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ESX/ESXi host appears grayed out in vShield Manager (2013686)
Symptoms
ESX/ESXi hosts in the vShield Manager Web interface are grayed out
You are unable to write any firewall rules for virtual machines
When forcing a sync between the Firewall appliance and vShield Manager, you see the error:
Unknown error
Cause
This issue occurs due to improper ESX/ESXi host licensing. In vShield 4.1, in addition to the typical vShield Application Firewall license, some of the other functionalities that are enabled by the (legacy) vShield Zones feature of the ESX/ESXi license are also required.
Resolution
To resolve this issue, use the vSphere Advanced Plus or higher license. These licenses contain the vShield Zones feature.
Note: This issue does not occur in vShield 5.0.
Additional Information
An ESX/ESXi host may also be grayed out in vCenter Server if:
The connection state in vCenter Server is anything other than connected
It is in the maintenance mode
It is powered off
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