Unable to connect to the MKS: Failed to connect to server XXXXXX:903

[winshenting]

Today I got the error like "Unable to connect to the MKS: Failed to connect to server xxxxx:903"

What shall i do

[AntonVZhbankov]

Do you have network connectivity from your desktop to ESX server? Can you ping it?

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VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[winshenting]

I could control esx via vic

[AntonVZhbankov]

All the control traffic goes to port 443, so if your problem can be reproduced the most possible cause is firewall configuration that blocks traffic to port 903.

---

VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[winshenting]

In the console, I restart or stop firewall, the problem is still the same. What shall I do? In the security profile, there is not option for me to enable 903

[AntonVZhbankov · Accepted solution]

Not the firewall on ESX, I meant your network router / firewall between your desktop and ESX.

---

VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[Shanuvashd]

Try restarting the vmware management services.

if it is ESXi

services.sh restart

if it is ESX

service mgmt-vmware restart

This will have no impact on your Running VMs.

[sjadapa]

I too have the same issue and resolved.

I have opened the ports in firewall and corrected the gateway. some have its working firne and able to see the console on vic

Jadapa RHCE, MCSA

[kilo666]

I had this same problem and it turns out that the subnet mask was incorrectly set on the ESX host. Just thought I would post in case any it can be helpful to anyone else.

[npuyalATvalls]

That happened also to me and it was the default gateway, it was missconfigured on the Service Console connection.

[esource]

I just wanted to chime in that I was having an intermittent example of the same problem. This thread suggested I look at my IP settings, and sure enough the default gateway was not set on the service console for the server in question. Once I set it I connected to the console no problem. Thanks to those who contributed and helped me fix that!

[tsimons]

I'm on the same subnet as my ESX hosts and I have this problem!  ...only with one of them.

VI is in a separate network.

The MKS fails to connect if I use the VI client connected to VCand on the same subnet as the ESX server.  It also fails if I use the VI client to connect directly to the ESX server (bypassing VC server)

The log from the VI client:

%userprofile%\Local Settings\Temp\vmware-administrator\vmware-4564--Administrator-14676.log

