Unable to add ESXi host to virtual distribution switch or nexus 1k

Issue

Recently I was working on adding VMware ESX/ESXi host to Nexus 1K (virtual distributed switch, VDS), but encountered following error message.

vDS operation failed on host <host name>,  got (vmodl.fault.SystemError) exception

Steps followed:

-          Installed ESXi 4.1 U2 and then installed VEM on the host ( Version 4.0.4.1.3.3.0-2.0.1, VEM410-201102311.zip) with the following command

Vihostupdate.pl  --server <host name>,  --install --bundle c:\temp\VEM410-201102311.zip update

-          Then tried to add the host to VSM from vcenter (vcenter – home- Networking – navigate to appropriate distributed switch – right click and select “add host” and follow the wizard) but it thrown following error.

vDS operation failed on host <host name>,  got (vmodl.fault.SystemError) exception

-          Above task was failing at 74% after invoking Update Manager.

-          After spending some time on Google, found the fix.

Resolution:

This is most likely due to vmware vcenter update manager (VUM). As I have already installed VEM, Update manager was trying to pull different version of VEM from VSM and its failing.

Just stopped “VMware vCenter Update Manager” (VUM) service and tried adding ESXi host to VDS. It’s successful.

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