cfo

This issue may occur if the IP address of an ESX host is changed while being managed by vCenter.

Symptoms

VirtualCenter cannot connect to host when performing operations such as:

Storage vMotion
Cold Migration
Cloning a Virtual Machine
Deploying from Template

Resolution

Verifying the cause
To verify the cause of the issue:

1. Log in as root to the ESX host using an SSH client.
2. In the /etc/opt/vmware/vpxa/vpxa.cfg file, locate the Host IP address. The entry looks similar to:

<vpxa>
<hostIp>10.21.48.121</hostIp>
</vpxa>

If the IP address is incorrect, perform the following steps in order. If step 1 does not solve the issue, proceed to step 2. If step 2 does not solve the issue, proceed to step 3. Do not skip a step.

Step 1

1. Right-click the ESX host in VirtualCenter and click Disconnect.
2. Reconnect the ESX host in VirtualCenter.

Step 2

1. Stop the vpxa service with the command:

# service vmware-vpxa stop

2. Open the /etc/opt/vmware/vpxa/vpxa.cfg file in a text editor and correct the IP address of the ESX host.
3. Start the vpxa service with the command:

# service vmware-vpxa start

Step 3

Note: This step removes all host and virtual machine historical statistics counters.

1. Right-click the ESX host in VirtualCenter and click Disconnect.
2. Remove the disconnected ESX host from VirtualCenter.
3. Backup thevpxa.cfg file with the command:

# mv /etc/opt/vmware/vpxa/vpxa.cfg /etc/opt/vmware/vpxa/vpxa.oldcfg

4. Add the disconnected ESX host to the VirtualCenter inventory.
5. Run the following command to examine the contents of /etc/opt/vmware/vpxa/vpxa.cfg and confirm that the host IP address is correct:

# cat /etc/opt/vmware/vpxa/vpxa.cfg

RVTools is a small .NET 2.0 application which uses the VI SDK to display information about your virtual machines. Interacting with VirtualCenter 2.x or ESX 3.x RVTools is able to list information about cpu, memory, disks, nics, cd-rom, floppy drives, snapshots, VMware tools, ESX hosts, datastores and health checks. With RVTools you can disconnect the cd-rom or floppy drives from the virtual machines and RVTools is able to list the current version of the VMware Tools installed inside each virtual machine. and update them to the latest version.

http://rvtools.deveij.com/