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EirikTF
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VMware ESXi 5.0 Update 1 breaks AutoStartManager (free license ONLY, awaiting patch/fix)

Hi,

Today I updated from build 515841 to 623860, the update reportedly was successful.

However, I've noticed something very annoying - the host no longer automatically starts or shutdowns guests as configured. I've tried to turn the feature on and off, moved guests to "Manual Startup" then back to "Automatic Startup" - with various combinations of these settings, also rebooted host in between changes. But alas, no luck. :smileyplain:

In the "Recent Tasks" list in vSphere Client, the Auto Power On tasks shows up as completed, initiated by root, with "Start Time" and "Completed Time" having the same timestamp. The server log reports the following error (3rd line below):

2012-03-16T07:08:27.296Z [6DE40B90 info 'TaskManager'] Task Created : haTask--vim.host.AutoStartManager.autoPowerOn-97171136
2012-03-16T07:08:27.297Z [6DE40B90 verbose 'Hostsvc::AutoStartManager'] Powering on VM 5 with delay 120
2012-03-16T07:08:27.333Z [6DE40B90 error 'Hostsvc::AutoStartManager'] Error in initializing PowerOp for VM 5 : vim.fault.RestrictedVersion
2012-03-16T07:08:27.334Z [6DE40B90 info 'TaskManager'] Task Completed : haTask--vim.host.AutoStartManager.autoPowerOn-97171136 Status success

RestrictedVersion? Did something happen to licensing features for free ESXi? :smileyconfused:

Anyone else with the same problem/a solution?

Thanks in advance!

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martinelli99
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It seems VMware plans to cease the free Hypervisor. In the first step they try to cast off private/home users...

Because who needs the autostart feature? A company never, all VMs are running there 24x7. But the home user

is the one who turns on and off his ESXi-Server. Not everybody - but certainly a lot of guys - including me.

So this decision is not comprehensible! Incredible that VMware is changing this without any notice, without to

inform the users.

martinelli

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tbsky
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hi:

   so "auto-start" is a feature with latest vsphere? that's great. then they should  gray-out the whole auto-start gui settings with free version, so we know it is a paid feature. so many bugs vsphere. I think I should write a auto-start script for my system to emulate the "feature"..

Message was edited by: wila, removed div with embed as it throws up an annoying "additional plugins must be installed" popup in firefox.

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martinelli99
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Hi all,

right, this is what I thought, too. They should deactivate or grey out, so everyone can see, this function is available no more.

But doing nothing and let the people search for the reason of this failure is not the right way!

martinelli

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ArchParks
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Do you think that is permanent or will it be fixed???? If I restart a server from home I'm out of luck as I need the VM's to autostart!

Arch

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EirikTF
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Hi again,

I'd take an email with a "standardised reply" (which is what that quote looks like) from support with a grain of salt, at least at this "early stage". What we DO have is a statement from a VMware rep following this discussion that this is a bug. So I will hold my horses and cross my fingers for now... Smiley Happy Just love playing the waiting game... Smiley Happy Guess I should only blame myself for rushing an update - had it been for corporate and not home use I wouldn't have run it yet...

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GregecSLO
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I also tought that it must be a bug but it kind of makes sense...

I will follow this discussion for a couple of days to see if really is a bug...

Meanwhile I migrated all my virtual servers to XEN, I really need autostart option...

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thoso
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Hi,

i plan this weekend to downgrade my esxi5 from update01.

Is there any chance to do this without reinstall the Hypervisor?

I hope anybody else than the Support follow this forum - so we have autostart back!

Nothing new from support im my mailbox!

Greetings

ThoSo

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GregecSLO
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When ESXi boots press SHIFT+R and select previous version...

Thats it.

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ArchParks
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Never tried XEN....how does it compare?

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GregecSLO
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For home use it doesn`t matter...

I took one that is easy to configure, supports my hardware and has good backup options...

So far XEN is doing just as same as VmWare did but allows me to startup virtual machines which IMHO

required even in free products...

Regards,

Greg

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thoso
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So, SHIFT+R was a great Info !

System downgraded to the latest Update ESXi500-201112001.zip.

Autostart works fine.

we'll see what's coming up from vmware.

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thoso
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Here come something "new" from support :

"I would like to follow up on the Support Request No.

This is to inform you that as per your last mail, the issue seems to be a technical one.

Please respond to this Support Request if you have any licensing queries so that we can work on it."

They don't know what are they doing!

Somethimes it's technical - sometimes it's license.

Whatever it is - it is a BUG!

