How to troubleshoot an unresponsive ESXi host?

[michaelhbach]

Hi,

we have a VSAN cluster built with 4 ESXi hosts. For some reason one of those hosts become unresponsive - 2nd time within three weeks. This means: ESXi host lost his connectivity to vCenter Server. I can't ping the ESXi host. If I connect to the management network, it looks ok but I can't do anything. No response to F12 or F2. I have to cycle power or perform a hard reset to reboot the server. Then it will boot again, initialize the VSAN disk and is back in the cluster.

I checked all server logs but nothing here why it lost his connectivity. What VMware logs can I check? Who can help? I would like to know what happened and how to avoid this.

Thanks for your answers in advance! 

[nidla5]

Hi Michael,

are all 4 ESXi hosts identical (the same HW)? Did you check compatibility matrix?

[michaelhbach]

Yes, all four hosts are identical.

I checked compatibility matrix and our servers are ready to go with the version I installed.

[dekoshal]

You can check vpxa on esxi host and vpxd log on the vcenter. It would easy for you if you know date and time stamp for when issue occurred.

If you found this or any other answer helpful, please consider the use of the Helpful to award points.

Best Regards,

Deepak Koshal

CNE|CLA|CWMA|VCP4|VCP5|CCAH

[michaelhbach]

I contacted VMware support now. I will keep you guys updated what they recommend and how they are going to resolve this issue.