Configuration of vSphere HA on Hosts Times Out

The configuration of a vSphere HA cluster might time out on some of the hosts added to it.

Problem

When you enable vSphere HA on an existing cluster with a large number of hosts and virtual machines, the setup of vSphere HA on some of the hosts might fail.

Cause

This failure is the result of a time out occurring before the installation of vSphere HA on the host(s) completes.

Solution

The default setting for the vCenter Server advanced option config.vpxd.das.electionWaitTimeSec is 120 seconds. You must set config.vpxd.das.electionWaitTimeSec to value=240. Once this change is made, the time outs do not occur.