VMware Communities: Message List - pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

dreamz020 — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:11:55 GMT

Hello,

I have a simmilar problem. I have ASUS mobo M2N-VM DVI and AMD Athlon x2 64 2.10GHZ proc. and 2 gig of ddr2 RAM I have installed vmware ws ver 6.5.1 build 126130 and have installed ESX server 3.5 on it as a guest. However I get the pink screen that says "spin count exceeded..possible deadlock" while booting the esx server. I have made sure that i set the intel vt-x or amd-v setting within the proc settings of ws. Do u i need to check this on the bios of the physical box and on the bios of the guest machine. Also is there tool to chk this for amd processors.

Any help is appreciated

Thanks & Regards.

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

Josm — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:49:46 GMT

Hello,

ok, slightly late in discussion, but here perhaps a helpfull experience:

I Tried to install the ESXi Server on a DELL GX270 Slimline system (for testing and studying purposes).

The ESXi Installer didn't like the original PATA harddisk ("No storage for installation available"). After exchangeing the PATA by a SATA device the ESXi installer did its work just fine. Also the onboard NIC is working.

Some details for the hardware changes:
(most of them are "usefull" but not vital for the successfull ESXi installation)

Updated the BIOS to the current version "A07"
Extended the memory to 2 GB
Eliminated the PATA harddisk
Inserted a 1 TB SATA 3 harddisk, attaching it to the onboard SATA connector. (For the current connector I've used an adapted cable)
In the BIOS changed the storage settings to
- SATA devices: AUTO (original is OFF)
- PATA devices: DISABLED (original is ENABLE)

Not performing the last step would prevent the hardware to use the SATA device as primary boot device.

So now I'm curious about the performance ...

CU,
Josm

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

mikemcsw — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 18:29:24 GMT

Thanks texiwill, i gave you helpful

Can you tell me more about this other option of openfiler or similar?

I have an IOMEGA 500gb NAS....can I somehow use that along with my working esx server (DELL GSX270) for the VMFS partition?

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

Texiwill — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:59:14 GMT

Hello,

Two things going forward.... is the gx270 on the HCL (http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi35_systems_guide.pdf) and is the IO card that you are using for disk access on the IO HCL (http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi35_io_guide.pdf). If its an IDE controller it is definitely not on the HCL. Most of the SATA controllers for ESX are actually SAS/SATA controllers which implies they are actually SCSI controllers that so happen to speak SAS and SATA but NOT PATA.

If you want the whitebox gx270 to work, you should find a SCSI/RAID HBA that is on the IO HCL. Then you can at least have a VMFS available.

The most basic and important rule about ESX and systems or IO controllers, if the system is not on the HCL, then the IO controllers must be on the HCL. If the controller is not on the IO HCL, then do not use it.

Another option is to present the gx270 running ESX something from an NFS or iSCSI Server like Openfiler.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator
====
Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.
CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354
As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

mikemcsw — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:39:51 GMT

You dont suppose my older DELL workstation (GX270) supports it do you?

You can load ESX 3.5 directly onto the bare metal of a Dell GX270 (with
PATA disk, SATA may not work) and ESX 3.5 will work. Don't use VMware
Workstation -- just load ESX 3.5 right onto the bare metal of the GX270.

From your other computer at home, install the Virtual Infrastructure
Client (The VIC) and point the VIC to the GX270's IP address after ESX
3.5 is loaded. You'll then be able to see and manage your ESX 3.5 Dell
GX270 server.

I upgraded my memory and did as you suggested and installed esx 3.5 on my gx270. You say above that PATA (ide) works, but everyone else tells me that it doesn't

ESX installed fine, but i am unable to see the vmfs partition. Were you speaking from experience, or what??? IT DOESN'T WORK after I just spent $50 to upgrade my memory?!

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

lusid — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 09:03:40 GMT

The SFF version also has the SATA1 port, on the system board near the power supply under the mess of IDE cables convered by a white plastic cap.

I have it booting off a 3.5u2refresh jump drive, with local VMFS on a SATA drive. You can't do much with a sinlge core P4 and 2gig of ram, but it does run.

