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Dcraft
Contributor
Contributor

Cannot add Virtual Machines to Inventory because of following error

So I am trying to add more Terminal Servers... The issue is NONE of the Clone functions have ever worked on this version 5.1 for us.. We have spent countless hours with Engineers from VMWare on the phone to no avail. So I have been using Putty to Create Servers and add them.. Now I am getting this error which is exactly what I get with clone functions.. However up to this point I have been able to add them using putty.. Does anyone have any ideas on this?? I have checked everything and as I said this has been going on with cloning since last year however this is the first time I have had this issue using the Add to Inventory...

Register virtual machine

Discovered virtual machine

A component of the virtual machine is not accessible on the host.

Administrator

7/3/2014 8:47:20 AM

7/3/2014 8:47:20 AM

7/3/2014 8:47:20 AM

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JPM300
Commander
Commander

Which version of 5.1 are you running?  Is there new updates that you can install?  Or when you where troubleshooting with Vmware did you ever do a fresh install on a host and have the same problem?

I think the underlaying problem is going to keep coming back to bite you if it can't get resloved.  Is there any errors in your vmkernel log around that time?

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Dcraft
Contributor
Contributor

In all honesty I do not know.. The issue is when I took over this facility my Predecessor was gone 2 days after I was hired.. They simply through me in the mix and told me to fix it.. This has been one of the most frustrating issues I have ever run into.. Not to mention as I said I have spent probably 20 hours with VMWare engineers remoted into the server and they have 0 ideas either...

As far as I can tell there are none BUT that does not say allot as there must be since this issue is happening..

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Dcraft
Contributor
Contributor

One thing I have noticed is that when I tell it to do a Home VM Storage Profile check it gets stuck there forever saying loading..

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Dcraft
Contributor
Contributor

Also they want me to update to 5.5 BUT my worry is with all these issues could it all go Tango DOWN.. I see ALLOT of issues happening here... So any advice would be appreciated...

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JPM300
Commander
Commander

Do you use Storage Profiles, Storage DRS(IO or Capacity) or Storage IO Control?

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Dcraft
Contributor
Contributor

For some reason I cannot get Storage IO Control on these servers it says not supported...

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Dcraft
Contributor
Contributor

ScreenHunter_18 Jul. 03 09.24.jpg

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Dcraft
Contributor
Contributor

This is the exact same thing I get with all my arrays and storages...

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JPM300
Commander
Commander

Well storage IO is feature I thought needed ESXi 5.0 or higher to run.  If that is the case create a new LUN it can be small and share it to just the ESXi 5+ hosts then see if you have the same problems with Storage IO and or cloning.  When you test the clone though make sure the template or VM you are cloning is on the new Datastore.


I have a feeling this issue may be an issue due to the multiple version and or VMFS versions of your datastores across your cluster.  Can you tell us more about the VMware Cluster you currently have, like which hosts are what versions, what version of vCenter you are currently running ect.

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Dcraft
Contributor
Contributor

I will get you a detailed breakdown today... Including the server numbers etc.. I do appreciate this..

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Dcraft
Contributor
Contributor

Hey question just hit me the arrays are all going through a Cisco 4900Fiber Controller.. Since I have 4 of them could it be possible that 2 or more even of the arrays having the same LUN even though they are a different BOX physically could cause this issue.. The reason I ask is when I first got here I did not have all the credentials to all the boxes etc... So the question is could this cause something like this??

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JPM300
Commander
Commander

Hey Dcraft,


When you say you have 4 of them, do you mean 4 Cisco 4900 Fiber Controllers?  When it comes to the LUN ID you can have many volumes in ESX with the same LUN ID, some SAN's like Equallogic do this all the time, however its more of a Logical Unit Number for your own knowledge / seperation.  If there is many LUNS with say LUN number 0, then its hard to track down which LUN you are really working on in Vmware compared to the LUN on the SAN unless the sizes and or names match up.


Take this example for instance.  Say you have 25 Datastores all 500GB in size all LUN ID0 on the SAN and in VMware.  Now tracking down which LUN is which is going to be a PAIN and mistakes can happen when doing maintenance ect.

To answers your question, there shouldn't be an issue with your LUN ID's but it also isn't out of the realm of possibilities.

If you haev 4 Cisco 4900 Fiber Controllers I'm assuming it is for no single point of failure and most of your ESXi hosts have 2 Fibre HBA's which are probably double ports, so your paths would probably look like this:

fibreswitch.JPG

It could also be you have 2 Cisco 4900 Fiber Controllers at the top of rack and 2 in the core, its hard to say without seeing the enviroment.

From your error however it looks like you have a mix of hosts at different version levels.

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sebek
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I think your fibers are not the issue. Try to ensure VMFS consistency - all VMFS LUNs should be formated with the same version.

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Dcraft
Contributor
Contributor

sebek,

Can you please be a little more descriptive on this so I can make sure I am on the same page as you.. I never thought this could be an issue BUT if this is it I would be ecstatic to find out..

Also is there a link etc that may help describe this...

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JPM300
Commander
Commander

Hey Dcraft,

What version is your vCenter at?  What version are yours ESXi hosts in your clusters?  and what version is your VMFS on your datastores?  Like sebek said this looks to be a version miss match issue.

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Dcraft
Contributor
Contributor

5.1 I want to update to 5.5 but with all the errors I have been fighting I have been to worried to try...

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JPM300
Commander
Commander

Why are you getting a ESXi 4.1 features error ???  Nothing is at version 4.1?  Also what is your VMFS version on your datastores.  You can find this by clicking on a host > configuration > Storage, clicking on a datastore.  In the pane on the right in the bottom half it shoudl tell you the VMFS version and there will be a blue uprade link if it can be upgrade.  Could you provide us with the version of your datastores?  They should all be the same version assuming all hosts are 5.1

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Dcraft
Contributor
Contributor

VMFS 5.58

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Dcraft
Contributor
Contributor

I also just found a 3.58 in one of the storages

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