Understand the Hostd and Vpxa in VMWare

hostd is an app that runs in the Service Console that is responsible for managing most of the operations on the ESX machine.  It knows about all the VMs that are registered on that host, the luns/vmfs volumes visible by the host, what the VMs are doing, etc.  Most all commands or operations come down from VC through it.  i.e, powering on a VM, VM vMotion, VM creation, etc.

vpxa also runs on the Service Console and talks to VC.
Vmware hostd and vpxa on ESXi

HOSTD

The vmware-hostd management service is the main communication channel between ESX/ESXi hosts and VMkernel. If vmware-hostd fails, ESX/ESXi hosts disconnects from vCenter Server/VirtualCenter and cannot be managed, even if you try to connect to the ESX/ESXi host directly. It knows about all the VMs that are registered on that host, the luns/vmfs volumes visible by the host, what the VMs are doing, etc. Most all commands or operations come down from VC through it. i.e, powering on a VM, VM vMotion, VM creation, etc.

Restart the management agent /etc/init.d/hostd restart

VPXA

It acts as an intermediary between VC and hostd. The vCenter Server Agent, also referred to as vpxa or the vmware-vpxa service, is what allows a vCenter Server to connect to a ESX host. Specifically, vpxa is the communication conduit to the hostd, which in turn communicates to the ESX kernel. Restart the vpxa service

/etc/init.d/vpxa restart

hostd is the daemon for direct VIC connection (when you use Virtual Infra Client (VIC) to connect to your ESX).

Also,

    vpxa is the VC agent (ESX side)
    vpxd is the VC daemon (VC side)