• ESX host reboot is slow.
• Restarting the Management agents takes up to 10 minutes.
  
  Note: For more information about starting Management agents, see Restarting the Management agents on an ESX or ESXi Server (1003490) .
  
  
• The /var/log/vmware/hostd.log contains entries similar to:
  
  2009-07-28 18:05:37.048 F64BDB90 warning 'Proxysvc Req00002' Connection to localhost:8309 failed with error N7Vmacore15SystemExceptionE(Connection refused).
  
  
• In the hostd.log file, you see a log spew with the error:
  
  
  [2010-09-29 23:17:00.591 F5804B90 warning 'Proxysvc Req00008'] Error reading from client while waiting for header: N7Vmacore15SystemExceptionE(Connection reset by peer)

1. Open /etc/resolv.conf in a text editor. For more information, see Editing files on an ESX host using vi or nano (1020302).
2. Comment out nameserver entries by placing a # in front of the entry. This prevents the ESX host from attempting to contact the DNS servers and allows it to boot.
3. Save and close the file.
4. Verify that the DNS Server IP in the /etc/resolv.conf file is valid by pinging the server. For more information, see Testing network connectivity with the Ping command (1003486).
5. When the entry has been verified, correct the nameserver entry using a text editor.
6. Restart the hostd service. For more information, see Restarting the Management agents on an ESX or ESXi Server (1003490).
   
   Note: If you are running ESX 3.0.x or earlier, see Virtual Machines Unexpectedly Reboot after Issuing the "mgmt-vmware restart" Command (7301769).

To prevent this issue in the future, you can manually set up name resolution on the ESX host itself without the presence of a DNS server. For more information, see Identifying issues with and setting up name resolution on ESX Server (1003735).