patch releases for ESXi/ESX 4.0 and ESXi 5.0/5.1. For more information, see:

• VMware ESXi 4.0, Patch Release ESXi400-201310001 (2059496)
• VMware ESX 4.0, Patch Release ESX400-201310001 (2059495)
  
• VMware ESXi 4.1, Patch Release ESXi410-201312001 (2061210)
  
• VMware ESX 4.1, Patch Release ESX410-201312001 (2061209)
  
• VMware ESXi 5.0, Patch Release ESXi500-201308001 (2053131)
• VMware ESXi 5.1, Patch Release ESXi510-201307001 (2052143)

To work around this issue for other versions, manually reconnect the host to vCenter Server.

Additional Information

For related information, see ESXi/ESX host disconnects from vCenter Server after adding or connecting it to the inventory (2040630).

ESXi/ESX host disconnects from vCenter Server after adding or connecting it to the inventory
VMware ESXi 5.1, Patch Release ESXi510-201307001
VMware ESXi 5.0, Patch Release ESXi500-201308001
VMware ESX 4.0, Patch Release ESX400-201310001
VMware ESXi 4.0, Patch Release ESXi400-201310001
VMware ESX 4.1, Patch Release ESX410-201312001
VMware ESXi 4.1, Patch Release ESXi410-201312001
ESXi 和 ESX 主机从 VMware vCenter Server 随机断开连接
ESXi および ESX ホストが VMware vCenter Server からランダムに切断する