Recompose + Pool Stuck in View Admin

[royberk]

Hi All,

So I hate to list multiple questions/issues we are experiencing all lumped together, but we are having some issues that I feel should not be occurring.

And please note that I have just started working with VMware so I am by no means an expert, just trying to learn best practice.

View Environment:

7 ESX Hosts - mvn1 - mvn7 ( v4.1 u1)

2 Connection Servers - mvc1 + mvc2

1 Security Server - mvs1 (with hopes of putting up a second one shortly)

1 Replica Server - mvr1

Shared Storage amongst all hosts via iSCI

They are as follows ( and any help I can get on any or all of the issues would be greatly appreciated 😞

A.  First and foremost, I notice that it takes upwards of an hour to clone a machine from Template/Create a Pool of 1 VM/ Create a Linked Clone pool. Size of template is approx 30g. Ive seen articles stating that this is normal, it just seems like we would want to optimize this a bit more to have 'one off' VMs created more quickly.

B. In View admin, I have a pool that seems orphaned and will not remove itself from the Pool View. Consequently there are 5 VMs in that pool that have the Error(Missing) message. All attempts to remove the pool and/or VMs do not work. Ive tried the SVIClone command to no avail (although it stated it completed successfully). This came about after a bad Recompose. When recomposing, I may have not done it correctly and some of my VMs were deleted from VC but kept in View Admin. Now I cannot get rid of them.

C. Along those lines, can someone please confirm for me that these are the appropriate steps for Recomposing pools for updates/patches:

1. Have master template ready. Make sure VM is off.  (Drop from Domain or Keep on Domain when Snapshotting and Creating LC Pool ???)

2. Create snapshot of template

3. Follow Wizard in View and set up Linked Clone Pool - Selecting first snapshot

4. Replica is created and VM children appear based on parent image

To Recompose:

1. Create second Snapshot with amended parent template

2. In View Admin, Recompose and Select New Snapshot

3. Recompose

4. Remove first snapshot and keep only the second one.

When recomposing, the DNS names, Domain the VM is on, entitlements , should all remain the same and unaffected correct? All apps (eg Outlook) should stay with profile information set?

Thank you for any assistance,

r.

[mittim12]

A:   Not really a VMware View thing but I see what you mean.  Is your SAN VAAI capable? 

B:   The pool can not be deleted until the missing VMs have been cleaned up.  Check out this KB for assistance with that, http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1008658

C:   Your steps look good.  I have left my parent on the domain in some cases and other parents have been off the domain and I have never had any problems either way.   You are correct about the recompose in the fact the entitlements, DNS, and domain should remain the same.    Your profile information is a different story unless your using persistent disk.   If you just have a floating pool with local profiles then those profiles will get deleted when you recompose.  

[royberk]

Thank you for the quick response.

B. I have followed that KB in several instances and it does not work now. The VMs in VC have been completely deleted (check via FastSCP) and I have successfully run the SviClone command. Im not sure exactly how to correctly get into the ADAM database as I tried several months ago with no success. At this point its just an eyesore more than a hinderance, but I would like to resolve it.

C. Its curious, about recomposing, that all my steps are correct, yet both times I recomposed I have errors with both AD names and deleted child VMs. I always check in AD to make sure no duplicate names exist, but it seems like when I recompose it tries to create another instance of that name and therefore errors out. I thought maybe it has something to do with being on/off the domain when recomposing; but you stated that it doesnt.

Anything else you think that may be causing VMs to delete or error when recomposing?

[mittim12 · Accepted solution]

Here are the instructions for connecting to ADAM

• Log in to the machine hosting your VMware View Connection Server through the VMware Infrastructure Client or Microsoft RDP.
  
• Open the ADAM Active Directory Service Interfaces Editor.

• In a Windows 2003 Server, click Start > Programs > ADAM > ADAM ADSI Edit.
  
• In a Windows 2008 Server, click Start > All Programs >Administrator Tools > ADSI Edit.
  
  
  

• Right-click ADAM ADSI Edit and click Connect to.
  
• Ensure that the Select or type a domain or server option is selected and the destination points to localhost.
  
• Select Distinguished Name (DN) or naming context and type dc=vdi, dc=vmware, dc=int.
  

As far as composer issues does your composer account have the correct AD permissions.   Have you taken a look at the composer logs inside the guest to see if you could get any information from there?

[royberk]

ADAM DB:

Tried to connect that way, and I was never able to connect. I will check again a bit later today and let you know if it was successful.

I do have correct AD permissions for this to work properly.

In the Event Monitoring in View , I get "error occured for machine xxxx: Cloning failed for machine"

I can dig into the Composer logs deeper in a little bit as well.

Thank you

[royberk]

The rogue pool and associated VMs are now gone.

Im not sure if this was the reason for it, but I noticed that one of the ESX hosts, in the DNS and Routing tab was configured with a WAY incorrect gateway.

Once this was changed back to the correct gateway, not only was I able to delete the VMs and then the pool, but I saw some speed increase within View Admin and navigating within VC.

I will still look into the Composer logs as I want to understand why the recompose feature is not working for me.

I will get back with you guys

[VirtualSven]

A. The slow cloning issue could also be caused by a lot of snapshots on the template.