Can't connect to Data Recovery Appliance

[daniellynn]

I keep running into this one error trying to set up Data Recovery. I have it installed and the appliance imported. I go into the Solutions and Applications section and the VMware Data Recovery screen. I put in the IP of the appliance and click connect. It asks me for the password for the vSphere server and while that prompt is up, it shows an "Authentication failed" error. Once I enter that password, every time I click connect for the rest of my vSphere session, I'll get this error:

Error: Could not log onto the server. The connect attempt timed out. Please make sure that the Data Recovery Appliance is turned on

It is, of course turned on and I can go to the web interface, log in and click around fine. Not sure what I could be missing. Is there a specific port it's trying to connect on that I could test out? I'm at a loss as to why it would break at this point.

-Daniel

[kenner]

I'm getting a error earlier. When I enter the VM name of the DR appliance, it correctly replaces it with the IP address, but then says

Error: No such host is known

Please make sure that the Data Recovery Appliance is turned on

But it is on and I can log into it via either web management or ssh.

This is clearly "not ready for prime time".

[admin]

All-

For those that are still having issues connecting to the VDR appliance from the VI Client plugin, can you confirm/deny that either:

a) There is a firewall between the VDR appliance and the host that's running the VI Client, or

b) The host (or VM) running the VI Client/plugin is utilizing a NAT-based network configuration

There is a known issue where on the initial connection to the appliance, if the host running the VI Client/VDR plugin is behind a firewall or is using NAT for its network configuration, the connection will fail with "Error: Connect: BegingSession: failed to authenticate". Once the initial connection is made and VC credentials are provided, you should be able to connect.

Please post to this thread so we can determine if this is an existing or new issue.

Thanks.

[billz0r]

I can confirm there are not firewalls or NATing involved here. All on the local subnet.

[kenner]

There is a known issue where on the initial connection to the

appliance, if the host running the VI Client/VDR plugin is behind a

firewall or is using NAT for its network configuration, the

connection will fail with "Error: Connect: BegingSession: failed to

authenticate". Once the initial connection is made and VC

credentials are provided, you should be able to connect.

In my case, which is a different error message, there is no firewall or

NAT. Everything is directly on the same /24.

[CHogan]

As a troubleshooting step, could you try and deploy the vSphere client & VDR plugin on the same host/VM as vCenter?

Many thanks

Cormac

[mauricev]

I already have vCenter server and vClient running on the same XP computer.

I'm operating on a 192.168.1.x subnet with no firewall or NAT. The VMWare host and the VDR Linux guest itself are also on this subnet.

I setup a DNS server and switched everything to names. While the name gets converted to an IP address, I get the same failed to authenticate message, which always shows up before it asks for the password.

I have tried setting up the vClient on a different system and watched the packets with wireshark. The VDR Linux guest never event attempts to communicate with the vCenter server. There are only packets going between the vClient and VDR Linux guest. Also, for many of these packets, it says they are "TCP segment of a reassembled PDU".

[CHogan]

Thanks Maurice.

Can you please check the logs on the VDR appliance to see if there are any errors logged when you attempt a login?

The logs are located in the /var/vmware/datarecovery folder if memory serves correctly. it is the datarecovery[0-9].log files that we are interested in. The index file should tell you which is the current one.

Cormac

[mauricev]

The older log file from yesterday has a few entries about an incorrect user name and password. Now I undoubtedly tried it a number of times, but the current log file is blank and now I'm just clicking OK to the dialog without typing any password because it's already displaying the error, so it's as if it's giving up so early in the authentication cycle that it doesn't even register I've left out the password.

[CHogan]

Sorry if this seems like a silly question, but are you connecting to vCenter via the vSphere client as administrator?

[mauricev]

It's not silly! Indeed, this point is confusing me. On my vCenter system, there are two accounts, Administrator and "maurice" and they both have the same password. Now when I login with vClient, I use Windows credentials, which is "maurice" and that logins fine.

However, I remember when I installed converter, it prompted me for my credentials and refused to accept maurice, but demanded I use the Administrator account.

Now when I try to login to the appliance, it first fails, then prompts with a dialog showing maurice as the username, which it got from when I logged into vCenter.

I am also assuming these accounts are unrelated to the root account on the appliance because its username is "root"

[CHogan]

Ah - we might be getting somewhere.

Maurice, you will need to give the account 'maurice' the following privileges:

To manage the VDR appliance:

Datastore->Allocate space
VirtualMachine->Configuration->Add new disk
VirtualMachine->Configuration->Change resource
VirtualMachine->Configuration->Remove disk
VirtualMachine->Configuration->Settings
Global->License

To backup VMs via the VDR appliance:

VirtualMachine->Configuration->Disk change tracking
VirtualMachine->Provisioning->Allow read-only disk access
VirtualMachine->Provisioning->Allow virtual machine download
VirtualMachine->State->Create snapshot
VirtualMachine->State->Remove snapshot
Global->License

So can you ensure that user 'maurice' has these privileges and try again.

Let me know how you get on - without the 'mange VDR' privileges, you will not be able to connect to the appliance.

Perhaps you could verify that if you connect to VC using the administrator privilege, you can also connect to the appliance. This would definitely verify that it is a lack of privileges on the 'maurice' account.

Cormac

[mauricev]

It's working!

I logged in as "Administrator" to vCenter. Then when I tried to login to the appliance, it first complains as usual and this time prompts me with Administrator as the username. And now it accepts the password!

Ah, we posted at the same time. So it seems that my account doesn't have all the privileges that the true administrator account has.

Thanks for your help!!

Message was edited by: mauricev

[CHogan]

Great - hopefully my previous post will allow you to use user 'maurice' also.

Cormac

[pcmanning]

Seem's I'm hitting the same problem. vCenter Server is on 2008 64bit (firewall off) , tried client on both the server and a 32bit vista client - no connect - all as administrator. I've checked the logs and it's showing

TVmConnection::Login()

failed, error: 1206 (vcAPI: bad

argument)

TVmConnection::Login()

failed, error: 1100 (vcAPI: connect failed)

From the previous comments I have to assume that the issue is with the appliance is failing to login to the vCenter server possibly due the 64 bit nature of the server?

UPDATE: Have confirmed that vSphere client on W2K3 32 bit works fine to add the appliance. So problem exists on Vista 32bit and Windows 2008 64 bit - assume therefore that it's a system issue - .NET framework perhaps????

Paul

[GarethWilson]

i can confirm it doesnt let you authenticate to the VDR appliance from vista 32 & 64bit, it also doesnt work when i run vshpere client on the same server thats running vcenter but it does work on 32bit XP !

[billz0r]

I can confirm that logging in as administrator here makes no difference. Just my 2c. I'll look at my logs when I have the machine back again (a collegue is using it for a test restore atm for a client)

[diphe]

I'm in this situation:

between vcenter/viclient and esx/vdrapplience there's a firewall everything is permitted from vcenter/viclient to esx/vdrappliance, reverse traffic is filtered.

port 22044 must be opened towards vdrappliance or from vdrappliance or both?

when I click "Connect"

sometimes I receive Error: Could not log onto the server. The connect attempt timed out. Please make sure that the Data Recovery Appliance is turned on

sometimes Not connected

bye

[CHogan]

Hi,

Port 22044 only needs to be opened vDR client -> vDR appliance.

Rgds

Cormac

[diphe]

so in my case this seems not a firewall/networking issue

bye

[diphe]

any news?

bye