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

Datto — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:52:24 GMT

I just checked a desktop version (not SFF but the wider desktop one) of the Dell GX270 also had the same ICH5 SATA controller as the Mini-tower Dell GX270 so that will work also if you can squeeze in a 2nd hard drive (SATA 150) where you can put your VMs. Make sure to engage the SATA controller in the GX270 BIOS. The Dell GX270 isn't supported by VMware of course but my take was you just wanted a sandbox to learn ESX.

If you need more help with the Dell GX270 and ESX just write in here since the folks in the forums are very helpful.

Datto

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

Datto — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:39:58 GMT

mikemcsw -- Texiwill is correct. With a PATA drive only you'll be able to install and boot into ESX but a PATA drive won't be able to store VMs. However...

Option 1: I looked at a Dell GX270 Mini-tower unit today on your behalf to check the built-in SATA controller. It's an Intel ICH5 and ESX will see it as an 82801EB SATA controller and use that SATA controller with an attached SATA 150 hard drive to store VMs on it if you attach a SATA I (SATA 150) drive to the GX270 SATA port. That would give you a self-contained GX270 machine that would run ESX 3.5 and also host the VMs.

Here are a few other options to consider if you want to go further:

Option 2: If you have Win2003 Server running on your other home computer (or if you have VMware Workstation on that computer and run Win2003 in a VM) you could download Microsoft's free Services For Unix (SFU) feature and make that Win2003 VM into an NFS server where your Dell GX270 ESX host could store VMs. This would also allow you to have shared storage in the event you get a 2nd ESX host and want to use a trial license for VMotion and learn the details of DRS (Distributed Resource Scheduler) and VMware HA (High Availability). This wouldn't be a screaming fast setup but it would get to going and allow you to learn the advanced features of ESX.

Option 3: If you're a Linux prone person you could just load up a separate computer with Fedora or CentOS (or put them in a VM on your other home computer running under VMware Workstation) and create an NFS share on that Fedora/CentOS box. Your Dell GX270 ESX machine will use that NFS space as a place to put VMs on it.

Option 4: xtravirt.com has written directions on how to rig up a separate iSCSI server (or an iSCSI server within a VM) where your ESX VMs can also be located (in addition to the NFS space option described in Option 2 and 3 above).

Datto

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

Texiwill — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:06:57 GMT

Hello,

While you can install onto PATA you can not store VMs there so in this case you will need some other form of data storage for the VMs.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator
====
Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.
CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354
As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

Datto — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:51:08 GMT

You dont suppose my older DELL workstation (GX270) supports it do you?

You can load ESX 3.5 directly onto the bare metal of a Dell GX270 (with PATA disk, SATA may not work) and ESX 3.5 will work. Don't use VMware Workstation -- just load ESX 3.5 right onto the bare metal of the GX270.

From your other computer at home, install the Virtual Infrastructure Client (The VIC) and point the VIC to the GX270's IP address after ESX 3.5 is loaded. You'll then be able to see and manage your ESX 3.5 Dell GX270 server.

Datto

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

Texiwill — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:37:50 GMT

Hello,

Hunt through the BIOS on your system. If it is a Core 2 DUO or Quad Core then INtel-VT may be there. But generally takes a BIOS setting to be changed to be made available. If it is a New system then there may be a BIOS change required. You would need to discuss this with the vendor. BTW, as for the Older Dell that depends also on its BIOS, chipset, and CPU in use.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator
====
Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.
CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354
As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

lamw — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:32:39 GMT

Get the CPU information and check either Intel or AMD's site to see if Intel VT or AMD-V is available, this feature has only been introduced in the newer laptop/desktops probably late 05/early 06/07 timeframe. It's all dependent on your CPU's and you can find this out easily by using that CPU utility that was recommended or browsing the vendor's site for cpu info. Sounds like you'll probably need to invest in either upgrading the CPU or a new workstation (laptop/desktop)

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

mikemcsw — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:13:15 GMT

ok, that may be the problem then...

I downloaded and ran the intel utility and it says:

INTEL VIRTUALIZATION TECHNOLOGY ..........................NO

So, i don't mind spending the money (I guess)...what do you recommend? You dont suppose my older DELL workstation (GX270) supports it do you?

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

Texiwill — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:55:45 GMT

Hello,

You may have to hunt through the BIOS to see if its enabled. I had to do that for my laptop and then I ran the, Intel(R) Processor ID Utility - Windows* version to verify that it really did set it. Note however that the utility claims to not always be correct.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator
====
Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.
CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354
As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

mikemcsw — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:51:26 GMT

But if you do not have Intel-VT enabled then there could be problems. Verify that you have hardware that supports this first.

