Poweredge 2950 new motherboard, new BIOS - uuid message

[redbaron51]

hi all,

couldn't find anything info on the forums, so here is my Q

we have a poweredge 2950 running our testing environment. Basically it runs fat ESX 4.1.0 260247 from disk. All VMs are stored locally on disk running raid5, therefore no shared storage available.

we had an issue with this box and dell came to replace the motherboard. we took the opportunity to upgrade the bios to 2.7.0

when powering on the VMs I get the msg.uuid.altered message. None of these VM have any sort of application or anything which is MAC bonded. I have compared a VMX file of one of the VMs and uuid.location, uuid.bios, ethernet0.generateAddress fields get changed (I selected the "I copied it" option)

Is it save to just select "i copied it" or is there anything else I should be worried about.

Comments are much appreciated

[MauroBonder]

Hi,

There might solve.

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1541

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1002403&sliceId=2&doc...

good luck

[AndreTheGiant]

If VM are still the same, use the I_moved option.

This option will keep the same UUID.

Andre

[redbaron51]

Andre,

Thanks for your reply. Will check this on Tue when back in the office.

My question is: how is the uuid info on the vmx file linked to the physical box/motherboard? Does it mean that, whenever VMs are stored on local storage, if you upgrade bios, replace motherboard, firmware on raid controller you will get such issue?

[DSTAVERT]

The UUID is based on the physical computer's identifier and the path to the virtual machine's configuration file. SInce you changed the physical machine you have altered the physical identifier portion of the UUID. A BIOS update or firmware update should not change the UUID.

[AndreTheGiant · Accepted solution]

Usually a BIOS update does not change the UUID.

But, for example, I remember some cases with a PERC firmware update where the UUID change and the the entire datastore must be re-imported.

Andre

[redbaron51]

Thanks Andre and DST,

We had to replace the mobo as there was a loose heatsink.

I shall carry out further tests on "test boxes"

Thanks again for the prompt help, much appreciated

[DSTAVERT]

Very welcome.

Any time you are prompted, something major has been altered. While the UUID is a very simplistic tool for serializing devices it does have great value in detecting simple change. Consider it a good thing. A copy choice should alert you to things like potential duplicate names, IP addresses and licensing issues among others. Hopefully you don't need to replace motherboards that often.