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Ohhmille
Contributor
Contributor

Console LogIn not possible

Hi

We have a HA-Cluster with 7 HOSTs. One of them is a ESX4.1

This morning the ESX4.1 is shown as "not responding", the VMs are shown as disconnected . The virtual machines are fine and accesible, no problems with them.

It seems, that the VM-management hangs. So i decided to restart the VM-management, due to login at the console (DCUI). I put in the username: root !

After that, the cursor jumps to the next line. That was all. Not possible to put in a password.

What can i do? Any ideas?

thanks and kind regards

Sebastian

5 Replies
vfk
Expert
Expert

Hi, I have seen this behaviour on older HP blades, G1 - G4, it seems somehow the drives get stuck and stop responding, the only way to get it back to hard reboot the server.  VM are currently working because the ESXi image is loaded into ram.   Expect some downtime when you reboot the host.  It would be wise to schedule a maintenance.

--- If you found this or any other answer helpful, please consider the use of the Helpful or Correct buttons to award points. vfk Systems Manager / Technical Architect VCP5-DCV, VCAP5-DCA, vExpert, ITILv3, CCNA, MCP
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sebek
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi,

I assume you can't log on via ssh remotely. If it is possible from your SLA perspective, shutdown the VMs, register them on different one and power on. You can reboot your box and vmotion your VMs back once the ESX boots up.

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SG1234
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

not many options here - try pressing alt + f2 to see if the console switches around --

make sure you are ready to afford downtime for your VMs - and then try reseating local hard drives used for ESX OS one at a time - assuming they are in RAID1

question to other vsphere folks - doesn't HA isolation response contol kick in ?

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sebek
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

If it's configured on defaults (Leave VMs powered on) I assume yes, since VMs are not affected.

Ohhmille
Contributor
Contributor

Hello

Now, everything is back to normal. But it was not funny!

The only way to bring the system back to normal, is to follow the steps below.

1) schedule DOWNTIME for the VMs

2) Connect directly to the VMs and shut down. ( Connect with RDP / Dameware / ... )

3) When you are sure, that every VM is finished shut down, switch off the HOST!

4) Switch on the HOST and reboot.

5) After boot finished, the vCenter can connect to the HOST und everything is back to normal!

On Monday, the first i do at work, is to patch Hardware ( HOST ) and migrate / reinstall the HOST with the latest release of ESXi 5.1! 😉

kind regards and many thanks Hamburg, germany

Mille

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