Unknown VMware Network Issue

[Khue]

I have an esx 3.5 installation that has had a weird reoccurring problem. About every 5 weeks the machine goes completely offline. When I log into console, everything appears to be running ok, but the network services are dead. No matter what I do I cannot get services to come back up until I reboot the server completely. The VC event log doesn't seem to mention anything useful. Where are there logs that I can check from the console?

[chill]

Are all the patches up to date on the esx installation? The logs that you can check are in the /var/log directory.

[Rubeck]

Hi..

Can Vms connected to same vSwitch communicate with each other when this happens?

It seems like your console is fine, as VC dosn't complain...

Are the SC and VM network seperated?

Variuos logs, you can check:

VMkernel log: /var/log/vmkernel

Host agent log: /var/log/vmware/hostd.log

VC Agent log: /var/log/vmware/vpx (i think)

Genral message log: /var/log/messages

/Rubeck

[Khue]

I have not tried to see if the VMs can communicate with each other, I will if this happens again. I have only tried to attempt to ping and communicate with the gateway.

The SC and VMs are seperated.

I will check those logs out and get back to you if I find more info.

[Khue]

The patches are not up to date with this version of 3.5. We did not experience any issues with the Date/License bug that came up about 2 months back, so therefore we have been adament about doing patch updates. If it isn't broken, don't fix it. That has been the general VMware patch administration policy around here.

[Khue]

I am going to go ahead and punt on this one and wait and see the log files when this happens again. I will also bring the patch level up to release 2. Thanks everyone for the suggestions.