"Unknown" Virtual Machine - Can't Remove - Receive "A general system error occurred:"

[ziggyk]

I attempted to create a new Virtual Machine and it was unsuccessful. I don't have the exact error that I received at the time of creation. Right before I attempted to create this virtual machine I tried using WinSCP to copy over a 5 gig ISO to the /vmimages folder. The copy failed for an unknown reason.

This Virtual Machine now shows up as "unknown". I can't delete it from disk or remove it from inventory. I receive "A general system error occurred:" dialog box and the VM is still there.

I SSH'd to the server and brownsed to /vmfs/volumes/esx01:storage1 and I only show the one folder for other Virtual Machine that I am using.

This ESX server is a dual Quad Core system with 16 GB RAM and 270 GB worth of hard drive space. There is one VM running Exchange 2007 in production and it is allocated 4 GB RAM and 150 GB of storage. So, I have 116 GB of storage to use. The VM I was trying to create was only allocated 2 GB RAM and 20 GB storage.

I believe this may have something to do with the storage space. I remember SSH'ing into the server after the WinSCP copy failed and performing a df and something said 100% used. Now the ESX server shows the following. I don't know where my "esx01:storage1" is located in this list.

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on

/dev/sda2 5036316 4128956 651528 87% /

/dev/sda1 101089 25962 69908 28% /boot

none 134284 0 134284 0% /dev/shm

/dev/sda6 2008108 71404 1834696 4% /var/log

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[kastlr]

Hi,

try to perform the following command from the service console.

vmware-cmd -s unregister [/b]

To verify the usage of your VMFS, perform a vdf[/b] instead of df[/b] from the service console.

[ziggyk]

There is no vmx file to unregister that I can find. In the esx01:storage1 folder only my working esx exists. Any other ideas?

The vdf returned:

# vdf

Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on

/dev/sda2 5036316 4128956 651528 87% /

/dev/sda1 101089 25962 69908 28% /boot

none 134284 0 134284 0% /dev/shm

/dev/sda6 2008108 71580 1834520 4% /var/log

/vmfs/devices 291991556 0 291991556 0% /vmfs/devices

/vmfs/volumes/47fce77a-c2bb1fb9-18ff-001ec9aad703

283901952 162059264 121842688 57% /vmfs/volumes/esx01:storage1

[kastlr]

Hi,

does it mean that your ESX Server doesn't show your VM when performing a vmware-cmd -l[/b]?

If so, the VM isn't registered on that ESX host.

If listed, use the complete path to unregister the VM.

[dominic7]

I've had this happen before, IIRC I restarted the management agent "service mgmt-vmware restart" and then it showed as 'invalid' which I could then remove from inventory.

[ziggyk]

vmware-cmd -l returned just the working server.

I had the idea to not log into virtual center but log directly into the ESX server directly via the VI Client. When did that, ESX01 only shows the working VM. Why does virual center still show that "unknown" VM?

I attached a screenshot of the unknown VM through Virtual Center.

[kastlr]

Sometimes the VC Server is messed up.

Simply remove and re-add the server should fix this problem.

[ziggyk]

I removed it and re-added it but that didn't work. I rebooted the server afterwards, still the same thing.

I removed the entire Production Datacenter, rebooted, re-added it and it still shows the unknown.

Any other ideas?

[kjb007]

Your scp to /vmimages failed, because you didn't have enough space to hold that file on /. From your output, you only have about 650MB left on /, which is where /vmimages is mounted.

Did you restart the virtual center service? If you tried to create the vm through it, then it may have the reference, as opposed to the esx host.

-KjB

[ziggyk]

Restarting the server restarted the service and it still has the problem. So, it is stuck in VC somehow and I don't know how to get it out!

[kjb007]

Ok, just so I'm clear. Did you restart your esx servers? How many are in your datacenter in vc? Did you restart your vc server?

-KjB