VMware Communities : Unanswered Threads - Lab Manager

Unable to power on after cloning a VM.

gs2009 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:35:22 GMT

Hi,

Have anyone seen this kind of issue before? How to fix it?

*Unable to deploy virtual machines in resource pool
"Research-Development".*

Failed to power one or more virtual machines.
- Error powering on virtual machine "Clone (1) of test".
  - VirtualMachine.powerOn task on PowerOnVM_Task failed: The operation is
    not supported on the object.

Thanks

-Guang

Windows 2008 Unattend.xml File Location

samualcc — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:38:19 GMT

I know that VMware prefers that the pre and post config functionality be used to customize templates. However I find modifiying the sysprep.inf and unattend.xml files to be much more powerful and flexible when deploying templates. Changing the unattend info for Windows 2003, XP, etc is easy. However I cannot figure out where Lab Manager is pulling the unattend.xml file for Windows 2008 setup.

Now on my lab manager server, I have found the original unattend.xml file. It is located in e:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vCenter Lab Manager\Tools\CustomizeGuest\Windows\Sysprep. However what I cannot figure out is how to load that unattend.xml into Lab Manager once I modify it. I know about the Build Sysprep package option under settings-->guest customization. It work GREAT for 2003, etc but not for 2008.

Any help on this would be great. For those interested in how to properly modify the 2003, XP sysprep file I can post that as well.
Thanks.

Is there a way to shutdown Lab Manager gracefully?

SgRddY — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:38:04 GMT

Hello,

I was just wondering if there is a way to automatically trigger Lab Manager to undeploy all runing VM's and shutdown gracefully when the power is running low on the UPS.

I think that you can install agents on ESX/Virtual Center to trigger gracefull shutdown automatically when the power goes out. But what about Lab Manager? How does Lab Manager aware of this? And what will happen when I bring the systems back online and Lab Manager thinks that the VM's are still running but they are not?

In another word, is there a way to tell Lab Manager to undeploy all VM's and shutdown the ESX when triggered by the UPS power outage?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Ken

Lab manager website not working

kathirkk23 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:56:01 GMT

Hi,

I have VC 2.5 with 5 esx 3.5 . I installed Lab manager recently and try to schedule the update but getting
"web site hosting the update signature and update packages cannot be reached" error

the web site for vmware update manager is not working even with direct internet.

https://www.vmware.com/PatchManagementSystem/patchmanagement

_http://pchmgmt-prod-wlc-vip.vmware.com:7004/patchMdSvc?WSDL

_https://xml.shavlik.com/unix/corefiles.xml
can any one help us to configure lab manager.

Thanks in advance
Regards
Kathir

Storage Quotas in LM 4.0

robert jensen — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:14:46 GMT

According to LM 4.0 release notes, its cable of handeling storage Quotes.

http://www.vmware.com/support/labmanager40/doc/releasenotes_labmanager40.html

I can however not find that option.

Can any of you point to where i find it ?

The only option i can find, is a VM quota.

What we are trying to do, is to have a couple of templates, on one LUN, taht other organisations can use.

Every organisation, have there own storage, and must not be able to create configurations, on out shared template LUN.

Storage qouta, would be a way to restrict organisations, from using more storage than they are allowed to, insted of giving them their own lun each.

If storage quotas not posible, can you then se any other way to acchive this ?

Regards

/Robert

How to back up lab manager and linked clones?

jjohnson0000 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:31:04 GMT

I was wondering if anyone can explain to me how you go about backing up lab manager, as well as linked clones within lab manager?

My lab manager is running in a Windows 2003 VM. I know that you can't just simply back up the VM, because if you go to restore there will be issues with the database.

Also, most of the configurations in my lab manager are using "linked clones". How exactly do you go about backing all of those up? Since you have to undeploy the template you use to create the linked clone in, it does not show up in the ESX server. So if I were to back up the ESX server using VCB and such, it would back up the VM's that lab manager created, however it wouldn't back up the disk file (flat file) that the clones are looking to.

This creates an issue.

Even if I were able to backup the VM's, if I lost my lab manager server, it wouldn't do me any good because I wouldn't be able to restore the configurations the way they were before.

So how does VMware recommend you go about backing up Lab Manager?

Missing authentication header.

cesarcesar — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:27:21 GMT

I am getting the following error when i try to use the "ListConfigurations" method. Any resons why?

Missing authentication header. ---> Missing authentication header.

Below is the PHP code I am using.

<?php /***** code from - http://code.google.com/p/phlabmanager *****/
require_once("labmanager.php");

$hostname = "wv-labmgr-01.wv.sitename.com";
$username = "myuname";
$password = "rgh7hj6d";

$lm = new labmanager($hostname, $username, $password, "ITGO-TTS", "Main");
echo $lm->ListConfigurations(1);
?>

<?php /******** labmanager.php ********/

class labmanager
{
public $client;
public $debug_mode;

public function debugXMLDump(&$request, &$client)
{
global $debug_mode;

if ($debug_mode == true)
{
$request = $client->__getLastRequestHeaders();
file_put_contents('headers.xml', $request);

$request = $client->__getLastRequest();
file_put_contents('request.xml', $request);

$request = $client->__getLastResponse();
file_put_contents('response.xml', $request);
}
}

function __construct($hostname, $username, $password, $organization, $workspacename, $debug=false)
{
global $client;
global $debug_mode;

$debug_mode = $debug;

unset($soap_dat);

$soap_dat = $username;
$soap_dat = $password;
$soap_dat = $organization;
$soap_dat = $workspacename;

$namespace = "http://vmware.com/labmanager";

if ($debug == true)
{
$client = new SoapClient("https://$hostname/LabManager/SOAP/LabManager.asmx?wsdl", array('trace' => 1));
}
else
{
$client = new SoapClient("https://$hostname/LabManager/SOAP/LabManager.asmx?wsdl");
}

$authvar = new SoapVar($soap_dat, SOAP_ENC_OBJECT);

$header = new SOAPHeader($namespace, 'AuthenticationHeader', $soap_dat);

$client->__setSoapHeaders($header);
}

public function ListConfigurations($value)
{
global $client;

try
{
$result = $client->ListConfigurations(array("configurationType" => $value));
}
catch (SoapFault $e)
{
echo $e->getMessage();
$this->debugXMLDump($result,$client);
return NULL;
}

if (is_array($result->ListConfigurationsResult->Configuration))
{
foreach ($result->ListConfigurationsResult->Configuration as $config)
{
$this->printContainer($config);
}
}
else
{
foreach ($result->ListConfigurationsResult as $config)
{
$this->printContainer($config);
}
}
}

}

?>

Lab Manager RDP Breaking Fence?

jmvirtual — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:02:13 GMT

Hello All,

I've deployed in a Fenced only configuration 4 configurations each having one copy of the same Virtual Machine. The machines have SQL Server installed and MSDTC. I can work on the VM's fine in console mode all day. However, As soon as I RDP to a VM it breaks the MSDTC components. I get Ident Errors, COM errors, but overall DB connectivity works fines. Its just some functions in the virtual machine no longer work because of MSDTC being out of service. I worked on the issue for weeks I finally got thinking it my might have something to with having the console session open and RDP at the sametime. Maybe some how the user is still logged on and when I create teh RDP session I'm creating another instance...

When MSDTC breaks I have to delete the clone and import it from the template again. Which um takes sometime. Anyways I ended up discovering that it only happens when I RDP into the VM. If I hadn't recorded it I wouldn't believe it either. Its like somehow my RDP connection allows the machines to see each other which will of course break MSDTC. I've used Sys Prep though its not recommended, I've tried changing the GUID, I've tried linked vs full clones, in short everything that I can think of...

Change Network Label on running VM

THAGDF — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:31:58 GMT

I have a problem with changing the assigned Network to a virtual NIC when the virtual machine is running. In the vCenter it is possible to change the Network-Label of a vNIC in a running state. But with the Lab Manager i had to shutdown the machine to change that network label. The Lab Manager disables the Network-Label if the VM is running so I can't change it although the vCenter Server is able to realize that.

Is there a work-around or something like that to handle this feature with the Lab Manager?

Multiple LM instances, single pool of users

jschlach — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:49:02 GMT

Does anybody have a group of users accessing more than one instance of Lab Manager? I'd love to bounce some ideas off of you.

LiveLinks and configuration name length

jschlach — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:04:29 GMT

Using LM 3.0.2.56 --

We have very long configuration name lengths, and when one with a 64 character name is captured to the library and LiveLink generated, we find that the LiveLink is undeployable because it violates the length limit. I have a user who somehow has two configs whose names start with "LiveLink-" and are 65 characters each. I'm not sure how those came to be until I investigate further.

