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Eliot_Hatton
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Restarting vmware management services - lengthy delays

Hi guys,

Im noticing some fairly epic delays while attempting to restart the VMware ESX server management services due to timeouts via the Virtual Center console (service mgmt-vmware restart), eg its hanging on the 'VMware ESX server host agent' component.. its just sitting there waiting for.. something (20+ minutes now) im really trying to avoid a reboot..

This is the second time i've noticed this on our ESX servers over the past week, has anyone else experienced similar difficulty while restarting the management services?

When an esx server becomes unresponsive via the VC, is there another service I can restart to resolve the issue?

Cheers, Eliot.

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lldmka
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I see the following line as well as the config.xml line, but perhaps the watchdog service has already stopped on your host:

root 3648 1 0 Sep25 ? 00:00:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/vmware-watchdog -s hostd -u 60 -q 5 -c /usr/sbin/vmware-hostd-support /usr/sbin/vmware-hostd -u

You should be able to safely run 'kill -9 2751' followed by 'service mgmt-vmware start'.

Message was edited by: lldmka

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Rumple
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service vmware-vpxa restart is the other one I think...

I usually do the mgmt-vmware and then the vpxa

Ps - as a pet peeve of mine..you'd think they would have gotten smart by now and named all their services using a standard format like vmware-XXX or XXX-vmware...not a combination of both...

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Eliot_Hatton
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Thanks for your suggestion Rumple - im still sitting here waiting for the original restart command to finish (over an hour now!).. It's just not happening..

I'll try vpxa, see what that does for me, and failing that I might have to give the server a kick... maybe rebuild, its the second time this has happened in as many weeks (management services failing to stop and start again successfully)

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Jasemccarty
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Had a similar problem today... Not sure if I have a faulty switch, or if it was cause by the fact that I had (just before I had the problem) renamed the hosts to a name that started with a number

When I named them back to their old names, they connected just fine.

Jase McCarty

http://www.jasemccarty.com

Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center

(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

Jase McCarty - @jasemccarty
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lldmka
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When this happens I run 'ps -efw | grep hostd' and then 'kill -9' against the vmware-watchdog process.

A ''service mgmt-vmware start' then gets the host talking to VC again.

Regards,

Mark

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Jasemccarty
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Good tip...

Jase McCarty

http://www.jasemccarty.com

Co-Author of VMware ESX Essentials in the Virtual Data Center

(ISBN:1420070274) from Auerbach

Jase McCarty - @jasemccarty
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Eliot_Hatton
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Thanks Mark - ive run the command as suggested and it hasnt really returned with any kind of obvious 'watchdog' process?

# service vmware-vpxa restart

Stopping vmware-vpxa:

Starting vmware-vpxa:

# ps -efw | grep hostd

root 2751 1 0 Sep19 ? 01:01:51 /usr/lib/vmware/hostd/vmware-hostd /etc/vmware/hostd/config.xml -u

root 30853 30657 0 13:04 pts/1 00:00:00 grep hostd

#

any ideas?

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lldmka
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I see the following line as well as the config.xml line, but perhaps the watchdog service has already stopped on your host:

root 3648 1 0 Sep25 ? 00:00:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/vmware-watchdog -s hostd -u 60 -q 5 -c /usr/sbin/vmware-hostd-support /usr/sbin/vmware-hostd -u

You should be able to safely run 'kill -9 2751' followed by 'service mgmt-vmware start'.

Message was edited by: lldmka

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Eliot_Hatton
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Fantastic! killing that process has fixed the issue and allowed me to successfully restart the management services

thanks a lot mate.

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lldmka
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No problem, glad I could help.

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AlbertWT
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Hi guys, just wanted to add something here,

I'm using ESXi 4.0, and i was facing the problem of "_Another task is already in progress_" error, practically the VM could not be used at all (turn on restart or even force off).

in ESXi 4.0 SSH console, using the command "service mgmt-vmware restart" will do no good Smiley Sad

therefore the solution is by using: services.sh restart

command, quite simple and it doesn't kill the whole VM process which is

currently running on production, the only thing that is affected is the

VCB backup, it failed when that command issued. Finally in your vCenter

console, right click on your ESXi host in which you run the command and

then click on reconnect.

hope this can be a blessing for everyone.

Kind Regards,

AWT

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