When you are not able to connect ESXi server to vCenter, or when you cannot connect to ESXi server from VI client it may be necessary to restart the management agents on ESX or ESXi host. In today's post called How to restart management agents on ESX or ESXi host we will learn this.
You might want to follow this little how to article showing you the way doing it. For the restart of the management agents (mgmt-vmware and vmware-vpxa) directly on ESX/ESXi ESXi 4 and 5.x or ESXi 6.x you will have to do the following:
To restart the management agents on ESXi 6.x
Log in to SSH or Local console as root.
Run these commands:
/etc/init.d/hostd restart
/etc/init.d/vpxa restart
Or also (alternative way)
To reset the management network on a specific VMkernel interface, by default vmk0, run the command:
esxcli network ip interface set -e false -i vmk0; esxcli network ip interface set -e true -i vmk0
Note: Using a semicolon (;) between the two commands ensures the VMkernel interface is disabled and then re-enabled in succession. If the management interface is not running on vmk0, change the above command according to the VMkernel interface used.
To restart all management agents on the host, run the command:
services.sh restart
How to restart the Management agents on ESXi Server – via the console:
1.) Connect to the console of your ESX Server and press F2
2.) Login as root and when using the Up/Down arrows navigate to Restart Management Agents.
3.) Press Enter and press F11 to restart the services.
4.) When the service has been restarted, press Enter. Then you can press Esc to logout of the system.
Then you should see a screen like this one :
To restart the management agents on ESXi 4.x and 5.x:
- Log in to SSH or Local console as root.
- Run this command:
/sbin/services.sh restart
You can check also: Service mgmt-vmware restart may not restart hostd (1005566).
To restart the management agents on ESX Server 3.x, ESX 4.x:
1.) Login to your ESX Server as root from SSH session (via putty for example) or directly from the console.
2.) Type service mgmt-vmware restart and press Enter
Make sure that automatic Startup/Shutdown of virtual machines is disabled before running this command otherwise you might reboot the virtual machines. See more at 103312
4.) Type service vmware-vpxa restart and press Enter.
6.) Type logout and press Enter to disconnect from the ESX Server.
Then you should see see this :
Stopping vmware-vpxa: [ OK ]
Starting vmware-vpxa: [ OK ]
Would doing a services.sh restart cause any issues with HA, as the host can drop out of vcenter for a few seconds?
It has never happened to me, and its been a while since I have done it
few sec. might be OK for HA. It depends if the host runs as a master or as a slave. If the agent is a master, then isolation is declared in 5 seconds. If it is a slave, isolation is declared in 30 seconds.
Check the kb for event. settings http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1030320
I am struggling to find out how to re-install the vpxa agent on ESXi 6.0 , ive screwed up the config file trying to change IP addresses to host names, so re-installation would be best. Thumbs down to me for rushing and not making a copy first
Did you ever figure out how to reinstall vpxa on esxi 6?
Hello
we’re running ESXI 6.5. When I try to services.sh restart, I get the message: services.sh restart Invalid operation requested: This ruleset is required and connot be disabled.
What does this mean? I would like to restart the services via ssh. Any ideas?
Thanks
Chris
Got me out of a pickle…..thanks