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ESXi 5.x becomes unresponsive at power initialization (2014161)
Symptoms
During an upgrade from ESXi/ESX 4.x to ESXi 5.x, the host becomes unresponsive at initialization
Remediation of the host hangs at 26%
The Update Manager logs on the host show errors similar to:
[2012-02-20 11:11:21:177 'HostStatusChecker' 9028 DEBUG] [hostStatusChecker, 319] Exception getting connection state of host Failed to reconnect to host: host.vmware.com vim.fault.NoHost [2012-02-20 11:11:21:177 'HostStatusChecker' 9028 DEBUG] [hostStatusChecker, 368] Scheduling host upgrade status check in 60 sec [2012-02-20 11:11:44:125 'JobDispatcher' 3724 DEBUG] [JobDispatcher, 405] The number of tasks: 10 [2012-02-20 11:12:14:140 'JobDispatcher' 3724 DEBUG] [JobDispatcher, 405] The number of tasks: 10 [2012-02-20 11:12:21:191 'HostStatusChecker' 5584 INFO] [hostStatusChecker, 113] Checking status for host host.vmware.com #63 [2012-02-20 11:12:42:189 'HostStatusChecker' 5584 DEBUG] [hostStatusChecker, 191] Exception when communicating with upgrade agent: Error connecting. Error code: 2, message: Failed to connect to server host.vmware.com:902 [2012-02-20 11:12:42:220 'HostStatusChecker' 5584 INFO] [hostStatusChecker, 223] Attempting to reconnect host: host.vmware.com [2012-02-20 11:12:42:220 'VcTaskMonitor' 5584 DEBUG] [vcTaskMonitor, 87] VcTaskMonitor started for session[525ce1a5-bb45-2c1a-058e-e69ffa90833f]52ba66b6-249f-4c63-3e40-5e9ddc5f3bca [2012-02-20 11:12:42:220 'VcTaskMonitor' 5584 DEBUG] [vcTaskMonitor, 142] VcTaskFilterWrapper started for session[525ce1a5-bb45-2c1a-058e-e69ffa90833f]52ba66b6-249f-4c63-3e40-5e9ddc5f3bca
After rebooting the host after the upgrade, the host still becomes unresponsive at initialization
Resolution
VMware ESXi includes a full range of host power management capabilities in the software. These can save power when an ESXi host is not fully utilized. You should configure your BIOS settings to allow ESXi the most flexibility in using the power management features offered by your hardware and then make your power management choices within ESXi.
To resolve this issue, set the power management of the host in the BIOS to OS control mode or an equivalent.
To manage the power operations for you server, contact your hardware vendor or check the server documentation.
