Removing ESXi 5.0 host from vCenter - General system error: Invalid Fault

While I was removing some ESXi 5.0 hosts from a 5.1 vCenter I encountered the following issue with a couple of them:

General system error: Invalid Fault

In the vCenter vpxd log file this message was accompanied by

msg = “vim.fault.AdminNotDisabled”

It turned out to be a known fault where Lockdown Mode was out of sync between vCenter and the ESXi host. In vCenter it showed as enabled:

However, in the ESXi host it was showing as disabled. You can identify this by using the following command in the console:

[plain]

vim-cmd -U dcui vimsvc/auth/lockdown_is_enabled

[/plain]

The KB article states to enable lockdown via the console

[plain]

vim-cmd -U dcui vimsvc/auth/lockdown_mode_enter

[/plain]

 

and once successful disable via the GUI.

Once complete, you’ll then be able to remove the host from vCenter.