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Do not start by replacing a key provider or rebooting an encrypted host. First classify the failure as a KMS connection or authentication problem, a Native Key Provider (NKP) version or TPM-compatibility problem, or a provider-identity and key-recovery problem. That classification determines whether a connectivity check is appropriate—or whether changing configuration could make encrypted VMs or vSAN data inaccessible.
Start with evidence, not configuration changes
Record the exact error, including capitalization and error codes, before changing anything. Also capture:
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- vCenter Server and ESXi versions and update levels.
- Whether the provider is an external KMS or a Native Key Provider.
- Provider health and connection state in vCenter.
- The affected host, cluster, VM, or vSAN cluster.
- Whether the failure began after an upgrade, reboot, provider change, KMS outage, or new encryption configuration.
- Relevant vCenter
vpxdand ESXi log entries.
Keep the original provider configuration and backups intact while you investigate. A new provider that happens to have the old display name is not the same logical provider and does not contain the same key-derivation material.
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| Evidence | Likely layer | First safe action | High-risk action to avoid initially |
|---|---|---|---|
Failed to establish TCP connection to server, a long task delay, or “Cannot accept empty cert” |
KMS transport or TLS | Check reachability, listening service, certificates, and provider logs | Deleting and recreating the provider |
CreateKey failed on key provider with Permission Denied |
KMS authentication or authorization | Inspect the KMS response and authentication configuration | Assuming every CreateKey error has the same cause |
| “The host does not support Native Key Provider” | vCenter/ESXi version compatibility | Compare every participating host and vCenter build | Changing TPM policy to mask a version mismatch |
| “TPM device is required” or “No TPM2 device present” | TPM policy or hardware readiness | Check the provider constraint and TPM state separately | Buying hardware or relaxing a security policy without approval |
kmsClusterNotFound, missing provider, or keys unavailable after reboot |
Provider identity or key recovery | Locate the original provider and backup, then follow the release-specific recovery procedure | Recreating a provider with the same name or rebooting an encrypted vSAN host |
The scope matters as much as the text. A single unhealthy KMS entry suggests a different investigation from a mixed-TPM cluster, and a vSAN outage has a stricter no-reboot rule. Record the trigger and scope in the incident notes so another administrator does not repeat a destructive step.
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1. KMS transport and certificate failures
A vSphere task that appears frozen can actually be waiting for a key-provider health check to time out. Broadcom documents a case where the UI waited about 120 seconds while the connection failed with QLC_ERR_COMMUNICATE Failed to establish TCP connection to server. The same troubleshooting article records the message “Cannot accept empty cert.” Check the KMS endpoint, routing, firewall rules, listening port, and certificate configuration before treating the delay as a browser or vCenter UI defect. See Broadcom KB 313228, updated March 24, 2025.
What to check first
- Confirm that the configured KMS hostname or address resolves to the intended server from the vCenter and ESXi management networks.
- Verify that the KMS service is listening on the configured KMIP port and that intervening firewalls permit the connection.
- Check whether the KMS certificate chain, client certificate, and private key are present and valid for the configured entry.
- Review provider health and the vCenter and ESXi logs at the time of the failed task.
- Correct the KMS-side or network-side fault, then retest the existing provider entry before creating a replacement.
Check both directions of the trust relationship: vSphere must be able to reach the KMS, and the KMS must accept the configured certificate and trust chain. A certificate that is expired, incomplete, associated with the wrong private key, or rejected by the KMS can look like a generic communication failure. “Cannot accept empty cert” should therefore prompt a certificate and entry review, not a conclusion that key material has disappeared.
Do not interpret a TCP failure as proof that keys are missing. A transport failure means vSphere cannot currently reach or negotiate with the provider; it does not by itself establish that the provider’s key material has been deleted. If the KMS is being maintained, document the outage window and avoid unrelated provider changes until service is restored.
