PE T440 VMWare ESXi 6.5 host becomes unreachable

Hi,

Is the management network on the same subnet as other devices? there could be something cause a broadcast storm and making the network unavailable. https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1003409

Currently we have a flat network at that location.  Everything is on the same subnet, and both management traffic and client traffic are using the same NIC.  The client stays completely accessible and is working normally even though all attempts to connect to the ESXi management result in 'Connection Refused' errors.  I haven't seen evidence of a broadcast storm, but I will poke around my router and switch logs to see if there are any major traffic issues, but so far no end users or client VMs are effected.

Looked through router and switch logs, not seeing any issues anywhere else.  For whatever reason, ESXi just likes to start refusing all requests within the first hour of being restarted.  I can ping the interface, and it shows it is alive, but is actively refusing all other requests.

We have exactly the same issue. Not sure if this is a Dell hardware issue, or a VMWare software issue. Anybody have any idea?

Looks like I'm having similar issue with an implace upgrade from 6.0 u3 to 6.5 u2. I used dell media VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.5.0.update02-8294253.x86_64-DellEMC_Customized-A00.iso. I can ping the management interface but when I try to reconnect the host it refuse. even if I try to add the host on another vcenter the same error occur. As it's a production host I'm thinking about reinstalling with dellcustomized 6.5 U1 instead. Suspecting something with the iso, but only speculate on that I can't confirm that yet. Except that we are using Dell R720 I bit older

I just did a full reinstall of VMWare 6.5u2 (Dell custom iso) on that server - new blank sd cards, fresh install and import of the child vms.  Still seeing the same issue though connecting to the host.  I wonder if it is an issue with VMware 6.5?  You said you were on 6.0u3 and did not have this issue?

I've re-install over my previous installation with iso found on Dell website initial built of vmware 6.5 (VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.5.0-5310538.x86_64-Dell_Customized-A03.iso)

After the installation all was good. I will then use my update manager to install Update 2 instead of running the upgrade from my Update manager. I was a bit concern about the 6.5 U1 install media on the Dell website as the "modified date" was on June 27 or 28 didn't want to get another buggy iso so i took initial release as I said earlier. 

So far my cluster node is almost back on track. I will test the U1 this afternoon.... well it's Friday and last day before 1 week vacation... maybe a bad idea to experiment.

No, I have the issue upgrading from 6.0 u3 to 6.5 u2. 

I just re-install with dell customized 6.5 initial release and juste worked fine :VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.5.0-5310538.x86_64-Dell_Customized-A03.iso

looks like my replay are getting deleted for **bleep** reason .....

it's anoying. 

After my first post, I've install over my previous fail migration from 6.0 u3 to 6.5 u2. 

I used VMware-VMvisor-Installer-6.5.0-5310538.x86_64-Dell_Customized-A03.iso instead of the 6.5 U2 on the dell web site and all back to normal. 

Suspecting media customization error on dell side

Good find.  I am going to work with my customer to see if I can have some more down time there to roll back to the straight 6.5 dell custom iso.  I will update here once I roll it back and let you know if that is a good fix for now.