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JerryHolgTX
Contributor
Contributor

2 Dell 2950 servers with the same problem - Can't start VMs

They are both running ESXi 3.5 (153875) and have the Dell hardware monitoring add-ons, controlled by Virtual Center.

I also have a 2650 with the same build under VC and it's not having any problems.

The VMs are running fine, but when I can create a VM and try to start it, I get this error:

"A general system error occured: The system returned an error. Communication with the virtual machine may have been interrupted"

I googled the error and I found 2 things that fix the error:

1 - Reset the Management Service. I tried this and it did not help.

2 - Due to too many logs from the Dell Management addon, clear everything in the /var folder

I haven't been able to access the folder yet. At the console, I've tried the Alt-F2 / UNSUPPORTED and received this error:

"failure forking: Cannot allocate memory" and now everything I type in is just echoed on the screen with no effect.

By what I've found so far, to clear up this error, I'm supposed to reboot.

I'm just afraid if I reboot, I won't be able to start the VMs that are now running.

I believe I've enabled SSH, but I've tried using Putty and WinSCP - Neither can connect.

I cannot verify I've enabled SSH as I cannot browse the local folders.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

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marcelo_soares
Champion
Champion

The ESX COS are clearly running low in memory. I would try a reboot. If none SSH or unsupported mode works, surely is a ram utilization matter.

I would also recommend you to remove any Dell specific management agents that may be running on the server. If you choose to continue with it, you may call the Dell support to check if there is no BIOS upgrade to your box to avoid problems with agents.

Marcelo Soares

VMWare Certified Professional 310/410

Technical Support Engineer

Globant Argentina

Marcelo Soares
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JerryHolgTX
Contributor
Contributor

If the VMs don't start when I reboot, what can I safely delete from the /var folder?

Was that sound advice I found earlier?

How do I disable the Dell agent?

Thanks!

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marcelo_soares
Champion
Champion

I don't think you need to delete anything, but you can, if you want, delete old messages.* files. Regarding the Dell agent, I don't have a clue, but I can help you disabling the CIM server in order to try to avoid a situation like this. After that, Dell will be able to help you more.

Disabling CIM: go to the tab configuration -> advanced settings -> misc, there should be a value named CIM.Enabled, turn it to 0.

Marcelo Soares

VMWare Certified Professional 310/410

Technical Support Engineer

Globant Argentina

Marcelo Soares
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DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

I have had this happen from time to time. I usually attribute it to the length of time that the machine has been running between reboot or restarting the management agents. Can you migrate your guests to another host? I have found that I can regain control of the server if I power off or migrate enough guests that it frees up enough memory to restart the management agents. Once the agents are restarted I am usually good to go.

Do not delete the var folder. There is very little written to the disk. Clone the VMs, do normal backup things. Once you have made sure you have a recoverable set of VMs then do what ever you decide to do. Restart the host if that is your plan.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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