Missing performace data

[Nementis]

Hello All,

I'm experimenting a strange behaviour with my old HP DL585 G2 server....

Just moved the box out of production environment and used for some tests. the machine worked OK for couple of years with ESX 3.x

Now I've installed ESXi 4.1 to do some tests, everything seemed work fine until I've get reports form some test users that they have issue on a test file server machine I've installed on this box. It seems that random the guest OS stops responding to the clients for few seconds, long enough to corrupt file saves and open files but not enough for makint it permanently unavailable to clients.

Looking at performace data in Virtual Center (i've an istallation with a SQL server separated from the VC server itself) I've discovered that no data is stored other than real time, and even in that case 1 data point every 10 is missing.

Of course other two ESXi production server (HP DL385 G6) managed by the same VC server does not show the same issue. Any suggestions on what to check ? I don't believe this is something related to the 60 day Trial license I've installed ont he G2 box....

Perfomance is also poor comparetd with ESX 3.5 on same machine...

Thanks for help

[chadwickking]

check the HCl and your system is supported.

HP

ProLiant DL585 G2\

AMD Opteron 82xx Series\

ESX 4.1\, ESXi 4.1 Embedded\, ESXi 4.1 Installable\, ESX 4.0 U2\, ESX 4.0 U1\, ESX 4.0\, ESXi 4.0 Embedded U2\, ESXi 4.0 Embedded U1\, ESXi 4.0 Embedded\, ESXi 4.0 Installable U2\, ESXi 4.0 Installable U1\, ESXi 4.0 Installable\, ESX 3.5 U5\^[1\

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?action=search&deviceCategory=server&productId=1&advancedORbasic=advanced&maxDisplayRows=50&key=&release%5B%5D=-1&datePosted=-1&partnerId%5B%5D=-1&formFactorId%5B%5D=-1&cpuSeriesId%5B%5D=50&filterByEVC=0&filterByFT=0&min_sockets=&min_cores=&min_memory=&rorre=0#notes]^ , ESX 3.5 U4\^[1\

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?action=search&deviceCategory=server&productId=1&advancedORbasic=advanced&maxDisplayRows=50&key=&release%5B%5D=-1&datePosted=-1&partnerId%5B%5D=-1&formFactorId%5B%5D=-1&cpuSeriesId%5B%5D=50&filterByEVC=0&filterByFT=0&min_sockets=&min_cores=&min_memory=&rorre=0#notes]^ , ESX 3.5 U3\^[1\

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?action=search&deviceCategory=server&productId=1&advancedORbasic=advanced&maxDisplayRows=50&key=&release%5B%5D=-1&datePosted=-1&partnerId%5B%5D=-1&formFactorId%5B%5D=-1&cpuSeriesId%5B%5D=50&filterByEVC=0&filterByFT=0&min_sockets=&min_cores=&min_memory=&rorre=0#notes]^ , ESX 3.5 U2\^[1\

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?action=search&deviceCategory=server&productId=1&advancedORbasic=advanced&maxDisplayRows=50&key=&release%5B%5D=-1&datePosted=-1&partnerId%5B%5D=-1&formFactorId%5B%5D=-1&cpuSeriesId%5B%5D=50&filterByEVC=0&filterByFT=0&min_sockets=&min_cores=&min_memory=&rorre=0#notes]^ , ESX 3.5 U1\^[1\

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?action=search&deviceCategory=server&productId=1&advancedORbasic=advanced&maxDisplayRows=50&key=&release%5B%5D=-1&datePosted=-1&partnerId%5B%5D=-1&formFactorId%5B%5D=-1&cpuSeriesId%5B%5D=50&filterByEVC=0&filterByFT=0&min_sockets=&min_cores=&min_memory=&rorre=0#notes]^ , ESX 3.5\^[1\

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?action=search&deviceCategory=server&productId=1&advancedORbasic=advanced&maxDisplayRows=50&key=&release%5B%5D=-1&datePosted=-1&partnerId%5B%5D=-1&formFactorId%5B%5D=-1&cpuSeriesId%5B%5D=50&filterByEVC=0&filterByFT=0&min_sockets=&min_cores=&min_memory=&rorre=0#notes]^ , ESXi 3.5 Embedded U5\, ESXi 3.5 Embedded U4\, ESXi 3.5 Embedded U3\, ESXi 3.5 Embedded U2\, ESXi 3.5 Embedded U1\, ESXi 3.5 Installable U5\, ESXi 3.5 Installable U4\, ESXi 3.5 Installable U3\, ESXi 3.5 Installable U2\, ESXi 3.5 Installable U1\, ESX 3.0.3 U1\, ESX 3.0.3\, ESX 3.0.2 U1\, ESX 3.0.2\, ESX 3.0.1\

Is this host using the same datastore or is it using something different for storage? Also, are these users accessing file shares on this server from their workstations? If that is the case you can try remounting the datastore that the VM uses as this has been known to correct some related file sharing issues. You can also check the realtime disk latency and read/writes to see if it is a problem.

As for the reporting it makes me wonder about the Database size for the vCenter server. Normally though if you are out of space on the database vCenter service wont even start. I would look at rejoining it to the DRS/HA cluster to see if that corrects issue.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Chad King

VCP

"If you find this post helpful in anyway please award points as necessary"

[Nementis]

Thank you Chad for all the suggestions...

Yes the users access the share from their workstations.

The volumes where the share are located are actually two and are raw mapped devices. The only difference since my last attempt to use this configuration on ESX 3.5 is that the Raw Mapping file links are on a datastore different from the one used for all other VM files. VM files are on internal server storage while the raw mapped LUNs and the folder that contains the links are on a SAN.

For the performance data I'll try to remove/rejoin the server to the cluster, it has to be something related to the server configuration since the other two servers eve if they're configurred inside another cluster in the same site does not have any trouble storing performance data.

Regards,

Antonello

[chadwickking]

No problem,

Intermittent problems like these can sometimes be pretty tough to figure out. Did you check on the VM to see if logging is enabled? You could try disabling and re-enabling it? this can be found under settings of the VM. You could also run a perfmon on the VM if it is a MS box or even log onto the host and run esxtop from the service console. You can then push "d" and it will show you disk related activity. Also, this host is using the same shared storage as the other host? The actual VM's use the local VMFS on the host?

Here is a good doc that talks about how to check disk latency on the esx host itself and describes what to look for. ESXTOP is a great tool and if I am ever having any performance problems I start with it.

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-9279

Is this happeneing frequently?

Regards,

Chad King

[chadwickking]

Just wondering are you still seeing the issue?

Cheers,

Chad King

VCP-410 | Server+

Twitter: http://twitter.com/cwjking

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[Nementis]

Sorry for the delay in answering but had other more important issues than this one.

Everything works perfectly now... I can't believe this but all I had to do was to install a full license on the machine. I just wonder how someone that has really to evaluate the product to make a decision on the purchase can get significant information during the trial period with these performance limitations!

Regards,

Antonello