Console of VMs in ESX Have Black Screen

[slhawk98]

Trying to setup test lab on me HP Pavilion dv6 laptop:

•     8 GB RAM
•     500 GB Hard Drive
•     Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit - AMD Dual-Core Processor 2.80 Ghz

I have installed:

•     VMware Workstation 7
•     ESXi 4.0 & 4.1 inside of VMware Workstation 7

I have connetect to ESXi witth vSphere Client and completed the New VM wizard to install a couple of VMs (CUCM7 & Win XP) but the console screen just appears black. I can here the laptop processing as if it is installing but I cannot interact with the install becase I cannot see the screen. I have read other posts but not finding a solution. Any ideas?

[idle-jam]

is it happening for the first time or for this particular VM only?

[bilalhashmi]

Do you get a lil vanilla bar on top of the console saying "MKS ........"? If so, its possible that you have DNS issues.. I have seen that in the past.

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[JacovT]

I have seen this happening before in the following scenarios:

1. Networking problems between your vSphere client and the ESXi host (ie, port 902 blocked by a firewall). In this case you will get a message on top of the black screen that its unable to execute a process of something similar.

2. DNS issues.

Hope this is helpful.

---Jaco

[slhawk98]

All - I have attached a screen shot of what I am getting.

idle-jam - I have installed 2 different OS and started completly over, same results

bilalhashmi - The vanilla bar on top of tehe console says - number of console connections

JacovT - Laptop DNS (corp.local) EXSi DNS (localhost.corp.local), all gathered from the DHCP on the network

[bilalhashmi]

Ok, leme ask u this, can ping the hostname of the host and the hostname of the VM from the machine you have the vsphere client installed?

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[bilalhashmi]

Also, confirm that you can make a telnet connection to port 902 on ur esxi host from the machine u have the vsphere client installed.

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[slhawk98]

bilalhashmi - from my laptop which has vSphere Client installed I was able to ping the esxi server at its ip address and domain name of localhost.corp.local but when I performed an nslookup against localhost.corp.local another host responded. I then changes the domain name of the esxi server to steveesx.corp.local but was not able to ping that domain name. I am working from a test laptop connnected to our corporate network and my guess is my esx server is not able to legitimately register it domain name with our local DNS server.

This is what I am going to try:

• Disconnect my laptop from all external networks
• Install a 2003 AD, DHCP & DNS Server (inside VMware Workstation 7)
• Try to make sure My Laptop (has VMware Workstation 7 installed) and the ESXi Server (installed inside VMware Workstation 7) are registered correctly with the 2003 AD/DHCP/DNS Server.
• Then see if I can ping all ips and domain names, if successful, then test to see if console is still black

Thoughts?

[bilalhashmi]

You can also create host file entry on ur laptop for the IP of the host and the VM in question and see if that fixes the issue..

Before setting up another DNS, I would just go to the current DNS box and update the A and the PTR record of the host and the VM with their current IP addr. It really shouldnt be that hard.

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[JacovT]

Personally my money is on a firewall issue between the vSphere client and the ESXi host. I have a feeling that port 902 is blocked between the vSphere client and the ESXi host.

I dont think it's a deeper networking issue, since you are able to connect from the client to the ESXi host using port 443 (this is the port in use that makes all the details show up in the vSphere client). The console stuff travels across port 902 AFAIK.

Double check the firewall settings (temporary switch it off on your client machine is you have one on).

---Jaco

[bilalhashmi]

Right! as JacovT and I also metnioed before... also try and see if u can telnet to port 902.. before u go through all the trouble..

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[slhawk98]

1. I was not successul in adding a 2003 AD/DHCP/DNS Server
2. I am now working from my home network, 2wire routre acting as dhcp server.
3. When looking at my 2wire router I noticed the ip address of the esxi server. Edited the host name on the router and was able to ping the ip address of the esxi server and the domain name of the esxi server from my laptop. which means dns should  be in sync. Same results, black screen. I also tried adding entry to the host file on my which was also unsuccessful.
4. When I telenet [esxi server ip] 902, I get: "220 VMware Authentication Daemon Version 1.10: SSL Required, ServerDaemonProtoco
   l:SOAP, MKSDisplayProtocol:VNC ,", which makes me think port 902 if fine. I had tried disabling th e firewall prior to this post.

[westredd]

Hi, did you fix the issue?, i have exactly the same problem in the same scenario.

thanks

[psouky]

Yes, my problem was fixed. It was the firewall that was blocking - I have the host connected to a different subnet than my Desktop –

I had the network admin open port 902 for me and I worked.

Thanks,

pv