ESXi 5.5 host LOCKDOWN mode grayed out

[trsorrell]

I just upgraded 1 of my hosts to 5.5 and during the upgrade it rebooted but I'm not able to connect to it with VCenter anymore. I removed it and tried re-adding but it says it can't connect. I can ping it. I cannot connect to it with the Vsphere client either. On the host when I go into configuration it has the lockdown mode grayed out. I'm suspecting that I cannot connect to it because it's in lockdown mode? If it's grayed when I directly log into the host how do I connect and disable lockdown mode??

I log into the host directly with the root account.

[admin]

This wold be the way to check lock down mode from shell..

ESXi 5.x and 4.1

• To check if Lockdown mode is enabled: vim-cmd -U dcui vimsvc/auth/lockdown_is_enabled
• To disable Lockdown mode: vim-cmd -U dcui vimsvc/auth/lockdown_mode_exit
• To enable Lockdown mode: vim-cmd -U dcui vimsvc/auth/lockdown_mode_enter

Enabling and disabling can be done using DCUI also.

~dGeorgey

[trsorrell]

Ok I will try the shell in the morning. I can't use the DCUI because it's grayed out.

[sicnarf_latosa]

Any other option to fixed this issue? I encounter same issue.

After upgrading 5.5 to up3a Lockdown mode is grayed out host is not pingable and cannot connect to VC. I try to rebuild again but no lock same error I encounter.

[sicnarf_latosa]

Hi Guys,

Lockdown mode is grayed out if the host is not connected to CV. trsorrell did your issue resolved? if not check network configuration IP's/MTU of VSS/VDS should be the same with management network/vmotion portgroup. Check the logs as well possible driver issue 

[RanjnaAggarwal]

hi, if your esxi host is not connected with vCenter then you cannot enable or disable the lockdown mode and that is why it is greyed out.

[apiceno]

I had the same issue in my development environment. I resolved my issue by updating vcenter to the latest build once i did that i was able to join the esxi host back to vcenter. I believe the rule of thumb is update vcenter before esxi hosts. Hope this helps.