Eternally entering Maintenance Mode

I was rebuilding my lab and found a host that had been entering maintenance mode for 4 hours!

If this happens, the first step is to restart the management agent on the server. You can do this via the console (ESX Console > Troubleshooting Options > Restart Management Agents)

Did it work? If it did, count yourself lucky! If the task still exists, you’ll need to restart your vCenter service.