vCenter Displays Idle State for All Hosts<!-- /*NS Branding Styles*/ --> .ns-kb-css-body-editor-container { p { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } span { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, #000000); } h2 { font-size: 24pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h3 { font-size: 18pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } h4 { font-size: 14pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--text-primary, black); } a { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718F); } a:hover { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #024F69); } a:target { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #032D42); } a:visited { font-size: 12pt; color: var(--now-color--link-primary, #00718f); } ul { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } li { font-size: 12pt; font-family: Lato; } img { display: ; max-width: ; width: ; height: ; } } Issue vCenter Discovery shows all ESXi hosts in an idle state even though they are active and reachable. Symptoms All ESXi hosts return a status of idle in Discovery. Discovery completes, but classification shows the hosts as idle instead of active. No errors appear in the vCenter pattern logs. The vCenter object itself may show correct information, but associated hosts remain idle. Facts Idle status indicates that Discovery recognizes the host but did not receive the expected response to confirm activity. This often occurs when hosts have been removed, repurposed, or reassigned within vCenter, but old entries still exist. Idle status does not always indicate a failure in connectivity or credentials. It is a reflection of how vCenter internally reports the host state back to Discovery. Release Seen across multiple vCenter Discovery versions and is consistent with VMware’s reporting behavior. Cause The vCenter API reports the hosts as idle due to their internal lifecycle state. Hosts may have been detached, reassigned, or placed into states that vCenter identifies as idle. Discovery reflects the information provided by the vCenter API and does not override the reported state. Resolution Verify the host state directly in the vCenter dashboard. If hosts are no longer active or have been repurposed, update or remove the stale entries. Run a new Discovery after vCenter reflects the accurate state. If the hosts should be active, confirm that they are properly connected and not reported as idle within vCenter itself. Once vCenter reports them correctly, Discovery updates their state on the next scan.