Has anybody seen this behavior before?

Delete Library Configuration?

Muzika — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:30:49 GMT

Lab Manager 4.0

I have a configuration in the library that is in use by other users. I updated the original template that I initialy captured into the library and would like to replace the configuration currently being used in the library with the updated one. Can I delete the original configuration in the library without impacting the users that have checked a copy of it out?

Being hesitant about this I captured the updated template to the library but get duplicate IP errors after I deploy even when fenced. I'm assuming it's because both configurations in the library were captured from the same template.

Just looking for a way around this... or best practices when updating a library configuration.

Adding RHEL5 VM in a fenced configuration.

nilesh_joshi — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:45:49 GMT

Hi,

I am trying to add a RHEL5 VM in a fenced configuration.

I have deployed a configuration in fenced mode with allow 'in and out'. That configuraation has 4 windows VMs. Now I am trying to add RHEL5 VM to that configuration. But some how after adding the machine I can not access it from outside fence. VMware tools are installed and VM has been forecefully customized while deployment.

Am I missing some step?

-Nilesh

Customization seems to be failing on Ubuntu Linux

brucefulton — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:18:15 GMT

We upgraded to vcenter4/LM4 and continue to have problems with connectivity upon creation of a template or configuration. I will post the linux and windows problems separately.

1. For ubuntu linux, ver 8.04lts, 512MB memory, 8gb virtual disk size, creating a new template from the ISO is hit or miss on being able to reach the outside world. We are using a static ip pool and I select an available IP address on creation of the template. Sometimes, it will connect (e.g. has connectivity through the gateway to the dns server and beyond) and sometimes it won't (won't even reach the gateway). Sometimes I need to either redeploy it several times, or just give up and create another. If once working, undeployed and published, and then redeployed, it may or may not connect (the IP address is still available). sometimes, multiple redeploys will work. Our IP pool has 254 available addresses and we are currenly using only a handful. We are only using un-fenced single VM configuration right now.

2. After I publish and try to create a config (i've deleted the 70- and 75-persistent net rules files from the template, which is a known issue with cloned or moved Ubuntu vms), it appears that customization completely or mostly fails. The config will retain the ip address set in the template, even though the config has pulled a new static IP. What is most curious is that most of the time, the config actually will connect to the outside world with the template ip address, and can be reached from outside on that address. However the ip pool page shows it with the newly assigned IP and the IP that is actually connecting is missing from the assigned list. If I manually edit the config to match the new ip address, the config will no longer connect to the outside, and won't reach the default gateway. Sometimes, multiple redeploys, with or without forced recustomization eventually works and sometimes it doesnt. Once successfully deployed, it retains connectivity after shutting down or rebooting, although it won't necessarily reconnect if I undeploy and redeploy, even if originally working. I've attached two screen shots that demonstrate the problem.

Using SOAP I seem to be limited to two actions at any one point

AHutton — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:49:06 GMT

I have an sutomation system using the SOAP api, and it seems like no matter how many commands I issue only 2 or 3 of them are every being acted on at any one time and all the others queue up. Is this a hard limit, is this a setting I have set somewhere? Any helpw ould be appreciated.

Thin Provisioning in Lab Manager

scottkey2003 — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 11:30:00 GMT

I have created templates within Lab Manager and VCenter that are thin provisioned but the machines that are created from these templates are all thick. REading other forums says that the vmdk's have to be edited. Is this the case? Is there a plan to have this step automated in a future release?
Scott

UnFenced Costomization-Scripting challenges

rbkinsey — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:27:44 GMT

One way I plan on utilizing lab manager is to use it in an Un-Fenced environment for application UAT testing. For this to happen I need to modify the Customization Script. I was curious on how others were modifying this to change system name, OU location, time zone, personal settings, Domain, etc... If anyone can point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated.

Are others trying to do this as well?

What do other businesses use this product for?

Thanks, Rob

Wait until computer is booted

ACKH — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:45:26 GMT

Hi all,

Using the SOAP API I can successfully boot and shutdown computers in configurations (using methods “ConfigurationPerformAction” and “MachinePerformAction”). However, these methods return as soon as the command is sent. They do not wait until the computer is booted. Is there a way to do this? I mean I don't want the program to sleep 30 seconds and then check if it is booted successfully.

Thanks!

Best way to migrate to new datastores

Scissor — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:08:50 GMT

I have a question about the best way to move VMs to new datastores in Lab Manager.

Running LabManager 3.0.1.378

From the screenshot, you will see that I originally created two large LUNs (1 TB each) to use with Lab Manager (Disk1 and Disk2). One of my 1 TB LUNs currently has something like 140 Guests on it. I have since come to the conclusion that having so many machines share a single LUN is the cause of my IO contention/slowdowns, so I want to move to using smaller 200GB LUNs.

Of course, this setup is currently being used for QA testing, so I want to avoid having to power off any VMs if possible. What is the best way to migrate the VMs off my large 1 TB LUNs and onto smaller 200 GB LUNs with a minimum amount of end user downtime?

A few questions:

1. Can I simply toggle off the "VM Creation Enabled" option on Disk1 and Disk2 right now without breaking people who currently have their Guests deployed on them? I would toggle on the "VM Creation Enabled" option on my new smaller LUNs at the same time. That way any future deployed Guests would be created on my smaller disks, yet existing Guests already deployed on Disk1 and Disk2 should continue to work, right?

2. There are a few high IO Guests that I would like to move as soon as possible. Should I consider using the "Consolidate" function within LabManager if I want to get them moved sooner? Or would "undeploying" and "redeploying" the Guests after performing the changes in question 1 accomplish the same thing? Or would cloning them over to a non-LabManager ESX Host be the best idea?

3. If I want to eventually destroy my Disk1 and Disk2 (so I can reuse the space for smaller LUNs) then I am going to have to use SSMove.exe, right? I ran SSMove and poked around a bit . I saw that one of my source trees is almost 500 GB in size (see screenshot) Is there a way to break it up so it can be moved onto several 200 GB LUNs? Of course, using SSMove requires all Guests in the Tree to be undeployed first, and I would think that moving a 500 GB tree would take a significant amount of time.

Comments? Suggestions?

Thanks in Advance!

LM 4.0 auto installs MS SQL 2005 Express - How to stop this

Lex_Frost — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 15:12:09 GMT

While preforming our first attempt to upgrade our Lab Manager 3.0.2 server to Lab Manager 4.0, it installed MS SQL 2005 express and moved our database to that instance of SQL. We already have our 3.0.2 database running on MS SQL 2005 Enterprise because it out grew the 4GB cap that MS SQL 2005 Express has. Durning the upgrade there was no way to tell it to use the MS SQL 2005 Enterprise instance, it just automatically installed and used the SQL Express software, which will not work for us. Is there a way to tell it to use the MS SQL 2005 Enterprise instance instead and not install MS SQL Express? We would really prefer not to have to waste the time installing SQL Enterprise again just to upgrade the Express instance that seems to be forced on us.

Sadly our upgrade failed anyways so we are able to do a fresh upgrade now. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Lab Manager 4 as a CM tool?

stanj — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:49:05 GMT

Does anyone know if Lab Manager 4 can do source code Software Configuration Mgt?

We were using a CM tool called StarTeam for tracking code, updated, bugs, etc for our projects.

We are may be moving to Lab Manager for software development on VMs..

thanks

Deploying template failes - Permission to perform this operation was denied.

nathanw — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:58:26 GMT

I have embarked on an upgrade to vShere and we have upgraded our vCenter to 4.0. this appears to have broken all the permissions in the LAB Manager server

Currently running LabMan 3.0 (3.0.1.378)

I have checked the permission requirements in the LabMan 3.0 guide and reassigned all required permissions and then some.

We are using an AD account that is not locked out and communication between Labman and the server is occurring.

However when we try to deploy any VM's including a newly created Template we get the error Permission to perform this operation was denied.

Any ideas?

I have restarted the mgmt-vmware service after making changes to permissions.

Resource pools...best practices for larger LM deployments...

jbrown2 — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:18:24 GMT

So I noticed the other day (while studying update my VCP) that the maximum supported number of child objects in a resource pool is 256 for ESX 3.5 (1024 for vSphere). How do you guys handle this for Lab Manager deployments when there are going to be more than 256 VM's in the environment?