How do i do that?

It is a current model HP Pavilion Slimline

Intel Premium Dual CPU E2200

Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

Texiwill — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:45:36 GMT

Hello,

In order to use ESX within WS you need Intel-VT enabled hardware or AMD-V enabled hardware. WIthout it, nothing really works. For installing ESX 3.5 within WS 6.5 (which is Beta) I followed http://www.ntpro.nl/blog/archives/470-ESX-3.5-is-running-on-Workstation-6.5-Build-91182-!!!.html and it worked just fine. But if you do not have Intel-VT enabled then there could be problems. Verify that you have hardware that supports this first.

Best regards,
Edward L. Haletky
VMware Communities User Moderator
====
Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.
CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354
As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

kjb007 — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 20:58:49 GMT

The instructions I used are the same from the xtravirt site. They provide good guidance to get you started. Not sure if you've already seen that or not. See here for those docs: http://www.xtravirt.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=99&Itemid=124

-KjB

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

mikemcsw — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 20:52:19 GMT

i have esx 3.5 running on vm workstation 6 on my work notebook, but cant get it working on my home hardware.

regardless, i am now trying esx 3.5 update 2 on vm workstation 6.5 update 2 and not getting as far...

Do you have step-by-step instruction on how to make it work?

BTW, my home pc is

OS:vista home

hdwar: HP pavilion (new model)

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

kjb007 — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:46:32 GMT

What version of workstation are you using? You need to have 6.5 for ESX 3.5 to work correctly. You can use version 6 for ESX 3.0.x. I have 3.5 correctly running on 6.5

-KjB

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

mikemcsw — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 17:29:13 GMT

I am installing esx 3.5 on wmworkstation. Vmworkstation is not the problem...i have several os's already running on it (including dos, win2k3 server, and linux) I haven't encountered any problems until trying to install esx 3.5. I am following the guide and everything works fine, up to the point of pegasus.

I have reinstalled it 4 times now with same problem...always craps out at pegasus...

You said i could disable it....so how do i disable that ?? I see I can boot up to troubleshooting mode, and that gets me to a login prompt....

EDIT TO ADD - the moderator moved my problem to this forum, so if this is not the correct forum, it is not my fault.

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

lamw — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 17:19:07 GMT

Before this continues, I want to make sure you know what you're running? You're posting under VI ESX 3.5 which is the enterprise hypervisor that runs on physical hardware, yet your posts talks about VMware workstation????? If you're talking about VMware workstation, then you're in the wrong forum and workstation run's on top of another operating system whether that be Linux or Windows.

In any case, what is the issue, you're reporting 2 seperate issues: pink/purple screening which with respect to ESX is "almost" always hardware related issues. In terms of your pegasus issue, this is a known issue that certain packages were not installed properly and Duncan on yellow-bricks has provided a fix. If that does not work, you can always boot into rescue mode and disable that service, assuming thats what's really causing your system not to boot up properly. So you have stated two issues and there's too many variables to determine what exactly you're seeing. If you don't have anything running on the hypervisor, I suggest re-installing ESX.

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

mikemcsw — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:56:16 GMT

The hardware is virtual from the vmware workstation.

I think it has to do with that pegasus thing, because i watched it boot, and thats the last thing it does and it sits there FOREVER.

I read threads about how to fix it, but how do i even get to a shell prompt and transfer the fix script?

I cant even log in, because it never finishes booting up, hanging on the pegasus?

Re: pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

lamw — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:17:20 GMT

also known as Purple Screen of Death, usually this deals with hardware faults in either the cpu or memory, usually the coredump of the PSOD will indicate whether it might be memory or cpu. Depending on your hardware vendor, you might be able to install some hardware monitoring agents like HP SIM. You might want to open a support call with VMware to determine what hardware is cuasing this issue or have your hardware vendor take a look to see if they can diagnose the error while booting into their diagonostic CD like HP Smartstart CD.

pink screening - spin count exceeded..possible deadlock

mikemcsw — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 15:16:05 GMT

I have tried to install esx 3.5 3 times now, and it keeps "pink screening" (if that's what you refer to it as?), saying spin count exceeded...possible deadlock.

any help would be appreciated, this is getting very frustrating...