• Cannot configure SNMP on the ESXi/ESX host
• Configuring SNMP on the ESXi/ESX host fails
• You see the error:
  
  Failed : A general system error occurred: Load persistent store failed

This issue occurs when the SNMP configuration file is corrupted or has a bad tag.

1. Ensure that the SNMP configuration file is not corrupted and looks similar to:
   
   <config>
   <snmpSettings>
   <communities>public</communities>
   <enable>true</enable>
   </snmpSettings>
   </config>
   
   
2. Ensure that there are no white spaces or extra line breaks in the /etc/vmware/snmp.xml file.
   

Warning: When the SNMP configuration file is corrupted, you can create a new /etc/vmware/snmp.xml file with the appropriate content. However, this is not a recommended method and must be done at your own risk.

1. Run this command to rename the /etc/vmware/snmp.xml file as snmp.xml.old:
   
   mv snmp.xml snmp.xml.old
   
   
2. Create a new snmp.xml file using a text editor. For example, to create the file using the vi editor, run this command:
   
   vi /etc/vmware/snmp.xml
   
   
3. Copy and paste these lines to the file:
   
   <config>
   <snmpSettings>
   <communities>public</communities>
   <enable>true</enable>
   </snmpSettings>
   </config>
   
   Note: Ensure that you do not have any extra line breaks or white spaces before or after the text.
   
   
4. Save the file.
5. Run this command to restart the VMware Management service:
   
   service mgmt-vmware restart

VMware recommends you to use the vicfg-snmp remote tool to configure SNMP on ESXi/ESX hosts.

In ESXi/ESX 3.5 and earlier releases, VMware supported the NET-SNMP method using the snmpd.conf configuration file. Though this method continues to be available in ESX/ESXi 4.0 and 4.1, it is deprecated in favor of the agent embedded in the VMware hostd service.