Currently I have 4 Organizations in my Lab Manaber 3.0.2 environment and I've created a resource pool for each org in order to break them them up in case I need to separate out the hardware or prioritize/cap one Org in the future as the environment grows. It's been 6 months since we turned on our LM environment and we almost exclusively used fenced configurations in order to allow multiple copies of the configurations to be deployed at the same time. One of our Org's has really taken off and currently has 439 VM's in their resource pool with basically half of them being virtual routers.. I'm not terribly worried about it since we've been over 256 VM's for a couple of months in this Org and I plan to move this environment to vSphere in the next 4-6 weeks but as I'm adding additional capacity to the environment and migrating to LM 4.0 I'd like to take the chance to modify my resource pools so that they can scale for the next year or two until the next upgrade cycle.

Here are my current thoughts:

create # number of new resource groups within each Org's main resource group based on expected growth over the next 2 years

enable the Orgs to use the new resource pools and remove rights to the top level resource pool...maybe during my downtime to move to vSphere...

manage any limits/reservations for the various orgs based on the top level resource pool that I create for each Org (currently I haven't limited any org as my intention is to ensure the environment isn't resource constrained)

Thoughts? Examples of how you've done this your environment? We currently have 1TB of RAM behind this system and are planning an upgrade to a total of 2.5TB of RAM which I forcast will cover our growth through 2010.

Wrong host selected when connecting virtual networks to physical

schmidwi — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:07:11 GMT

I was deploying some VMs this past week using the "connect virtual networks to physical" option, and Lab Manager attempted to deploy the system on an ESX host where the physical network was not present.

A little more on my configuration:

I have a small Lab Manager deployment with two hosts (esx1 and esx2). These machines are operating independantly of each other(not a cluster). One reason for this is the segregation of physical networks. ESX1 is connected to a public network called "esx1net". ESX2 is connected to a public network called "esx2net". Due to company firewall rules, these two networks are physically segmented and cannot be put on the same ESX host.

Normally, when I deploy a virtual machine, if I select the network esx2net, Lab Manager knows to deploy the VM on ESX2. What I was doing this weekend required that I keep the IP address(es) of a group of VMs and allow them to communicate with eachother on a private network (192.168.1.x). I've done this successfully in the past with the connect virtual to physical option. The problem is this time, when I connected the machines to the physical network esx2net, Lab Manager attempted to deploy my vms on the ESX1 server (not physically connected to this network).

The work-around was to disable esx1 while I did the deploy, and that worked fine. but it's not a very clean way to deploy my systems. Can anyone shed some light on why Lab Manager might have tried to deploy on an ESX box that was not physicall connected to the network? Is this a bug, or just my misunderstanding?

~Thanks.

customized guest script

clevi — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:19:33 GMT

i've created a small batch script which changed timezone, update autodaylight option and define an internet time server for windows machine.

i want to load this script as customize script on all of my Windows templates.

i've added this script on Lab manager windows template as customize script, and i have a problem.

the script also use some other script from some location at my network.

the problem is when i'm creating virtual machine from template at first, befor the custoization script and sysprep are running she doesnt have network.

the script failed cause it cant access the network location.

is there any option to customize the guest global script that all the network customization will run and work and only than my script will run?.....

Thanks

Lab Manager pop out view max resolution?

landslove — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 05:26:08 GMT

Hi Everyone,

Is there a fixed max resolution for the pop out windows?

The max size I can get is 1176x885 on a windows XP workstation.

Regards,

Nick

LabManager 4.0 Sysprep info

rbkinsey — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:04:22 GMT

Hey guys, I am having some challenges with syspreping a template. I have read a few of the articles that VMWare has provided but find them not usefull. I have updated the sysprep.inf out on the labmanager server and selected the perform customization check box, select the Microsoft Sysprep bullet and update. Now when I deploy a system, the MINI sysprep does not launch. I have seen this done in a fenced environment but need to utilize this in a UnFencened environment. Any direction would greatly be appreciated. Thanks!

LM 4.0 + VC4.0 = Virtual Center Service Crashing

bgarner — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:16:23 GMT

We recently upgraded from Lab Manager 3.0.2 and VC 2.5 to Lab Manager 4 and Virtual Center 4. Most of the bumps along the way have been Virtual Center related. Support has helped me iron out a number of database and VC host sizing issues along the way. However currently I'm seeing the VC service crash sporadically. We have a team that does automation via the soap api and things get quite messy when VC dies in the middle of these operations. I have a support case open with the VC guys and they are reviewing my log files again.

Is anybody else seeing the virtual center service crashing when used with LM 4?

Thanks,
Blake

How are you using LM?

Odurasler2 — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:46:35 GMT

we currently have LM today, but i don't think we are using it to its full potential. we do have some initiative to virtualize all of our critical systems, so we can achieve true DR through SRM. because of this initiative, we're re-thinking on how to better utilize LM. one of the requirements is to have an exact copy of the production environment (this will be our pre-prod). having all our critical systems virtualized, this would make it easier to have an exact copy of production for use in LM in a test bubble which would essentially be a pre-prod environment.

so here's my question:

who's using LM today to create a similar production environment? can you provide details? for example, do you do a clone of the VM's, etc?

Windows 7 RC 32 and 64 bit / Lab Manager 3.02 / How i got them working

DJLO — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:11:00 GMT

Hi All

I know many of you are equally frustrated that there is no support for the beta in Lab Manager 3.x until release time. Many of us use Lab Manager for pre-release testing and development and really want to get a jump on things. I tried by process of elimination today and was able to get both the 32 and 64 bit versions working in 3.0.2 Here are the steps i took (these apply to both versions)

1: Pick your template as Windows Server 2008 / Windows Server 2008 64 Bit and install your OS
2: When the OS is finally installed, eject your virtual CD
3: Install VMWare tools and select Custom
4: De-select the SVGA driver and leave everything else as is

This got everything working for both versions. I want to point a few things out:

Installing the tools and allowing it to install the VGA driver kept locking up at boot and would not go to the desktop (x86, i tried this install first)
I had it try to repair to no avail so i rebuilt the image and de-selected the SVGA driver and got it working
Windows 7 x86 did not detect a NIC card until i installed the tools
Windows 7 x64 detected the NIC fine during initial boot prior to the tools being installed.

I have not had much time to test the VMs themselves as i just finished getting them both up and running.

Sysprep works just fine when creating workspace configurations from the VM templates.

Hope this helps some of you out

Help with eval Lab Manager 4 - Installation fails!

bitincka — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:44:28 GMT

Hi all,

I downloaded a trial of LM 4 but can't seem to get past the first few steps of installation process. The installation fails with this error:

"Error 28036. Invalid Password for user 'VmwareLMWeb'. The password
might not meet the password policy of the local security settings of
the system. Error code -21477463155."

This error was previously discussed here http://communities.vmware.com/thread/223731as well. I tried everything that was suggested there but no luck!

Any further ideas/suggestions? By the way when I try LM 3.0.2 the installation goes fine (but I can't get a trial key anymore to test it out - so that's a no go either!)

Thanks

D.Bitincka

Accessing Local Files

Kstrickland — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:44:12 GMT

Has anyone found a way to copy files from / to a workspace from a local or network source. Log files and such.

Lab Manager with some advanced vSphere functions

OleRebel — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:29:35 GMT

I am currently a LM 3 user with ESX 3.5 hosts. My ESX hosts are running Std Edition. We are looking to migrate to the new vSphere versions across the board. During this transition we decided it was a good time to see if the Live Migration and DRA were supported by Lab Manager. We know we would need to upgrade our ESX license but now would be the time.

Therefore, does the new vCenter edition of Lab Manager fully support the functions and capabilities of the vSphere Enterprise Plus offering?

Measure twice, cut once

Creating a custom user interface insted of lab manager interface

nabeelcdac — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 06:01:35 GMT

My project requires the following things.

Logon to the virtual machine using a webpage which i have designed. The lab manager user interface should not be displayed to the user. Once he enters the logon name and passowrd the deployed virtual machine should comeup on the browser window.

Any help in doing this.

I have been able to create users from the lab manager interface.

Nabeel.

permanent screen sharing

scewhite — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:33:03 GMT

I don't know if this is possible, but here we go.

I have a lab where we perform sales demos.
This lab has several displays driven by a rack of blade servers.

RIght now, we VNC into the blade servers to control each of them during the demo.

I would rather have a lab manager configuration set up with several virtual clients.
And then have my blade servers mirror the console of each of these virtual clients.

That way I could control everything from lab manager, and maybe even have several demo scenarios set up in my lab manager library.

So anyone have any ideas on how to get my blade servers to mirror the screen on each of these virtual clients?