Jan 21 15:09:21.161: player| Log for VMware Remote Console pid=14676 version=3.0.0 build=build-252576 option=Release Jan 21 15:09:21.161: player| The process is 32-bit. Jan 21 15:09:21.161: player| Host codepage=windows-1252 encoding=windows-1252 Jan 21 15:09:21.161: player| Debug VMX was requested, but not present.  Using standard VMX. Jan 21 15:09:21.161: player| Stats VMX was requested, but not present.  Using standard VMX. Jan 21 15:09:21.161: player| HostDeviceInfo: Failed to enumerate host parallel ports via the registry. Could not open device map parallel port registry key. Jan 21 15:09:21.333: player| Host OS: 'Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition (64 bit) 5.2.3790, Service Pack 2', product type '3', suite mask '0x0110'. Jan 21 15:09:21.333: player| HOSTINFO: Seeing Intel CPU, numCoresPerCPU 1 numThreadsPerCore 2. Jan 21 15:09:21.333: player| HOSTINFO: This machine has 2 physical CPUS, 2 total cores, and 4 logical CPUs. Jan 21 15:09:21.458: player| User does not have permission to read the autorun setting in the registry. Jan 21 15:09:21.505: player| Foundry Init: setting up global state (0 threads) Jan 21 15:09:21.505: player| Vix_InitializeGlobalState: vixLogLevel = 0 Jan 21 15:09:21.505: player| Vix_InitializeGlobalState: vixApiTraceLevel = 0 Jan 21 15:09:21.505: player| Vix_InitializeGlobalState: vixDebugPanicOnVixAssert = 0 Jan 21 15:09:21.505: player| Vix_InitializeGlobalState: vixLogRefcountOnFinalRelease = 0 Jan 21 15:09:21.505: player| LOCALE windows-1252 -> NULL User=409 System=409 Jan 21 15:09:21.505: player| VixHost_ConnectEx: version -1, hostType 3, hostName (null), hostPort 0, options 8707 Jan 21 15:09:21.505: player| REM-USB: Protocol version 10 Jan 21 15:09:21.505: player| REM-USB: Initializing 'Generic' backend Jan 21 15:09:21.505: player| USBGW: Failed to open pipe: The system cannot find the file specified (2) Jan 21 15:09:21.505: player| USBGW: USB arbitrator open failed:2 Jan 21 15:09:21.505: player| USB Message:@&!*@*@(msg.usb.usbArbitratorOpenFailed)Host USB device connections disabled. The connection to the VMware USB Arbitration Service was unsuccessful. Please check the status of this service in the Microsoft Management Console. Jan 21 15:09:21.505: player| Jan 21 15:09:21.505: player| REM-USB: Unable to initialize 'Generic' backend Jan 21 15:09:21.505: player| cui::ScheduleCallback is not initialized. Jan 21 15:09:21.520: player| vmClientCore::RunAsMKSServer: -m 4564 -h "5e7b8d12-f300-46dc-93db-fc3a47585541" -M "" Jan 21 15:09:21.520: player| IMonikerImpl::vmClientCore::MonikerImpl<class vmClientCore::InvokeMgrDisp>::GetTimeOfLastChange invoked Jan 21 15:09:21.520: player| HOSTINFO 37554708804532092 @ 3591000000Hz -> 0 @ 1000000Hz Jan 21 15:09:21.520: player| HOSTINFO ((x * 2449482880) >> 43) + -10458008578107 Jan 21 15:39:54.934: player| vmClientCore::VMControl::Connect Jan 21 15:39:54.934: player| vmClientCore::VMControl::Connect: hostname = nj-vcenter1:443, cloneticket = VCT-04FCC0D7-C765-4CA5-89F0-EDFF78DBED85, moid = vm-740 Jan 21 15:39:54.934: player| Resolving IP address for hostname nj-vcenter1 Jan 21 15:39:54.934: player| Resolved to 10.192.8.251 Jan 21 15:39:54.934: player| vmClientCore::VMControl::UpdateConnectionState: connection state changed: old state is 0 and new state is 1 Jan 21 15:39:54.934: player| vmClientCore::VMControl::UpdateConnectionState: connection state 1 fired Jan 21 15:39:55.325: player| vmClientCore::VMControl::OnHostOpened Jan 21 15:39:55.325: player| cui::VMMgr::OpenVM Jan 21 15:39:55.325: player| vmClientCore::VMControl::UpdateConnectionState: connection state changed: old state is 1 and new state is 1 Jan 21 15:39:55.325: player| cui::VMMgr::OpenVM - loading vm object Jan 21 15:39:55.325: player| vmClientCore::VMControl::UpdateConnectionState: connection state changed: old state is 1 and new state is 1 Jan 21 15:39:55.544: player| cui::VMMgr::OnLoadSuccess Jan 21 15:39:55.544: player| cui::VMMgr::OnOpenVMDone Jan 21 15:39:55.544: player| cui::HostMgr::OpenSpecificHost Jan 21 15:39:55.544: player| cui::VMMgr::SetOpened Jan 21 15:39:55.559: player| cui::MKS::MKS Jan 21 15:39:55.559: player| cui::MKS::SetCnx Jan 21 15:39:55.559: player| cui::VMTicketingVIM::AcquireTicket Jan 21 15:39:55.559: player| cui::VMTicketingVIM::AcquireTicket - AUTO_QUEUING - can acquire ticket now, acquiring Jan 21 15:39:55.559: player| cui::VMTicketingVIM::DoAcquireTicket Jan 21 15:39:55.559: player| cui::VMTicketingVIM::DoAcquireTicket - issuing ticket acquisition request Jan 21 15:39:55.559: player| vmClientCore::VMControl::OnHostOpenVMDone Jan 21 15:39:55.575: player| cui::MKS::SetDisableGrabInputOnKeyPress: Disabling runtime mks.grabOnKeyPress. Jan 21 15:39:55.575: player| vmClientCore::VMControl::OnConsoleOpenVMDone. Jan 21 15:39:55.575: player| vmClientCore::VMControl::UpdateConnectionState: connection state changed: old state is 1 and new state is 1 Jan 21 15:39:55.575: player| SnapshotTree: Emitting refresh ([STORAGE1] VHOST/VHOST.vmx) Jan 21 15:39:55.731: player| cui::VMTicketingVIM::OnAcquiredTicket Jan 21 15:39:55.731: player| cui::MKS::OnAcquireDone Jan 21 15:39:55.731: player| vmdbLayout::Cnx::ConnectMksClient Jan 21 15:39:55.731: player| vmdbLayout::Cnx::ConnectMksClient - calling VMClient_ConnectMksClientEx Jan 21 15:39:55.731: player| VMClient_ConnectMksClientEx Jan 21 15:39:55.731: player| VMClient_ConnectMksClientEx - trying local socket connection Jan 21 15:39:55.731: player| VMClientConnectSocketEx Jan 21 15:39:55.731: player| CnxAuthdConnectPipe: Returning false because CreateFileW failed, error: 2 Jan 21 15:39:55.731: player| CnxAuthdConnect: Returning false because CnxAuthdConnectPipe failed Jan 21 15:39:55.731: player| CnxConnectAuthd: Returning false because CnxAuthdConnect failed Jan 21 15:39:55.731: player| Cnx_Connect: Returning false because CnxConnectAuthd failed Jan 21 15:39:55.731: player| Cnx_Connect: Error message: Could not connect to pipe \\.\pipe\vmware-authdpipe: The system cannot find the file specified Jan 21 15:39:55.731: player| VMClient_ConnectMksClientEx - trying remote socket connection Jan 21 15:39:55.731: player| VMClientConnectSocketEx Jan 21 15:39:56.012: player| Connection has ticket.  Reconnecting Jan 21 15:40:17.090: player| Cannot connect to server SERVERNAME:903: A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respondCnxAuthdConnect: Returning false because CnxAuthdConnectTCP failed Jan 21 15:40:17.090: player| CnxConnectAuthd: Returning false because CnxAuthdConnect failed Jan 21 15:40:17.090: player| Cnx_Connect: Returning false because CnxConnectAuthd failed Jan 21 15:40:17.090: player| Cnx_Connect: Error message: Failed to connect to server SERVERNAME:903 Jan 21 15:40:17.090: player| Unable to connect to the MKS: Failed to connect to server SERVERNAME:903. Jan 21 15:40:17.090: player| vmClientCore::VMControl::UpdateConnectionState: connection state changed: old state is 1 and new state is 2 Jan 21 15:40:17.090: player| vmClientCore::VMControl::UpdateConnectionState: connection state 2 fired

[tsimons]

more detail...

The WAN between the ESX servers and VC is supported by a S2S VPN tunnel.   I recently switched the firewall devices over to Cisco ASA, which is when the problems started.

I just found this link and it fixed my problem!!

http://www.theblueboxes.com/vmware-vm-console-error-connecting-cannot-connect-host-a-connection-atte...

[Amits201110141]

I also had the same problem and the above link helped to fix the issue...