Vmware has not official change the installation-iso for the free Hypervisor - it is 5.0.0 without any Patch or Update!

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_EoJ_Gismo
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Hi all,

i recieved this answer from support last friday:

"We raised a bug on this and I see that they are earmarking this fix for Vsphere 5.0 Update 2

That is quite a long way off I'm afraid (Next year)"

:smileyshocked: Smiley Sad

regards,

Urs

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CaptainLen
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Hi,

VMware has posted a blog article about this issue:

Free ESXi Hypervisor - Auto Start Breaks with 5.0 Update 1

In summary:

This only effects the free license.

This is a bug and not intentional.

There only fix at this time is to boot a pre-update 1 hypervisor.

It will be corrected in a future patch.

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EirikTF
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Thanks for that info/link, CaptainLen - this confirms what Gleed stated a week ago, I would even guess this is the very same Gleed that made the blog post on the VMware vSphere Blog... Smiley Wink

Thanks for your help, Kyle! Smiley Happy

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GregorSm
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It's not a bug, it's a feature! This excerpt is from VMware vCenter Server 5.0 Update 1 Release Notes:

Automatic virtual machine startup and shutdown option is disabled when host is part of a HA (High Availability) cluster
In vCenter Server the ESX host setting Allow virtual machines to start and stop automatically with the system should be disabled when the host is added to a HA cluster, as this feature is not supported with HA. The option to re-enable the setting should be greyed out when the host is in the HA cluster.
This issue is resolved in this release.


I can confirm that this condition also appears in fully licensed ESXi 5.0 U1. See also Auto Start Breaks in 5.0 Update 1 – Not Just Free vSphere Hypervisor Version.

Kind regards

Gregor

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Andydee
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Hello,

Thank you for your email.

I'm presently on leave & training until 23rd April. For tech support in the meantime, please call our helpdesk on (07) 4639 3344 and one of my colleagues will be happy to assist you.

Regards,

Andy Dowling

Senior Systems Engineer

Downs MicroSystems Pty Ltd

17 Kitchener Street, Toowoomba, QLD, 4350

P 07 4639 3344 F 07 4639 3820

E andy.dowling@downsmicro.com.au<mailto:andy.dowling@downsmicro.com.au> W www.downsmicro.com.au<http://www.downsmicro.com.au

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martinelli99
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Hello,

we are talking about stand alone hosts, no HA!

I'm sure not every home user is working with a HA-Cluster...

martinelli

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fribergr
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Hi there,

I just managed to get this problem. And I made a little script to work around it for now.

By modifying this you may get the solution you want, this is how I did it.

  • First off, connect to your VMware ESXi hypervisor with VMware vSphere Client.
  • Go to the Configuration-tab on the host
  • Select Security Profile
  • Preferences on services.
  • Find SSH in the list and click Options
  • Enable SSH
  • Use a SSH-client like PuTTy to connect to your host.
  • Once logged into the host, run the command "vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms" to find all VMs on your host and theire IDs (first column). Note the IDs for the VMs you would like to autostart. Or if you would like to start everyone, theres no need to remember the ID.
  • Now edit /etc/rc.local with the editor "vi" using this command "vi /etc/rc.local"
  • To enter insert-mode in "vi" press "i"-key.
  • Somewhere in that file (I put mine above the if-statement) write this if you want every VM to autostart:
    • for i in $(vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms|cut -f1 -d" "|grep -v Vmid); do vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on $i; sleep 10; done
  • And if you only would like to start a few of the VMs on the host, this will be enough:
    • vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on ID_OF_VM
    • sleep NUMBER_OF_SECONDS (10 in my case)
    • vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on ID_OF_VM2
    • etc...
  • When you are done editing, press ESC-key to exit "insert"-mode and then write ":wq" to write and quit.
  • Reboot your host and the VMs should autostart once again.

I'm running the latest VMware ESXi 5.0 from HP, the ISO i used was: 5.0_U1_Mar_2012_ESXi_HD-USB-SDImgeInstlr_Z7550-00352.iso

Hopefully this will help someone Smiley Happy

Regards,

Robin

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prinz3noll3
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Hi all,

i recieved this answer from support last friday:

"We raised a bug on this and I see that they are earmarking this fix for Vsphere 5.0 Update 2

That is quite a long way off I'm afraid (Next year)"

regards,

Urs

Hi,

where can i found this information that it will be fixed in Update 2.

Have anybody an bug number or kb number?

the only information ive found from vmware is the blog entry.

thx

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