I considered writing something that would automatically connect to the pop-out console through a browser on each client, but the id parameter changes when I deploy a new configuration.
VNC is a little too slow to refresh.
RDP locks the console session when I log in from the blade, preventing control.

Anyone?

Eject CD or Floppy causes vCenter service to stop

elafollette — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:09:15 GMT

Anytime a CD or Floppy image is ejected from a LabManager client, the vCenter service stops. I'm not sure why but need some help.

System Log on vCenter server:

Event 7031

The VMware VirtualCenter Server service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 11 time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in 300000 milliseconds: Restart the service.

SOAP API: fenceMode enum

ACKH — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 16:19:27 GMT

Hi all,

The Lab Manager SOAP API documentation states the following:

fenceMode:

1 = Not fenced.
2 = Fenced - Block traffic in and out.
3 = Fenced - Allow traffic out only.
4 = Fenced - Allow traffic in and out.

However, for some VMs I'm getting a "0". Can anybody explain what 0 actually means, i.e. what fence mode 0 represents?

Same for the machine status. The documentation states the following:

1=Off
2 =On
3=Suspended
4=Stuck
128=Invalid

As with the fence mode I'm getting a "0". What is it supposed to mean?

Post LM4 upgrade library check-out issues

bgarner — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:31:15 GMT

After upgrading most things work except deploying from the library. I'm getting the following error referencing a resource pool that doesn't exist and isn't one I ever created.


 
Unable to deploy virtual machines in resource pool "VLS-SJ-Pool".
DRS failed to find hosts to deploy the virtual machines on the resource pool "resgroup-192".
DRS failed to find host for virtual machine "050212-WP_225_XPconfig". vCenter reported: No host is compatible with the virtual machine.
Unable to find host for virtual machine "NoCompatibleHost".

Any ideas on how to kill this resgroup-192 pool?

Thanks,
Blake

Hosts Unavailable and Datastores Disconnected in Lab Manager

LabAdminVM — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 22:14:33 GMT

Within Virtual Center I have full access to all hosts and datastores. Within Lab Manager the resource pool that corresponds to my hosts and datastores is enabled. However, within Lab Manager the hosts are Ready but not Available. The datastores are not Connected and not Enabled. When I select the error for the hosts it reads the following:

Lab Manager was not able to retrieve root resource information for the host. The host may not be used for deployments.

If Lab Manager gets its information from Virtual Center, should it not see (and enable) the same hosts and datastores?

Guest Customization for WINDOWS 7

janardhanr — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:36:04 GMT

Does anyone know how to do a guset customization on windows 7, I also need to add the template to domain. In vista and 2008 we used Setupcomplete.com, please suggest if we can have some thing like it.

thank you!
-Jana

Flag for Deletion (When are objects actually deleted?)

jschlach — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:04:08 GMT

I have Library Configs set to 'Flag for deletion' under Resource Cleanup (2.5.3.666). I noticed my disk usage increasing perpetually. Last time we started the LM server it took a long long time to startup and then we had disk freed up. Is LM purging marked-for-deletion objects on startup? I just want to confirm if this is the behavior, I didn't see it called out in the documentation.

Jason

Error in executing lm-disktool: ). The originating server for this exception is: servername.com

mangunu — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:36:55 GMT

Hi All,

Iam facing below issue while deploying VM on labmanager 2.5.3 .

Error in executing lm-disktool: ). The originating server for this exception is: esxservername.com

Error in executing lm-disktool: ). The originating server for this exception is: esxname.domain.com
Debug		LabManager.Library.Utilities.LMException: Error in executing lm-disktool: ). The originating server for this exception is: esx.domain.com Server stack trace: at LabManager.Agent.Service.ESX30Agent.GetFileSizeInfo (LabManager.Library.Core.FileHandle vmdkFile) [0x00000] at LabManager.Agent.Service.ESX30Agent.GetDiskSizeInfo (LabManager.Library.Core.DirectoryHandle dir) [0x00000] at <0x00000> at (wrapper managed-to-native) System.Runtime.Remoting.RemotingServices:InternalExecute (System.Reflection.MethodBase,object,object[],object[]&) at System.Runtime.Remoting.RemotingServices.InternalExecuteMessage (System.MarshalByRefObject target, IMethodCallMessage reqMsg) [0x0004c] in /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/mono-1.1.17.2/mcs/class/corlib/System.Runtime.Remoting/RemotingServices.cs:116 Exception rethrown at [0]: at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.HandleReturnMessage(IMessage reqMsg, IMessage retMsg) at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.PrivateInvoke(MessageData& msgData, Int32 type) at LabManager.Agent.Interface.IVMwareESX30Agent.GetDiskSizeInfo(DirectoryHandle dir) at LabManager.VAL.VMware.ESX30.ESX30ManagedServer.GetDiskSizeInfo(DirectoryHandle directoryHandle) at LabManager.Backend.CVirtualMachine.UpdateDiskSizeInfo(IManagedServer ms) at LabManager.Backend.CVirtualMachine._FindAvailableManagedServerList(Int32 fence_id, Int32 estimated_load, Boolean config, CVirtualMachine[] vms) at LabManager.Backend.CVirtualMachine.FindAndReserveManagedServer(Int32 fence_id, Int32 estimated_load, Boolean config, CVirtualMachine[] vms) at LabManager.Backend.CWorkspaceConfiguration.DeployVMs(Boolean deployTimeFenced, FenceType fenceType, CVirtualMachine[] vms, Boolean bConfiguration, Boolean bHonorBootOrder, Boolean bStartAfterDeploy) at LabManager.Backend.CWorkspaceConfiguration.Deploy(Boolean deployTimeFenced, FenceType fenceType, Boolean bHonorBootOrder, Boolean bStartAfterDeploy)

Organization consolidation

JasonGillis — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:02:30 GMT

Hi Everyone,

I've got a Lab Manager setup where I have two organizations (i.e. "OrgA" and "OrgB"). When I created them, the organizations were separated because the hardware resources were different. I'm at a point now where I've expanded the hardware resources for OrgA and I'd like to migrate the VMs and users from OrgB to use OrgA.

I can easily add the users in OrgB to OrgA, but is there a good method for migrating the existing configurations, libraries, and templates from OrgB to OrgA?

Thanks,

Jason

Poor performance from linked clones

JasonBurrell — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:05:58 GMT

I am currently running ESX 3.5 U4 and Lab Manager 3.0.2.56. The hardware consists of three Dell 1950s and one Netapp FAS2020. I am using NFS for my datastores. I started getting reports of poor performance on the guests used in Lab Manager so I went into Virtual Center and found no issues with CPU or RAM so my next place to look was disk. I did some performance testing to see if this issue was a "Lab Manager" issue or all guests were affected. I also logged a case with Netapp to check for performance issues on the Filer. After working with Netapp it seems to be the issue is related to linked clones. I know that snapshots can cause a performance decrease but I didn't think it was large enough to cause a significant problem. To test disk issues I used IO Meter. Here is the setup:

IO Meter Settings

4k, 100% Read, 0% Random, 10,000 Sector, 256 # of Outstanding I/Os per target, 5Min test.

Guest 1 - Chain Lenght 1

Total I/Os per Second: 16,531.28

Total MBs per Second: 64.58

Average I/O Response Time (ms): 15.48

Maximum I/O Response Time (ms): 441.53

Guest 2 - Chain Length 9

Total I/Os per Second: 9,337.02

Total MBs per Second: 36.47

Average I/O Response Time (ms): 27.41

Maximum I/O Response Time (ms): 604.72

Performance difference in percentage between chain lenght of 1 vs 9:

Total I/Os per Second: +77%

Total MBs per Second: +77%

Average I/O Response Time (ms): 77% faster

Maximum I/O Response Time (ms): 37% faster

I don't think this is a normal decrease. I did the same IO Meter test between a machine with 1 chain lenght and a machine with a chain lenght of 12 on an EVA 4400 which I have at another site and performance only decreased by an average 30%. Has anyone else ran into these performance issues with your Netapp Filer or any other storage for that matter? At this point the space savings from linked clones is not worth the performance decrease.

-Jason

How to switch to new Virtual Center smoothly?

JinmingZhang — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:56:24 GMT

Hi,
I'm using the VirtualCenter 2.5 and LabManager 2.5.
Currently, I want to switch to a new VC and also use the same LM to manage the new VC. Here is my steps:
1. Connect all the hosts from old VC to new VC
2. Change VC IP address and credentials in LM settings to use the new VC
After these steps, I findI can use the new VC via LM, but unfourtunately, all the VMs information are lost. That is, in "Resource Pools" tab, I found all the VMs are invisible after the changes.
(See attachment. The upper one is the old resource pool, the lower one is the new resource pool. All the 17 VMs are "lost".)
Does anyone can help me about the correct steps to switch to new VC via LM?
Thanks a lot.

