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Diagnosing an ESX Server that is Disconnected or Not Responding in VirtualCenter

Symptoms

  • ESX Server shows as Not Responding in VirtualCenter
  • ESX Server shows as Disconnected in VirtualCenter
  • Cannot connect ESX Server to VirtualCenter
  • When attempting to add an ESX host to VirtualCenter, you see an error similar to:

    Unable to access the specified host, either it doesn't exist, the server software is not responding, or there is a network problem

Purpose

This article guides you through the process of troubleshooting an ESX host that is in a disconnected or a not responding state in VirtualCenter. It provides steps to help you eliminate common causes for your problem by verifying that the configuration of your networking and management server agents is correct, as well as confirming the availability of resources on your ESX host.

Resolution

Please validate that each troubleshooting step below is true for your environment. Each step will provide instructions or a link to a document, in order to eliminate possible causes and take corrective action as necessary. The steps are ordered in the most appropriate sequence to isolate the issue and identify the proper resolution. Please do not skip a step.
  1. Verify that the ESX host cannot be reconnected or that reconnecting the ESX Server does not fix the issue. For more information, see Changing an ESX Server's Connection Status in VirtualCenter (1003480).

    Note: If you perform a corrective action in any of the following steps, attempt reconnecting the ESX host to VirtualCenter again.

  2. Verify that the ESX Server is responding back to VirtualCenter at the correct IP address. If VirtualCenter does not receive heartbeats from the ESX host, it goes into a not responding state. To verify if the correct Managed IP Address is set, see Verifying the VirtualCenter Managed IP Address (1008030).

  3. Verify that network connectivity exists from the VirtualCenter Server to the ESX Server. For more information, see Testing network connectivity with the Ping command (1003486).

  4. Verify that you can connect from the VirtualCenter Server to the ESX Server on port 902 (If the ESX Server was upgraded from version 2.x and you cannot connect on port 902, then verify if you can connect on port 905). For more information, see Testing network port connectivity with the Telnet command (1003487).

  5. Verify that the ESX Server management service vmware-hostd is running. For more information, see Verifying that the Management Service is running on an ESX Server (1003494).

  6. Verify that the VirtualCenter agent service vmware-vpxa is running. For more information, see Verifying that the VirtualCenter Agent Service is running on an ESX Server (1003495).

  7. Verify that the xinetd service is running. If xinetd is not running, authentication may fail. For more information, see Verifying that the xinetd Service is running on an ESX host (1007323).

  8. Verify that a restart of the ESX Server Management Agents does not resolve the problem. For more information, see Restarting the Management Agents on an ESX Server (1003490).

  9. Verify that no processes are over utilizing the resources on the Service Console. For more information, see Checking for resource starvation of the ESX Server service console (1003496).

Note: If your problem still exists after trying the steps in this article:

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Actions
  • KB Article: 1003409
  • Updated: Nov 10, 2009
  • Products:
    VMware ESX
    VMware VirtualCenter
  • Product Versions:
    VMware ESX 3.0.x
    VMware ESX 3.5.x
    VMware VirtualCenter 2.0.x
    VMware VirtualCenter 2.5.x