Console not accesible for guest VMs

[toofaan]

I just moved into this company and they do not use VMs too much, but they have a infrstructure of 2 ESX servers connected to a MSA 1000.

I am very new to VM - ESX.

Here is what is happening.

I connected to one of the ESX servers (ServerA) via the VI client.

I expanded the main ESX server and it has 9 VM Servers under it.

I Clicked on each server (on the left) and then the Console Tab (on the right), but the console comes as black screen.

I tried going to Inventory, Virtual Machine Menu option (All the way up in the menu and doing a CtrlAltDel, but it is doing nothing)

Funny thing is that I can RDP into that virtual guest servers from another server.

I was also able to logon without any issues.

But, I just cannot open any of these guest VM servers on this ESX Server via the Console tab.

Not sure what is happening? I thought maybe I need to press Keyboard or mouse to acitvate the logon screen, but the console screen stays black.

If it helps, on clicking the Events tab for this ESX server, I see some reconfigured <server> and registered <server> events but the

last event time shows as 8/29/2010. All events before that are at 7/5/2010 or 6/1/2010, so is that something that can be fixed from the service console?

Is there a way to also find out if someone else is also using the console? Or who else is accessing or making changes?

Also, On the second ESX Server - I have 3 VM guest servers, and I can access them via the console. No issues.

But, on that server, when I click on Events, and drop down the Show host entries, it says : Error: "A general system error occured" It has a OK box.

There are no events logged for that server.

So, I am not sure what is going on..

Another quick question: How do I see both the cluster servers via one console?

I guess is there a way of finding the primary VirtualCenter Server console?

thank you,

[Chamon]

What version of ESX are you on? Do you get a popup warning in the console window of the VM?

[toofaan]

On clicking the ESX Server with issue, it shows VMware ESX Server , 3.0.0, 27701

No popups on clicking the Console Tab

[Chamon]

That is a very old version. There may be a specific patch for that issue but I would suggest upgrading your host. Take a look at the upgrade path. Do you have support? So that you can upgrade?

[ThompsG]

Evening,

I just have a couple of questions for you: What user account are you using to connect the ESX servers? Are you connecting directly to the ESX servers or a Virtual Center server?

If you are connecting to directly the ESX server and they are using VirtualCenter normally you will get a warning saying "This host is being managed by x.x.x.x" which will be the VirtualCenter server. Point your VI Client at this server to log directly onto the VirtualCenter server.

Kind regards,

Glen

[java_cat33]

Make sure TCP 902 and 903 is open between your VM's and the ESX host - these ports are used for remote console access.

[toofaan]

Chapon,

What would be the latest version? Is it ESXi?

Are you suggesting that we upgrade put 2 ESX servers from 3.0 to ESXi?

Thank you,

[toofaan]

How to open these ports or see if these ports are open between the ESX Server and the guest?

[toofaan]

Well, it appears that I am connecting to the ESX server, and not the VCenter server, because I am not seeing both the hosts as clusters.

I can only see one individual ESX Server and the servers hosted on it.

Also, I am logging via the vi client with a root account to the ESX Server.

I am not seeing this message on the ESX server: "This host is being managed by x.x.x.x"

Honestly, the documentation of the person who did the environment is so bad, that they dont even have the name or IP of the vCenter Server.

From what I have identified, I just see these 2 VM ESX hosts (they are in a blade server) connected to a MSA 1000 SAN.

ESX Server A - Hosts 7 VM Servers that includes the Server on which I can see the license server for VMware.

ESX Server B - Hosts 3 VM Servers.

From what I have in the documentation: DRSHAVMotion is enabled in the environment.

VM Gurus:

I have a question - Do you this is complete waste of a VM setup? What would you all suggest to make it better?

[marcelo_soares]

I would suggest 2 things:

- Check the time/date of each ESX Server by clicking on it on the left, and going into the Configuration tab and after at Time configuration. Check it and correct if necessary.

- Try the KB http://kb.vmware.com/kb/749640 . This should help to pinpoint if your problem is some kind of networking issue.

Marcelo

[ThompsG]

Morning,

I normally using telnet from a Windows host to query the port. I'm sure there is a better way to do this but it works for me, i.e. telnet x.x.x.x 902 and telnet x.x.x.x 903 and if you get a response then you are able to connect to these ports.

From the ESX side you can use the following command to confirm you can connect outbound: ssh <client-ip> -p 902

Thanks and kind regards,

Glen

[Chamon]

You are now on esx 3 you can upgrade to esx 3.5 update 4. At a minimum

I would upgrade to esx 3.0.2. The version you are on was the first

major version change and may be the cause of your issue. Your virtual

center server is probably your vc as well. Point your Vic at it and

log in with the local admin for that server or your domain admin

account.

On Jul 12, 2009, at 2:57 PM, toofaan <communities-emailer@vmware.com

[toofaan]

All,

We have approval for upgrading from 3.0 to the latest version. We do have the appropriate licensing.

What are the steps to move forward, do we need to contact a VM rep, or is it something that we can do ourselves.

Is there a project plan document that I can download to follow-through on the upgrade project?

We also have a MSA1000 SAN and that too is going to run out of capacity at some point

I will need some suggestions on upgrading that too..

We have 2 Datastores each 250GB. We have only 60GB free on each of the datastores.

[Chamon]

There are step by step directions on upgrading available on the vmware website. What Version of ESX and VC will you be upgrading too? You will always upgrade the VC first. So don't start with the ESX hosts.

[Chamon]

Here is a link to the U4 notes and you can find upgrade info here.

http://www.vmware.com/support/vi3/doc/vi3_esx35u4_rel_notes.html

[toofaan]

Thanks for the quick response.

We will be upgrading from 3.0 to 3.5 Upgrade 4.

Here is my biggest issue. I dont know which is my VC Server.

I can connect via the VIC to the 2 ESX Host Servers seperately.

I can also connect to these hosts via the ILO.

I do see a VMMGMT server under one of the hosts, so it seems that the license server was installed on a VM guest server on one of the hosts.

I somehow do not know how to connect to the VC Server to be able to see both the hosts, configured as clusters, DRS, HA etc.

[Chamon]

I would try connecting to the license server with the VIC and your domain admin account or the local admin account on the license server. Alot of times the license server is installed on the same server as VC

[toofaan]

Thank you