Are unavailable snapshots in Lab Manager 4

vladrnd — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:17:49 GMT

Has developed in a network vShpere4 and Lab manager 4, has connected ESX4 a server. Has created a little templates in Lab Manager4. Now at deployment with templates the user of a computer through Web access Lab Manager4, is absent possibility of creation of pictures. I.e. the tab is active, but when forms snapshors through Web (Setting the Revert Point) I receive a sort error:

Alert!
Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Есл to use GUI vSphere the client that Take Snapshot is not active (i.e. is present only Snapshot manager). all computers created in LM4 have no possibility of operation with snapshots. Separately creating vSphere4 a computer, all is normal.

In what there can be a problem?

ps: sorry my english

is there a user-friendly "how to set up a fenced network" guide?

rpatty — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:00:59 GMT

My goal is to try to use Lab Manager to set up a fenced network, so we can try out some of the fancy things they say you can do with them, like have duplicate machine names or IP addresses.

What I would love to find is a simple, clear, step-by-step process for putting together a fenced network, putting a couple of VMs inside it, and seeing the magic. Ideally it would present the ideas in the order that you do them -- start with X, add y, link it to Z, etc. Does anything like that exist?

All I've managed to find is the Lab Manager User's Guide, which isn't working for me. On the one hand, it's too broad (it lists all the functions, when I don't really know which ones I need) or too focused (I've skipped to the part about fenced networks, but that seems to be expecting I've already set up a bunch of other stuff). I think what I really need is just a paragraph or two, that kind of lays the steps out in order.

I've got so many issues with where I am at the moment, I'm not sure if they're worth mentioning, but a rough overview of where I've gotten is:

I've got a network that I called "fenced network" and which I think is supposed to be fenced

I've got a couple of VM's in Lab Manager, and tried to put add them to the fenced config. I can get to them via the console in vCenter.

None of those VMs can get an IP address (like /ipconfig returns empty spots for the IP). They say they're connected to a GB network, but experiencing "limited to no connectivity". Attempts to manually put an IP in there doesn't change anything.

When I look at the config diagram for the fenced config, the shaded box with the VM's is labeled "unfenced" It does, however, show a dark blue line going from the green internal fenced line to the medium blue labmanger default line. Wish I knew what those colors signified, if anything.

When I look at the network diagram through vCenter, the fenced network is shown with a virtual switch that's unconnected to a physical one, but I can't find anything that might connect those two pieces.

* I don't know if any or all of the above mean anything, or nothing. Troubleshooting those specifics may be the way to go, but frankly I'm 90% convinced I just didn't set up any of this stuff right, and starting over with intelligible instructions is the way to go.

Cannot deploy any configuration

CapiZikus — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 08:52:36 GMT

I receiving this error message and cannot deploy any configuration,could someone guide me how to fix this please.

Add virtual switch "myserver.com" Error during the configuration of the host: SysinfoException: Node (VSI_NODE_net_create) ; Status(bad0006)= Limit exceeded; Message= Instance(0): Input(3) pgInternal01-159LM20 64 etherswitch

Hi, Is there an API for getting Machine name in VirtualCenter after VM is deployed from Workspace?

gs2009 — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 23:49:53 GMT

Hi,

I wonder is there an API for getting Machine name in the VirtualCenter after VM is deployed from Workspace. I used getMachine () to get a list of data, but the name is not on the list. See attached screen capture.

HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8 Content-Length: length <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <soap:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"> <soap:Body> <GetMachineResponse xmlns="http://vmware.com/labmanager"> <GetMachineResult> <id>int</id> <name>string</name> <description>string</description> <internalIP>string</internalIP> <externalIP>string</externalIP> <macAddress>string</macAddress> <memory>int</memory> <status>int</status> <isDeployed>boolean</isDeployed> <configID>int</configID> <DatastoreNameResidesOn>string</DatastoreNameResidesOn> <HostNameDeployedOn>string</HostNameDeployedOn> <OwnerFullName>string</OwnerFullName> </GetMachineResult> </GetMachineResponse> </soap:Body> </soap:Envelope>

Thanks

-Guang

Console View

CapiZikus — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 10:07:10 GMT

Is there any
way i can re-arrange the order of the consoles? ie server1 ,2, 3

at the moment it showing in a wrong order when I do show console, ie: server2, 1, 3

Thanks

Error in the middle of deleting configuration

pkelly08 — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:07:19 GMT

I get the following error when attempting to delete an undeployed configuration. I would assume that after a config is undeployed the Virtual Router is simply deleted, perhaps I may've done this too fast. Fun part is, the configuration is completely empty from LM's point of view; and the Virtual Router doesn't exist on the ESX server anymore (in fact I can see the unregister command being run). So it seems this is simply a data problem for LM. How can we fix this? I now have two empty configuration in LM that are "undeletable."

Error in the middle of deleting configuration. Try again later. This configuration is in an unknown state.

Network Template "Private Network" is used by 1 template(s).
- In order to delete the network you must first connect the template(s) to different networks or delete them. The template(s) using this network are: VirtualRouter_C1242F899_DontModify

LabManager 3: Error: The numPort value: 8608 in spec exceeded maxPorts 8192

ArrowSIVAC — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:16:38 GMT

Configuration: Three IBM HS21XM Blades. Two physical NICs one dvSwitch with Host Spanning enabled.

LabManager: VMware-vCenter-Lab-Manager-4.0.0-1140

ESX: esx-DVD-4.0.0-164009

I have about 25 VLANs that I add for the VMWare farm hosts. I moved both physical NICs ont the dvSwitch and valdiated vMotion / DRS/ HA work without error.

I started creating Port Groups on the dvSwitch device and corresponding Hot Spanning Network for each of my 25 PortGroups (VLANS)

After adding 16 I get the error

Activity Deployed Network 029ATLLABUsers (19)

Job ID 102

Type Network

Job Status Failure

Location Global

Owner Administrator

Details dvs.VmwareDistributedVirtualSwitch.addPortgroups task on AddDVPortgroup_Task failed: fault.LimitExceeded.summary

The numPorts value: 8608 in spec exceeded maxPorts 8192

I poked around in configuration settings and there is no way to limit port count per "Port Group" as a setting.

In vCenter I can see the following in "information" for a Port group, but NOT change it.

002ATLCOREInfrastructure-5LM15

Name 002ATLCOREInfrastructure

VLAN Type 2

Number of ports: 512

Port binding: Static binding

.......

At the most the number of hosts that will ever be put into a Port Group will be MAYBE ... 20... so can I limit the Port Group count down to 25 or so?

Or is there another way to fix this?

LM for Software Packaging best Practices

atgo — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 23:37:51 GMT

LM for Software Packaging best Practices
I’m about to setup a Lab Manager 4.0 environment for a software packaging team.

Requirements:
There are a couple of base VMs for every OS flavor need by the software packaging team.
This ‘golden master’ VM should be online all the time for the reason of patching, configuration, A/V updates etc.
All dies master VM are AD members and independent OS flavors (W2k Pro, W2k3, W2k3 Ent, W2k3 x64, Vista, W2k8, W2k8 x64 etc.)
Every package engineer should be able to check out a total of five instances of the provided ‘golden master’ VMs for a limited time to creating software packages and doing QA work for the specific OS flavor.

My thoughts so fare:
Implement a new LM organization.
Import each and every necessary VM as a VM Template.
Create a shared configuration workspace as a basis for the package engineers to create their individual, time limited, fenced instances of the necessary VMs in
Create a workspace with a single configuration for each and every software packaging base VM needed by the software packaging engineers and share this configurations to the software packaging engineers.
Create / pre-configure a individual workspace with a according configuration to any software packaging engineer for placing his time limited linked clones of their VMs to package software.

Questions:
Would that be an appropriate way to meet this requirements?
Are there any different opinions among you to fulfill the requirements mentioned above?

Greetings

Host not available (formerly: Host is in an unknown power state)

rpatty — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:42:05 GMT

Howdy. Just trying to put together my first instance of lab manager, testing it out on a standalone server. Our main interest in lab manager is in the fencing technology, so we can duplicate computer names and IPs inside a fenced area for testing before pushing the changes to production machines.

I've got lab manager set up. I've managed to create a fenced configuration. When I go to the configuration and try to add a new VM, I get the following error:

"vCenter Lab manager cannot find any stuitable host to execute this operation. Host computer IP is in an unknown power state."