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2. “CreateKey failed on key provider” and permission denied
For the exact combination “CreateKey failed on key provider,” QLC_ERR_GENERAL_ERROR, and a KMS response such as Permission Denied, Explanation:DENIED, inspect authentication configuration and the KMS audit response. In a vCenter 8.0 case, Broadcom identifies a KMS entry configured with username/password authentication instead of the expected certificate-based configuration. Its documented correction is to create a fresh KMS entry without entering a username or password in the optional password field, allow certificate-based authentication, and confirm that the new entry reports Connected or Healthy. After verification, remove the old entries that were configured with credentials. The procedure is in Broadcom KB 430116 (updated February 26, 2026).
When testing this correction, change one variable at a time. Preserve the old entry details and record which new entry is being tested. Confirm that the KMS sees the expected client certificate and that its policy permits the required create and retrieve operations. A green provider status is useful evidence, but also confirm the encryption task itself and review the KMS audit event.
This is a documented cause, not a universal explanation for every CreateKey failure. If the KMS returns a different reason, follow that response and the corresponding log entries instead of changing authentication blindly. A denied operation can reflect a certificate-to-account mapping, a KMS access policy, or a server-side policy change; vSphere cannot resolve those by retrying indefinitely.
3. Native Key Provider version compatibility
The message “Key provider is not compatible with the host. Reason: ‘The host does not support Native Key Provider’” commonly indicates a vCenter-to-ESXi update mismatch. Broadcom’s compatibility case identifies vCenter Server 7.0 Update 2 or later paired with ESXi 7.0 Update 1 or earlier. Its remedy is to bring both sides to vSphere 7.0 Update 2 or later; see Broadcom KB 385226.
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The cited article does not constitute a complete current vSphere version matrix. Before scheduling an upgrade, compare the installed builds with the support guidance for the exact vCenter, ESXi, encryption, and hardware combination in your environment. Confirm upgrade order, interoperability, and maintenance requirements using current product documentation. Do not use a TPM-policy change as a substitute for bringing an unsupported host to a supported release.
4. TPM-required errors: policy versus device readiness
Two similar messages can have different causes: “TPM device is required” and “No TPM2 device present.” Determine first whether the NKP is deliberately restricted to TPM-protected hosts, then determine whether the host actually has a usable TPM 2.0 device.
When a TPM-only provider policy is the cause
vSphere can enforce the setting Use key provider only with TPM protected ESXi hosts. If that restriction is enabled and a host has no TPM 2.0 device, the incompatibility is expected. Broadcom’s guidance says to recreate the NKP with the restriction unchecked when the organization’s policy allows non-TPM hosts. The relevant case is KB 423191.
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When the TPM exists but is disabled or not ready
A host can contain a TPM 2.0 device that ESXi cannot use because it is disabled, inaccessible, or not in a ready state. Broadcom associates this condition with the same class of error in KB 421239. Check the server firmware or hardware-management interface, ESXi security and host state, and whether the TPM is detected and ready. Enable and prepare the TPM according to the server and ESXi procedures for that hardware, then recheck host encryption mode.
A TPM can be physically present yet unavailable after a firmware change, reset, or configuration alteration. Treat “present” and “ready for ESXi” as separate checks. Do not assume that installing a TPM is the next step. The evidence supports a readiness and policy check; it does not establish a universal hardware-purchase requirement.
Mixed-TPM clusters
In a cluster containing both TPM-capable and non-TPM hosts, a TPM-only provider can repeatedly generate “requires encryption mode enabled” events on the non-TPM members. Broadcom describes a controlled procedure in KB 438405: back up and restore the provider, relax the TPM-only constraint when policy permits, set the restored provider as the default, and validate host and VM behavior. Treat this as a security-policy decision, not a cosmetic event cleanup. Verify that encrypted workloads may legally and operationally run on the affected hosts before changing the constraint.
