Clone Virtual Machine from one ESX Server to another

[RTOWNSEND]

I am trying to clone a Virtual Machine from one ESX Server to another; I am continually getting “Timeout” messages in Virtual Center:

Name:Clone Virtual Machine Target:WS2003(Template) Reason:Administrator Status:Operation timed out.

Related Events:

4/9/2007 9:23:37 AM, Failed to clone WS2003(Template); Operation timed out.

4/9/2007 8:04:26 AM, Cloning WS2003(Template) on host 10.250.48.104 in HBR to WS2003Test on host 10.250.48.106

Both of these servers are on the same subnet and physically right next to each other. When I view the Virtual Center Log I see the following below.

Virtual Center Log

\[2007-04-09 09:23:34.000 'App' 1348 error] \[VpxdVmprovUtil] Unexpected exception received during NfcCopy

\[2007-04-09 09:23:34.343 'App' 1348 error] \[clone] (WS2003(Template)) Unexpected exception (vim.fault.Timedout) during clone. Aborting.

\[2007-04-09 09:23:35.031 'App' 1348 warning] \[VpxdVmprovXaction] Timedout canceling task on host

...

...

...

...

\[2007-04-09 09:23:37.375 'App' 1348 error] \[VpxdVmprov] Clone failed: vim.fault.Timedout

\[2007-04-09 09:23:37.500 'App' 1348 info] \[VpxLRO] -- FINISH task-1649 -- vm-1664 -- vim.VirtualMachine.clone

The ESX Servers are HP ML370 G4 and at Version 3.0.1, 32039. I am coping from local array to local array and not a shared SAN. Both Servers have Smart Array 641 Devices.

Any ideas of what I can look at or monitor? I seem to be able to Clone smaller Machines (5GB VMDK files) however anything larger seems to constantly timeout. The above machine had a 30GB VMDK and it does seem from the listing of the directory that is the file that was being copied over when it timed out.

total 31G

-rw------- 1 root root 30G Apr 9 09:43 WS2003Test-flat.vmdk

-rw-rr 1 root root 35K Apr 9 08:05 vmware-1.log

-rw-rr 1 root root 20K Apr 9 08:05 vmware-2.log

-rw-rr 1 root root 21K Apr 9 08:05 vmware-3.log

-rw-rr 1 root root 20K Apr 9 08:05 vmware-4.log

-rw-rr 1 root root 32K Apr 9 08:05 vmware.log

-rw------- 1 root root 8.5K Apr 9 08:05 WS2003Test.nvram

Thanks in Advance,

Rick

[admin]

Are your Service Console NICs properly configured and synchronized at 1G to the external switches?

[RTOWNSEND]

Hi BrianG,

Thanks for the reply, my network is only 100MB and the Network cards were set to Auto-Negotiate, we set then to 100MB-FULL on both ends. I tried the copy again and it TIMED OUT again. Below is a listing from the SERVERS, it is not registering any ERRORS or Collisions.

Source where the VM Template is:

vswif0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:56:44:D0:C9

inet addr:10.250.48.104 Bcast:10.250.55.255 Mask:255.255.248.0

UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1

RX packets:2761351 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

TX packets:5534528 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

RX bytes:186684129 (178.0 Mb) TX bytes:3997037305 (3811.8 Mb)

Destination.

vswif0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:50:56:41:F1:C0

inet addr:10.250.48.106 Bcast:10.250.55.255 Mask:255.255.248.0

UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1

RX packets:87123547 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0

TX packets:48372774 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0

collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000

RX bytes:1340859485 (1278.7 Mb) TX bytes:3983025447 (3798.5 Mb)

[Nikhil_Marathe]

can you please tell me , how to Clone Virtual Machine from one ESX Server to another using COMMAND LINE INTERFACE ?

[1q2w3e4r]

Did you find an answer to this? I have the same issue across a Gb link. It gets to 94% after about 55mins then throws out the same error.

[ern142]

Hi - I have the same problem. Did you ever got any solution to this.

[ern142]

Hi - I have the same problem. Did you ever got any solution to this.

I am getiing unexpected exception vim.fault.timeout during clone

[GKS1]

I am having same issue on a 10 gig template

[bjorn_lundquist]

bump,,,,

Same prob. here goes to about 88% then timeout.

One machine with local storage cloning or migrating to en ESX cluster with a HP EVA4100 SAN.

All NICs GB, same swiches

I to can clone/migrate smaller vms (like under 10GB) but anything bigger get timeout.

Running latest release, fully updated ESXi (installed using VMWares HP image

I tried to recreate all certs with no luck.

Any idea why this is happening

/Björn

[MPanagos]

Even if you are using IP addresses to register the ESX machines in VirtualCenter, you need to have them be able to perform DNS lookups on one another. Make sure you have DNS set up (or the HOSTS config file) for all your ESX servers. A good test would be to do nslookups on each server's console for all the other servers using both their hostname and shortname (i.e., machinename.domain.com & machinename).

Otherwise, you may receive the following errors with an Operation Timed Out message.

Unexpected exception received during NfcCopy

(servernamehere) Unexpected exception (vim.fault.Timedout) during clone. Aborting.

[ashoksavitha]

I am running into exactly the same problem Bjorn described. I am trying to clone a virtual machine (on an ESX Server 4.0 host) from the locally-attached disk over to an NFS datastore. I have no problems cloning a small VM (5GB), but when I try to clone a 16GB VM, the task bar goes to about 80% full, then hangs. Instead of a timeout error, virtual center gives the message:

"Error caused by file. "

I've read in other posts that virtual center has a default task timeout time of 15 minutes, and that one can bump up this value to 30 minutes by modifying the vpxd.cfg file:

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/110411

I tried this, but still no luck. I am wondering whether anyone has figured out this issue.

Thanks

Ashok

[TomBodet]

Bump on this. I'm having the exact same issue on ESX 3.0.x. Out of say 6 clone attempts between different hosts I've gotten 1 to work. I've also tried the clone local then clone the clone and it still fails.

We've never had these kinds of problems in the past I wonder if it's related to the number of guests on a host (not neccesarily running but just the amount of space taken up). This is on a 100G network. When doing scp transfers between hosts I get nearly 11MBs throughput.

[jimbjo]

I have the same problem do any one know how to fix this.

Regards/Jimmy