Any idea what that might mean? I know the box is powered on -- Lab Manager is running on it!

Details: standalone box. Has vSphere 4.0 on it, separate VM for vCenter 4.0, separate VM for Lab Manager 4.0.

I have also tried creating a VM through vCenter, and then tried importing that VM into the configuration via Lab Manager, but the computer name is greyed out, and it won't let me select it.

In a greater sense, I also have been looking for a general "this is how you actually use Lab Manager" guide. I am aware of he user's manual, but it's just a list of descriptions of what the links do, without any overarching sense planning, strategy, etc. It might be handy if I was looking to understand what one of the line items did, but from a "well, I'm looking at the splash page, what do I actually do?" kind of sense, it seems pretty lacking to me.

Any help with either issue would be much appreciated.

Intalling VM Tools on Windows 7

SgRddY — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:52:44 GMT

Anyone here has problems installing VM Tools on Windows 7? I am using LM 3.02 and ESX 3.5U4. Is Windows 7 supported on this version of LM?

This is the error I am getting "A general system error occurred: Internal error"

Media Stores

mforbes — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:35:06 GMT

OK, is it me? or this the absolutely worst documented option in Lab Manager? Maybe is it's me, but I've been working with Lab Manager for nearly 2 years and could never figure out how to use the Media Stores. So, I really made a concerted effort to set it up for a client and started researching it. If you read the USER GUIDE, it references the INSTALL GUIDE. If you read the INSTALL GUIDE, it references the USER GUIDE. Nice!!! Nothing in the guides pointsto a syntax if your using straight VMFS datastores and not NFS.

So, I came across numerous articles that pointed to others having the same issue, with no real resolution. I had not seen anything that pointed to the SYNTAX of how to add a media store. After reading some of the attempts to handle the syntax, I stumbled upon the solution.

Here is my humble journey to a solution.

First off, in Lab Manager once you can see your datastores, you should be able to turn on (enable the media store) the datastore that you expect to be your Media Store. Once your media store is enabled, make sure you go into VirtualCenter, browse that datastore CREATE (I called it ISO) a folder in that datastore (media stores DO NOT like root folders). This is where I noticed that there is a column on the right-hand side of the BROSWE DATASTORE box that displays the path. From there I went back into Lab Manager, to my Media Stores tab and tried again to add a media store. Since I had enabled a media store previously, I knew I was close. I added one, apprehensively called it TEST...and under path, I used the aforementioned ISO and this time...no error.

No warrnings that "Media directory path "xyz" does not exist on datastore "Shared Media Datastore".

Hopefully, this can help someone else who is or was struggling with the same issue. Good luck. and happy labbing...

Mike Forbes

Cannot log into Lab Manager

daveseligm — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 14:46:14 GMT

We have Lab Manager 3 and for some reason now none of our users or admins can log in, error states invalid username and or password. Our AD is up and DC is working but still cannot get in. I have rebooted all servers to no avail.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I do not mind if I have to trash the labmanager user database and redo as we only have 4 users. But I have quite a few workspaces and templates etc in lab manager so I do not want to lose them.

Error in Lab Manager 4

jkrolak — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 14:20:06 GMT

I just recently installed Lab Manager 4. When I go to Global....All Configurations and select All Configurations in This Organization, I get an error that says:

Failed to retrieve logon user information. Could not find Bucket Member in database given the parameters.

I can't find this error anywhere on the web and haven't been able to solve this. I think it's causing problems in the behavior of the All Configurations screen. I get the same error message no matter which user account I log in with. Originally, we did not have email addresses associated with our AD accounts when I set up LM4. After getting this error, I've deleted all the accounts, added email addresses to all pertinent AD accounts and re-imported them from AD. I still get the same error and it doesn't allow me to do anything with existing configurations. For example, I cannot delete the Sample Configuration that comes pre-setup, even though I'm a System Administrator.

Anyone have a clue about this?

Check LM Agen on ESX4

CapiZikus — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:32:18 GMT

Could somone please let me know how to check status of the LM4's agent on the esx4 please, in my LM4 --> Resource --> "Agent is not responding "!

THANKS!

Full Clone with Revert Point

Virtual Instanity — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 21:23:53 GMT

We're migrating to a new datastore.

I'm aware of the SSMove.exe utility and have used it successfully. However, in this case, we just made a full clone of a Configuration, at which time we specified the new datastore.

When we looked a the new instance of the Configuration in the LabManager resources datastore view , it showed us that the VM storage is on the new datastore. However, the Revert Point is still on the old datastore. We need to completely be off of this old datastore so we can reallocate it elsewhere...so I can't have revert points hanging out on it.

The expectation was for a Full Clone to fully clone the Configuration...I'd hope for a new instance of the Revert Point to be created for the Full Clone. I'd understand if it just cloned it in the current state and started the new Configuration with no Revert Point. To keep the Revert Point on the old datastore is the last thing I'd expect...because at that point, you'd have 2 configs sharing the same Revert Point. Even if that works, what happens if the configs are owned by 2 different users, and one user decides to delete it?

Anyone seen this? Any suggested workaround? The original config on the old datastore was deleted. It's not just logically deleted - LabManager has already cleaned it up.

Thanks!

Bug: Services on Windows VMs with FileSystemWatcher's are unreliable

AHutton — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:20:08 GMT

I have reproduced this with bare bones services, but if there is a service running on the windows VM's in Lab Manager that are written in dont neet and utilize the class FileSystemWatcher when you undeploy save state, or capture back to the library. about 20% (this is a wild guess) of the time those machines resume, the service never sees those File System Events it is watching for. I have done this both ways to use a FileSystemWatcher both using the event handlers and using the waitforchanged method which blocks until the event occurs.

ListConfigurations() Bug

AHutton — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:13:26 GMT

When I get back my array of configurations back there are more elements than show up on the workspaces page on the web interface. Based on a little basic research it appears the extras may be machines that were deleted but still exist underneath do to their placement in the chains. ( I hope I am understanding how this works ).

This is not a major bug (or even a bug that impacts me) as I am looking for a particular configuration so I just pass right by them, but I thought you should know.

Lab Manager LDAP

SgRddY — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:32:41 GMT

Hello,

Is there a way to have LDAP working on 2 separate domains on LM? I can pull users from one domain fine using LDAP but I would like to be able to pull users from another trusted domain.

Do I just separate the 2 domains using ";"?

Thanks,

Change username after Upgrade to LM4

CapiZikus — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:38:25 GMT

today i'm trying to upgrade the LM from 3.x to 4 and got stuck with access to LM after installed.

My VC2.5 is installed on the DomainController and you cannot install vCenter on the DC, so I have to dcpromo and remove the dc out from the vCenter's box.

The upgrade and installation of the vCenter and LM seem to run smooth, until when I'm trying to browse the http://<Lab Manager_Server_domain_name_or_IP_address> and click next, the error appear.

I think this is because we use user account in DC to authentication between VC2.5 and LM3.x before and now there is no such domain account.

"

vCenter Lab Manager failed to establish a
connection to vCenter "myvCenterDomain". Verify that you have a running vCenter
version 4.0 and correct login credential.
"

Is anyway I can change the user login detail in LM?

Thanks

ps: when upgrade from VC2.5 to vCenter all of my multipath reset to hba1!

lab manager on vsphere essentials

billk — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 14:36:55 GMT

Now that ESXi is supported, can we run lab manager on our vsphere essentials environment, utilizing the vCenter Server included in that package?

Windows NLB with Lab Manager Problem

CapiZikus — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:11:10 GMT

Hi,

I'm trying to creat two nodes windows NLB(2008) on LMand the cluster IP is not pingable from another machine on the same configuration (network)

I could ping the cluster node itself but when tried to ping from dif vm which resided in the same subnet and config set, the yrafice is route to the VR(Virtual Route) instead of try to search internal first.

The Cluster is Unicast, should I have to change to Multicast instead?

Thanks

Backup - Template + Library + Workspace (Snapshot versus Volume Copy)

CapiZikus — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:04:10 GMT

I have searching the forum about this issue and the best way to backpu is at hardware level, correct me if I'm wrong.

So I am planning to get a license for my SAN (MSA 2012fc), could someone recommend which one is work between Volume Copy and Snapshot?

thanks

An item with the same key has already been added

audinger0722 — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:09:06 GMT

I am trying to deploy a fenced configuration with 'block in & out' connectivity. I get the following error:

'An item with the same key has already been added'

There are no snapshots, no other deployed VMs with the same name (but I don't think that should matter anyway due to it being in fenced mode)

All other configurations deployed ok. This is the only one I am trying with 'block in & out' connectivity however. I am running LM 3.0.2.