Compare the alternatives explicitly: upgrading or replacing non-TPM hosts preserves the stricter boundary, while relaxing the constraint broadens the set of hosts that can use the provider. Neither choice should be made solely because an event is noisy.
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5. “Backup of native key provider failed”
An NKP setup can fail with “Backup of native key provider failed,” and the provider may show health ERROR. The available Broadcom summary confirms those symptoms but does not provide enough procedural detail to reproduce a safe, complete fix. Use the current instructions in Broadcom KB 417441 for the exact release and deployment state.
Do not infer from this message alone that the KMS, TPM, or network is at fault. Preserve any existing NKP backup, document where it is stored, and avoid deleting or recreating the provider while the backup state is uncertain. If the failure occurred during initial configuration, resolve the backup operation using the matching KB before enabling encryption on hosts or VMs.
Verify that the backup artifact is retained under the organization’s normal protected-storage and access-control practices. The backup is not interchangeable with a provider display name, and a successful provider health check does not prove that a recoverable backup exists.
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If host encryption cannot be enabled because the original NKP was deleted, restoring the original provider from its backup is the primary recovery path. Recreating a provider—even with exactly the same display name—does not recreate the original key-derivation key or key ID. Broadcom’s recovery guidance warns that encrypted VMs may be unrecoverable without the original provider or an unencrypted backup. See KB 311922.
Why this is high risk
Provider identity is part of the encryption relationship. A replacement object with a familiar name can look correct in the inventory while lacking the key material that encrypted hosts and VMs require. Treat restoration of the original backup as a recovery operation, not as routine configuration.
The cited workaround can involve rekeying the host and re-encrypting VMs. Broadcom specifically warns not to reboot during that workaround. Plan the work with current backups, maintenance windows, and a recovery owner who can verify each host and VM before proceeding. If the original key material is genuinely lost, changing inventory names or repeating the encryption task cannot recreate it.
Handling kmsClusterNotFound
After a reboot, kmsClusterNotFound can mean that a host still references the ID of a provider that was removed. Broadcom’s newer procedure in KB 451205 is to identify a valid provider, set it as the default, rebind the affected host through configureCryptoKey, and verify that Host Encryption Mode returns to Safe.
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Confirm the exact host and provider IDs before invoking the management API. A wrong binding can create a different outage from the one you are trying to repair. Record the pre-change state and validate the host’s encryption status and affected VMs after the operation. If the host is part of encrypted vSAN, stop and apply the vSAN-specific warning in the next section instead of treating the case as an ordinary host repair.
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7. Special rule for encrypted vSAN
Encrypted vSAN requires a stricter response to KMS communication trouble. Broadcom’s vSAN Encryption KMS guidance states:
“If the vSAN cluster is encrypted and KMS servers fail or experience communication issues, Encryption keys stay in memory until a reboot DO NOT REBOOT any configured ESXI hosts to maintain data access.”
In this specific outage context, do not reboot configured ESXi hosts merely because the KMS is unreachable. Preserve the running state while restoring KMS communication and escalating through the documented vSAN procedure. This warning is specific to encrypted vSAN and a KMS failure or communication issue; it does not turn every vSphere encryption error into a vSAN incident.
If the original KMS configuration was removed from vCenter, add it back with exactly the same kmipClusterId. The cluster identity is how hosts associate the restored configuration with the keys already used by the encrypted vSAN deployment; substituting a new cluster identity is not equivalent to restoring the original entry.
8. A safe decision sequence
- Freeze destructive changes. Do not delete a provider, recreate it under the same name, or reboot an encrypted vSAN host while the failure is unclassified.
- Capture context. Save the exact message, versions, provider type and health, affected objects, trigger, and relevant
vpxdand ESXi logs. - Classify the layer. TCP or certificate errors point to transport and TLS; permission-denied responses point to authentication or KMS authorization; host compatibility messages point to versions or TPM policy; missing-provider errors point to identity and key recovery.
