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Newly created virtual machines appears as unprotected in vCenter

Symptoms:vCenter reports "unknown error initializing HA" for the host, but the Fault Default Manager log shows that the host successfully becomes an HA master or slave node.

Enabling HA times out in vCenter, but is successful on host(s).Re-configuring vsphere HA task fails on "Timed out Exception" in vCenter, but Fault Default Manager log shows that the host successfully becomes an HA master or slave node.

Newly powered on virtual machine shows as unprotected by HA in vCenter,but the Fault Default Manager log shows that the virtual machine is protected.

vCenter and ESXi hosts are not in the same subnet, there is a gateway/ firewall between vCenter and ESXi hosts.

Disabling and re-enabling HA on the cluster will resolve the issue temporarily, but issue will re-occur.

Why this happens?

This issue occurs when there is a firewall in the environment that is dropping the HA traffic between the ESXi hosts and vCenter Server.

Resolution:To resolve this issue:

Step – 1: Change "vpxd.das.fdmWaitForUpdatesTimeoutSec" settings to smaller value until the issue never shows. E.g. 30 or 60.

Note: This option is available from 5.5 u3.- In the vSphere Web Client, navigate to the vCenter Server instance.  - Select the Manage tab.  - Select Advanced settings. - Click Edit. - In the Key, type a key. - In the Value field, type the value for the specified key. - Click Add. - Click OK.

Step - 2

Change firewall settings, enlarge relevant "connection timeout" settings, consult device vendor for specific steps.For example 

- Timeout:10800

- TCP Timeout:10800

- TCP Half Closed360

- TCP Time Wait 120

Step - 3

Restart HA on the cluster.   - Browse to the cluster in the vSphere Web Client object navigator.

- Click the Manage tab and click Settings.

- Under Services, click Edit. - Uncheck the Turn ON vSphere HA.

- Click OK.

- Click Settings again and select Turn ON vSphere HA.

- Click OK.

Step - 4

Reconfigure HA on host level.- In the vSphere Web Client select the ESXi host. 

- Right click the ESXi host.

- Select All vCenter Actions > Reconfigure for vSphere HA.

Step - 5Move vCenter and ESXi hosts to the same subnet.