Any help is appreciated.

Lab Manager/Virtual Center Database Size

aaron.champion — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:56:23 GMT

I recently checked on the database size for our Lab Manager and Virtual Center servers. I'm a bit concerned at how large the Virtual Center database has become. The Lab Manager database is at 50 MB size and remains fairly consistent, while our Virtual Center database is about 14.5 GB and growing (sometimes at a rate of approx 100 to 150+ MB/week).

Can someone confirm that this is normal? I don't really understand why this database would grow to be so large. Any insight into the size and growth would be appreciated.

Password resetting on deployment...

nwer977 — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:31:59 GMT

I am somewhat new to LM so this may be answered in the doc, but I have not seen it.

I have built and published a Windows 2008 Std machine and published it. Everytime I depoly it into a workspace I end up with an the issue of having my administrative password reset and I can't login to the machine. Has anyone seen this and is there either a work around or something I am doing wrong.

Thanks ahead for the help.

Using the SOAP API Checkout function changes the Fencing Mode

MarkCzerwin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 17:08:45 GMT

When using the SOAP API to checkout a library configuration, the VM Fencing Policy gets changed from "Fenced Only" to ""Allow Fenced or Unfenced". The Fencing policy should remain unchanged when performing this operation. Do you have any idea how to fix this?

Help us design the future Lab Manager user experience

skishi — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 22:51:32 GMT

Hi, All--

We have an active user experience team that designing the future user interface of Lab Manager. We are constantly running studies, and if you'd like to have a significant input on how Lab Manager works in the future, we'd love to include you.

Our next study will focus on administration navigation. We'd like admins who need to support multiple organizations in their Lab Manager installation. The more "arms length" the relationship between the admin and the other organizations the better. If you fit this category and would like to help out, please email me directly at steven@vmware.com.

If you don't fit this category but would be willing to help out with a future user experience study, drop me a line letting me know how you use Lab Manager and I'll make sure you get included in an appropriate study in the future.

Thanks!
Lab Manager Product Management

vMOTION & Lab Manager

CapiZikus — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:25:27 GMT

do i have to attach two esx host to make vmotion work on lab manager? I couldn't find any option that lm will work with vmotion. thanks

Cannot connet to resource after esx host (resource) reboot

CapiZikus — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:15:01 GMT

Hi,

After compleedt reboot the esx host, in Lab manager, I cannot use/connect to any template or VM,

the error is:

The Lab Manager agent on the host is not responding.

Each prepared host runs an agent application. This agent application is not
responding. This can be due to network failure, host failure, or agent
application failure.

how can i check the agent service on the esx host please.

thanks

host's CPU is not compatible with the virtual machine's suspend state

clevi — Mon, 25 May 2009 10:57:21 GMT

we have some wierd problem and i hope someone could help us.

i have like 8 ESX which 2 of them are blades which are physicaly reside ofcourse on the same Blade center, and has the same CPU type and features.

i've deployed virtual machine on one of this ESX, and undeployed it in save state. i know that the only option lab manager will deployed this virtual machine on another ESX host is when both of the ESX has the same CPU type and features. i'm talking about the same physical machine so of course both ESX has the same properties.

when i'm trying to deploy the machine(which is in suspend state) on the second ESX he refused and i got the error "Hosts cpu is not compatible with the virtual machine's suspsend state"

can anyone know what is the problem?

with this issue the only concolusion i can have is that virtual machine which is in suspend state only can be deployed on the same ESX, and there is no option of mobility in lab manager, which not make any sense.

please help.

Context view: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

JasonBurrell — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:27:02 GMT

I have an issue after changing the datastore ID of some of my virtual machines to a new datastore. Every time I try to use the context view for the old datastore I get:Object reference not set to an instance of an object. Is there any way I can find out what object is missing, or any hint on where it is comming from?

Can't add managed server

bsrichardson — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:30:38 GMT

I'll start off by saying last summer we re-did all of our switching equipment and our IP addresses changed. We changed the IP address of the Lab Manager 2003 server and the ESX host it's running on.

We tried upgrading to Lab Manager 3 awhile back. Long story short, we didn't and it has been sitting for 6+ months. We recently decided to fire it back up, and I restored our Lab Manager 2003 server back to the snapshot I took before the upgrade. Everything is fine now, except the managed server.

The managed server still had the old IP address so I couldn't do anything with Lab Manager really. I tried updating it but it refused to take, so I undeployed it and removed it. Now, when trying to add in a new managed server, it won't allow me and returns the error of

Return argument has an invalid type.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Lab Manager Supported API

rovingeyes — Sat, 09 May 2009 00:11:40 GMT

So we have been using the Lab Manager supported SOAP APIs since day one for our automation. But I guess, it has practically stayed the same since even Akimbi days. Sure I can go ahead and play around with the Lab Manager Internal "unsupported" APIs but I don't want to waste time on some thing that might change. So my question is very simple - when is VMware planning to add the rest of the API to the "supported" API. With the current API, you can pretty much work only with Library configurations. Could you guys please add support for configuration deployments from templates at the least?

Safe to edit the notesfeild from VIC on LM VM's

matsrob — Thu, 07 May 2009 11:34:54 GMT

Does anyon know if it´s total safe to alter the Notes feild of a LM VM from VC ?

I have esxpress wich backups the Base templates (Before they become LM VM´s) and esxpress updates the Notesfeild with backup info! When i then imported the VM to LM it keept the notes info (Shuld have deleted the info before importing)

Now all my deployed LM VM's have the notesfeild entries from the original Template VM. Can i saftly go in and delete this information ?

//MatsRob

network template and vlan

lafa91 — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:11:52 GMT

Hello again,

Sorry again for my bad English, I'm still French speaking.

My organisation is working the whole wan with a private class a in the 10.x.x.x range.

They set me up with a sub network with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, so they give me the right to use an equivalent of a class c network.

The organisation router sees the class I got, it's a 10.50.xxx.0.

It worked fine with VCenter and with Lab manager so far.

I try to understand how I can create some LAN with the network template of Lab Manager; I would like those LAN to have their own IP range. So a LAN with a virtual router the ESX server that got an external IP in the 10.50.xxx.0 IP range. So all my LAN VM could see each other and see the Internet via the Lab Manager / VCenter / ESX installation.

Must I ask the IT service to create me other class c IP range every time I need a new LAN and then add them to the network template? Or is there a way I could created my own Internal IP range in the 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255 range for a class b or the 192.168.0.0 -192.168.255.255 IP range and assign those network template to my LAN Would we be able to use the IP range we already got as the external IP address of the LAN we try to create and will all my new LAN able to communicate with each other?

I got the user's guide for Lab Manager 3.0 and I did read the page 29 to 38 (chapter 3) more then once and I don't see anything that explain how to do what I would like to do.

lafa91

MKS plugin driving me nuts

Anders — Wed, 06 May 2009 09:32:18 GMT

Please, please, please make the MKS plugin version check less restrictive.

I am currently at a costumer with the current environment:

Lab Manager 2
Lab Manager 3
vCenter 2.0
vCenter 2.5

To top it off, most of the developers have to access the LM environment through a terminal server session.

Vi are on the final push to decommission the old versions, but even a LM3/vCenter 2.5 environment gives us trouble.

The latest FF3 plugin at least works with both products, but since the TS is 64 bit,

the only option is the activeX plugin that has a unneeded(?) version check and refuse to connect with console on vCenter 2.5 U3

Anders

What to use and licenses?

DanielJohansson — Tue, 05 May 2009 13:50:47 GMT

We are to implement a test and lab environment, mainly for testing and evaluation of software in Windows servers. We have a need for 5-10 different "virtual servers" which will contain different installations for the testing and evaluation purpose.

What VMWare product would be best to use?

Also, what kind of licensens is needed from Microsoft for this environment (5-10 different virtual windows servers and 4-5 users that work in the environment)?

All info is apreciated!

