can't connect VDR to vCenter Server

[madmax81]

Hello,

I have set up a VDR Appliance 1.2 with vCenter Server 4.1.To connect the VDR to the vCenter Server I provide the ip address of the VDR appliance. Then I have to provide the password of the vCenter Server so that the VDR appliance can connect. The problem is, that the password is not accepted.

I hope that somebody has a solution for that problem and can help me.

Thank's in advance!

Madmax

[f10]

Did you try connecting to the ESX host directly using the VI Client and then connect to the appliance ?

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[madmax81]

Because the management server on which vCenter server is installed is also a virtual machine I first connect from my pc to the ESX server where the management server is hosted. On the ESX I connect to the management server via console. From the management server I start the vClient that connect's to the vCenter server.

I hope that is not too confusing.

Madmax

[f10]

Its not confusing what we can try is connect to the ESX host directly using VI Client and log in as root and then go to Home and VDR under solutions and applications and try to connect to the appliance. Lets eliminate the vCenter server, you dont have to go the vCenter server console.

[madmax81]

Thank you! That was a good tip. I connected directly to the ESX and from there I could connect the VDR. But why does it not work with vCenter server?

madmax

[f10]

It tries to authenticate the appliance with VC password, check this KB for any issues with permissions http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1010578. You may also try to uninstall and reinstall the VDR plugin installed on the local desktop.

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[madmax81]

I uninstalled and reinstalled the client plugin. Because my VC user is administrator I gave the user administrator the role administrator in vCenter server. But I still can't connect to the appliance.

But with the role administrator for the user administrator I should be able to connect to the VDR isn't it? Or am I wrong?

madmax

[madmax81]

Solved the problem with following kb post.

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1272141

Thanks madmax

[cik1]

hey madmax, would you mind clarifying which part of the post fixed your issue as this is a very long thread and after hours of trying I still have not resolved the issue.

Cheers

Carl

[madmax81]

Hey Carl,

the following part did solve the problem.

When connecting to Data Recovery appliance the first time, the UI plugin sends the vCenter server IP address and credentails to the appliance so that it can authenticate whether the user is authorized to manage the appliance. There are a few cases where the the UI plugin ends up providing an invalid IP address to the appliance and hence the appliance cannot connect to the vCenter server to authenticate the connection. If vSphere client is running on the same machine as vCenter server and vSphere client logs into vCenter server using "localhost" or local IP address "127.0.0.1", the UI plugin send the local IP address to the appliance as vCenter IP address and hence the authentication fails. Also, in this setup, if vSphere client logs into the vCenter server using its machine name and IPv6 is enabled on this machine, when the UI client tries to resolve the machine name to IP address, it gets the IPv6 address and sends it to the appliance as vCenter IP address. The appliance does not support IPv6 and hence fails to authenticate using this address. The workaround for both these issues is to log into the vCenter server via non-local IP address of the vCenter server.

The UI first tries to authenticate using the ticket to the appliance. This always fails till the appliance setup is finished, i.e. the vCenter server credentials are set in the appliance because the appliance has no way to authenticate the ticket. In this case, after the first attempt fails, it displays an error and then asks for the vCenter server password so that it can use it to authenticate. Can you provide more information about your setup and the error messages that you see when it fails to connect? Is the appliance already configured with vCenter credentials? Does it ask for vCenter server password after the failure? What is the error message that is displayed?

Madmax