- Check scope. Determine whether one KMS entry, one host, a mixed cluster, or an encrypted vSAN cluster is affected.
- Match the trigger. A new configuration, upgrade, reboot, provider deletion, and KMS outage each imply different rollback and recovery risks.
- Use the narrowest remedy. Repair reachability for a connection failure, correct certificate-based authentication for the documented permission case, align supported versions for NKP compatibility, or restore original key material for identity failures.
- Validate before broadening the change. Check provider health, Host Encryption Mode, host membership, and VM access after each controlled action.
For every change, write down the expected result and the stop condition. For example, a KMS repair should first restore a healthy connection; a version change should make the host compatible; a provider rebind should return Host Encryption Mode to Safe. If the expected state does not appear, stop rather than layering another change on top.
When to stop and escalate
- The original NKP backup cannot be located or fails validation.
- An encrypted VM cannot retrieve its key after provider deletion or replacement.
- A vSAN cluster is encrypted and KMS communication is failing.
- You are being asked to relax a TPM-only policy without an approved security decision.
- The documented KB procedure does not match your vCenter or ESXi release.
- The provider ID, key ID, or
kmipClusterIdis uncertain. - A proposed workaround requires rekeying hosts or re-encrypting VMs and no tested rollback exists.
In these cases, preserve logs, provider identifiers, backups, and current host state. Broadcom’s articles are release- and scenario-specific; verify their current revisions and your product support status before executing recovery steps in production.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does a vSphere encryption task wait for about two minutes and then fail?
Broadcom documents a KMS connection case in which a health check waited approximately 120 seconds before reporting QLC_ERR_COMMUNICATE Failed to establish TCP connection to server. Check KMS reachability, firewall rules, the listening port, certificates, and provider logs before treating the delay as a UI problem.
What does “Cannot accept empty cert” mean?
It points to a certificate or TLS configuration problem in the KMS connection path. Review the configured client certificate, private key, trust chain, and KMS acceptance policy, then retest the existing provider entry.
How should I fix CreateKey permission denied?
In the vCenter 8.0 case documented by Broadcom KB 430116, create a new KMS entry using certificate-based authentication rather than username/password, verify that it is Connected or Healthy, and then remove the credential-based entries. Treat other KMS responses as separate cases.
What versions are required for the cited Native Key Provider compatibility case?
Broadcom’s case covers vCenter Server 7.0 Update 2 or later with ESXi 7.0 Update 1 or earlier. It recommends bringing both to 7.0 Update 2 or later. Check current support guidance for your exact release and hardware before upgrading.
Does a TPM-required error always mean the host lacks a TPM?
No. The provider may enforce TPM-only use, or a physically present TPM 2.0 device may be disabled, inaccessible, or not ready. Check the NKP policy and host hardware state independently.
Can I recreate an NKP with the same name after deleting it?
No. The same display name does not restore the original logical provider, key-derivation key, or key ID. Restore the original provider from its backup; without the original key material or an unencrypted backup, encrypted VMs may be unrecoverable.
What should I do with kmsClusterNotFound after a reboot?
Identify a valid provider, set it as the default, rebind the affected host with configureCryptoKey, and verify Host Encryption Mode returns to Safe, following Broadcom KB 451205. Confirm the exact provider and host IDs first.
May I reboot an ESXi host when encrypted vSAN cannot reach the KMS?
Broadcom’s vSAN guidance says not to reboot configured ESXi hosts in this situation because encryption keys remain in memory until reboot. Restore KMS communication and follow the vSAN-specific escalation procedure.
The Bottom Line
Match the symptom to its layer before changing configuration: repair KMS transport or certificate problems, correct the documented authentication mismatch, align vCenter and ESXi versions for NKP, distinguish TPM policy from TPM readiness, and restore original provider identity when keys are at risk. Never assume that a replacement provider with the same name contains the old keys, and do not reboot encrypted vSAN hosts during a KMS communication outage.
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