Agent unreachable

[freem2n]

Hi,

I got some problem with view 4.5

I made linked clones using view composer.

And when I logged in the agent machine, it looks fine.

but after leaving the agent machine for 30 mins without touch, I tried to login that server, I got this error “This desktop currently has no desktop sources available. Please try connecting to the desktop again later"

and then I checked Events on VMware View Aministrator. It said that "Agent unreachable"

I ping the server, it worked.

So, I joined the ESX server to see the agent machine. When I looked the console of the agent machine, It was like stuck.

After rebooting the agent machine, It worked fine.

But after leaving the agent mahcine for 30 mins without touch , the problem happened again.

I don't know why.

I am using below enviroment.

Windows Server 2008 as AD

Windows XP SP3 as Parents machine's snapshot : installed the file ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/944043/en-us ), joined the domain.

[lbalaban13]

Same here. I might know more today, will keep you posted.

[Bisti]

Do any of you use antyvirus or firewall software inside VM?

[lbalaban13]

We don't have a 3rd party desktop firewall solution, windows FW is off as well. We use microsoft Forefront for AV on all VMs, so the fact that we're getting this error on just one of them, makes me think that it's not AV.

[Bisti]

When this error pops up could you go to VM console via vSphere Client to see what is going on inside? And please check that NIC status is connected. Linked Clones had problem with distributed switch and you hat to change port binding mode to get it working, otherwise after each recomposition/refresh NICs were getting disconnected status.

[cfeskens]

In our case, the upgrade to 4.6 seems to have resolved our issue.

[Meta4X]

I'm still seeing this issue intermittently with View 4.6.  It seems to take out approximately one machine per day out of a 25 machine pool.  When I log on to the machine, it appears to be stuck at a blank desktop.  Resetting the machine fixes the problem.

I'm seeing a DCOM 10010 entry in the System event log that seems to correspond with the time the machine goes offline.  Is anyone else seeing this?

[NerfHerder]

Windows XP SP3 Virtual Desktop reports “Agent Unreachable” in VMware View 4.5 admin console.

There are quite a number of potential reasons for this and most relate to network connectivity issues such as firewall configurations on either the desktops or servers, incorrect DNS configuration, virtual switch configuration, and VLAN configurations to name but a few.

But what do you do when you can:-

• Ping the IP address and FQDN of the virtual desktop from the server and vice versa
  
• RDP to the virtual desktop from another machine
  
• Stop and start the WSNM.EXE service on the virtual desktop without error
  
• Reboot or reset the virtual desktop  with no issues
  
• Reboot he connection servers with no issues
  
• not all virtual desktops are affected
  
• The error seemingly consumes more virtual desktops at random intervals
  

All my affected machines were XP SP3, full clones provisioned by View Composer and customised by sysprep.

After a lot of troubleshooting and trying various patches the fix that worked for me was as follows.

Check the View Agent log files in the following location.

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\application data\VMware\VDM\logs\log-“latest date”.txt

C:\ProgramData\VMware\VDM\logs\ log-“latest date”.txt (for Windows 7)

The last entries in the log file were as follows

11:34:55,843 INFO  <Main Thread> [] JavaBridge queue server installed

11:34:57,234 INFO  <Main Thread> [] Waiting for customization to complete 

  “Waiting for customization to complete “is the clue as to what is wrong!

Looking through the registry for “sysprep” on an affected machine and an unaffected machine I discovered a disparity on the two machines.

[HKLM]\SOFTWARE\VMware, Inc.\Guest Customization\

CustomizationInProgress = x (affected machines = 1 [TRUE])

Once this was changed to CustomizationInProgress = 0 the agent would communicate with the servers without error and the machine had not issues participating in the domain. (no reboot or restart of the WSNM service is required)

I hope this helps others that might have the same issue.

[Haroh]

you just save my life brother!

thanks.

we have around 100 vms that were on  "Agent unreachable"

I guess those machines' customization got an error when they havent got a valid IP during the customization process then the view agent think it is still on customization after we manually restart and rejoin it to domain. it prevent the agent to communicate to the broker.

after applying the registry settings, everything worked.

Thanks!

[csiddons]

I'm experiencing the same issue, where 1 or 2 desktops will have the Agent Unreachable error out of a pool of 14 desktops.  When I logged into the console of a desktop with the issue or check the settings of the VM in vCenter, I found that it didn't have a network adapter.  All of the correctly provisioned desktops have NICs.

Does anyone know how a desktop built from the same pool would be composed without a NIC?

If it is deleted and recomposed, it usually fixes it, but then the problem pops up again on a different VM later.  We are using a floating pool of linked clones that delete each time the user logs off. So rebuilding the VM is not so much of an issue.  However, we have to set the pool up for an additional 2 desktops in order to have enough working VMs built and availble for users and this is causing an issue with our licensing.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

[cloudFRANC]

I experience the same problem in a windows7 linked clones environment for a while until I figured out the IP address setting have to be correct. Focus on the DNS settings. The virtual desktop DNS setting should be able to resolve the view connection server DNS name. the virtual desktop could be getting the wrong DNS IP address from the DHCP server so it is adviceable to ensure your primary DNS can sresolve the view connection server.

Once I correct this problem and renewed my DHCP settings, all the desktops became available after a while.

Hope this helps.

[JustinCooper]

I am using View 5.1 with vCenter 5.1 and still see View administrator reporting various linked clones as Status: "Agent Unreachable".

When I check the VM settings of each linked clone the NIC is not-present in the list of hardare for the affected systems. There does not seem to be specific pattern.

I can manually re-add the NIC and the VM reports in to the View Administrator and the error is cleared, only to happen again later on some other VM that was previously working fine.

The parent VM is Win 7 - 64-bit.

I am looking into scripting a solution with the View PowerCLI that can run at regular intervals. If I come up with something viable I will post it.

[Bisti]

Does it happen during refresh / recompose? What version of View, what type of vNIC, what type of port group that VMs are connected to?

[gmtx]

You might want to take a look here: http://blog.scottlowe.org/2011/11/25/problem-with-vmxnet3-driver/

May not be the issue you are encountering, but the hotfixes have cleared up some issues we've had with disappearing NICs.

Geoff

[JustinCooper]

View 5.1

Error after Refresh

The vNIC is not present after refresh

A working VM has: Standard vNIC, type VMXNET 3, on a port group on a distibuted switch.

vmk file is missing a lot of config data

recompose of affected VMs fixes issue

[beutlern]

Just wanted to say thanks for this post.

This helped me quite some times now even for Win7.

I sadly didn't find a good point by point troubleshooting guide from VMWare yet.