Can't get phone support

TimVanCleave — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:59:52 GMT

My group has a licensed copy of Lab Manager but the person who purchased it is in a different department and the software is registered in their name. How do I get support?

new Configuration

kkohli — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 21:04:27 GMT

Are there any API's available to create new configurations using existing VM templates?
Version of lab manager: 3.0.1.378

Consolidate operation in Vmware Lab Manager 3.0

clevi — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 09:01:53 GMT

Hello all,

i'm working with VMware Lab Manager with 6 ESX server (3.5).

we enconter problems with storage space and we think this state caused due to consolidate, chain length issues.

i'm doing some research and i have a question

i'm understand chain length growth after each operation on virtual machine: create new machine, clone to worksapce, capture to library and so on.

this chain length has limit of 30, also this chain also increate the storage space due to the dalta disks being saved.

what i dont understand its what is really the amount space which being saved during clone of virtual machine. if i have template of 20G and i've created new machine from it, the delta disk which will be saved will be much lower than the 20G size of the tempalte i guess. so why consolidate takes much more storage space than the machine itself.

i mean i have a chain length of lets say 5. (e.g: template--> create new machine--> clone to workspace-->clone to library--> clone to workspace--> clone to worspace(other user))

the base template is 20G and all the other machine are delta disks, i know its might growth if there were changes in this machines. but what really happen on consolidate, i know its collapse the chains and create one big disk but i dont understand why its increase my total storage space, why its not equal.

maybe i'm missing something i will be glad if someone can answer me, and i'm sorry if my question sounds stupid.

Thanks a lot!

Unable to install software from a shared drive in Lab Manager

RickCousin — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 17:17:06 GMT

Using VMware Lab Manager, I have set up a VM and can access it via Windows Remote desktop. I can access shared drives through the network in the VM and can see thier contents with no problem. However, when I try to install software via a shared drive or folder, it fails.

Are there any settings I need to configure to allow software installs from a shared, say, DVD drive? This is vital to my testing efforts.

Thanks in advance.

Add Hyperlinks in the Navigation bar

nja — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:14:10 GMT

Hi there!
I have a question regarding the Navigation Bar within VMware Lab Manager:

Is it possible to add a custom made hyperlink in the Navigation Bar on the Left side (something like Support)
Can it be implemented with the Roles and rights function?

Thank you for any hint!

Regards -nja

Users unable to perform linked cloning in lab manager 3.0

Jreilley — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:30:11 GMT

I have users that are unable to perform linked clones in lab manager (see attached JPG). Administrators can accomplish this, but users can not. Administrators can only change the owner to other administrators, not users, but I think this may be a separate issue.

Users are part of the "default" organization and the "application owner" role. I have "full clone" ability disabled.

I know there is a missing permission or combination of permissions that must be set to accomplish this. Could someone please help me with this? I can not see any obvious permissions that would stop linked cloning.

Thanks in advance,

Joel

CPU utilization on ESX host?

swittenkamp — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 18:56:46 GMT

I realize this may not be the best forum to post in, but I've noticed that Lab Manager is a very different world from the usual ESX forums. : )

My question is if there any guidelines around optimal CPU usage for an ESX host dedicated to hosting Lab Manager VMs? Specifically, how high can the CPU usage go before I should be worried? We are currently running maybe 30 - 40 VMs on a single ESX host with Lab Manager, and I've noticed that performance seems to suffer once utilization goes over 60%.

Does anyone have any experience with this? As a data point, we run a lot of VMs that are resource intensive both on databases and CPU. E.g. MSSQL, MySQL, hadoop. The jobs tend to be of a "bursty" nature. Also, the virtual disks are not local storage, but going over NFS.

Any input is appreciated!

Thanks much,

Sebastian

how to move VM's with lab manager

cjweir — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 15:59:43 GMT

We have LabManger 2.5.3.666 installed with 8 ESX servers attached to it. We are running into performance issues in our lab and need to know:

1) How can we move virtual machines within the lab from one physical server to another?
2) How can we deploy one VM on one specific server, when we create VM they are created on a round robin sequence, thus resulting in we adding two more servers that are not used.
3) All 8 servers are connected to the same SAN where the VM files are, it is possible to use Infrastructure Manager to create a new VM on one server using the files from an existing one in order to "Move" the VM to another server. Would LabManager be aware of this change?

We have another location (Miami) where we have 6 Virtual Center licenses:

1) How could we use those licenses on the LabManager environment?
2) Would moving the Virtual Center licenses affect the Miami environment?

LabManager upgrade:

The 2 new servers we added have ESX Server 3.5 Release 4, the old 6 servers have ESX Server 3.5 Release 1 and LabManager is as previously stated 2.5.3.666, what would be the recommended way of upgrading the 6 servers with 3.5 Release 1 to Release 4 and LabManager to 3.0?

Lab Manager + Database

cybertooth17 — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:22:46 GMT

Hi, Sorry if you feel that the question too lame. I have Lab Manager enviroment of 250 User, 11 ESX Servers, though i am using older verison LM 2.5.

1) My question is how can i connect to the database externally using some SQL Client. This Enviroment was designed and implemented by some other guys. Now i am not sure what username and password they used to connect to database from Lab Manager. Generally i use

osql -S localhost/vlm -E -d labmanager

-E option is used to for trusted user. I can use this command to the Lab Manager physical box itself. That i dont want i want to connect to this database externally from outside using a SQL Client.

2) How do i find out from Database that what is the total number of Deployed VMs, Undeployed VMs, Orphand VMs, Tempaltes.

3) How to find out from Database that what number of VMs are dependent on Perticular template.

4) Usualy what happen is if you are using a template for creating any VM then that VM by default goes to that perticuler ESX server only, where the template was stored. is it a normal behaviour ?

Please help me on these.

Appritiate your help

--Cybertooth

LM Password encryption

pwyzorski-wyzguy — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 03:03:45 GMT

How are the passwords that LM uses to access vCenter (virtual center), ESX hosts and the SMTP server stored locally. I get that the system-infos.bios file is used, but how is it used and how are passwords stored. RSA 1024-bit encryption?

regards,

~Patrick

LM 3.0.x and managed ESX 3.5 host ongoing credential relationship

pwyzorski-wyzguy — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:17:23 GMT

What exactly is the nature of the ongoing credential relationship between LM 3.0.x and the Managed ESX 3.5 Hosts? Is it similar to the relationship between vCenter (virtualcenter) and it's managed ESX hosts?

In the former (as I understand it), I enter in the ESX root credentials once which aren't saved anywhere. This causes a vCenter (virtualcenter) agent to be installed onto the ESX host and a local vpxuser account to be created. The password for the vpxuser is randomly generated and stored in the vCenter DB encrypted with a RSA 1024-bit key. Reference; VMware Security Architecture Whitepaper (http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_security_architecture_wp.pdf).

My question is this; Does Lab Manager handle ongoing connectivity to the underlying ESX hosts in a similar fashion to vCenter (virtualcenter)?

I have a client with security compliancy issues so I would like to have an informed story for them.

regards,

~Patrick

Is it possible to export Lab Manager users from one LM environment to another

Ted O. — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 18:00:13 GMT

I'm building a new Lab Manager environment and want to export my users from my existing environment to the new one. Both envs are running LM 3.0.2. I only see an Import option under Users and Groups in the management console. Is there perhaps a way to do this via command line?

By the way, they are NOT Ldap users, they are stored on the LM server.

Problem with LDAP connection

nja — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 07:53:28 GMT

Hi there!

The Version of Lab Manager i use is: 3.0.0.2063

I have some troubles regarding the LDAP connection within the Lab Manager. The problem is:

I can search for names, but sometimes only a few results appears or no results at all apears (It depends on the User i search for).
If i use the User ID, it will always find the User i want to

Can it be that there is some limitation regarding the number of entrys for the LDAP connection?

Thanks for any help or hints!

LabManagerInternal user handling

cieply — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:11:11 GMT

Hello community,

I know that the internal SOAP is not supported, nevertheless I would like to ask something regarding the "user functionality" because I'm getting stuck with this problem:

The LabManagerInternal contains some functions for user handling like: GetCurrentUser, GetUser, ListUsers. All of them are returning a user(list) but trying to access the properties deployed_vm_quota and stored_vm_quota, always 0 is returned.

Does somebody have similar problems and can help me please?
Or can tell me a solution to get the amount of deployed and stored vm's for a specific user?

What I want to do is to compare the number of currently deployed vms with the deployed_vm_quota of a user. Something like:

if( currently_deployed < deploy_quota ) allow creation
else deny

We are using LabManager 3.0.1.378, Virtual Center V2.5 Update 3

Thank you,

Chris

Cannot connect to VirtualCenter. Verify the settings and try again

Chnoili — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 06:40:31 GMT

I try to set up a lab manager server, but i have a problem to connect to the virtualcenter server. i get allways the error - cannot connect to the virtualcenter . verify the settings and try again

There is no firewall between the 2 servers. when i try to connect the vc via webinterface i can login with the user and everything works fine.

has anybody an idea?

i have the vc version update 4 running, is this the problem?

thanks for your help