I have in the lab setup VMware-vCenter-Server-Appliance-5.5.0.5201-1476389 with 5 esxi hosts.. All the esxi hosts are 5.5.0-1331820. esxi is setup to netboot stateless with static ips. We will be using usb keys in production.
Whenever i reboot one esxi server whether it has vms or not, when it comes back vcenter can never connect to it.. it always says "(disconnected)" next to it. if i right click and select "connect" then it brings up the dialog warning me that any changes will be lost, and then asks for ip, username/password, cluster, etc.. as though it hasn't connected before. This is fine, but if the host had any vms they are brought back with "(orphaned)" and i have to remove them from inventory and then browser to the data stores and right click to add to inventory. If i log onto both vcenter and the esxi host, they can ping each other at the correct ips. They worked 100% before the reboot (for weeks) so its not a network or firewall issue.
This is getting very frustrating.. how do i reboot esxi servers without vcenter going berserk?