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bimdf
Contributor
Contributor

ntpd: synchronizing with time server failed on Esx4.1

Hi,

I have a problem with starting my server with esx server, there some errors of services

vmware host agent failed

and

ntpd: synchronizing with time server failed

I have trying to restart this services in troubleshooting mode with this command:

/etc/init.d/ntpd restart

/etc/init.d/hostd restart

but vspher does not connect to the server Esx 4.1 .

please help me because i have verry important data to recover .

thank's

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bimdf
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

I have retart ntpd services but the same error.

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MBreidenbach0
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Did that happen while the ESXi host was running or does this happen when you boot the host ?

NTP not working as a problem but one that can be handled later. Just make sure date/time is correct before you try to power on VMs.

HOSTD not working is a real problem; without HOSTD you can't manage the ESXi host.

I've seen it happen that ESXi management agents crash and a restart doesn't work. But you can at least try to restart them. See here VMware Knowledge Base

If that doesn't work you may have to restart the ESXi host. The last time this happened to me (management agent crashed; restarting agents doesn't work; some VMs are still running) I connected via RDP etc to VMs that were still running/accessible and shut them down. Shutting down ESXi host was no longer possible so I did a hard power off / power on sequence.

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hussainbte
Expert
Expert

If it is an ESX host and not ESXi you will need below KB to restart hostd.

VMware Knowledge Base

And if it does not

If you found my answers useful please consider marking them as Correct OR Helpful Regards, Hussain https://virtualcubes.wordpress.com/
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bimdf
Contributor
Contributor

when i try to boot the system some services for vmware does not work like "hostd and ntpd" , i have not access to esx 4.1 through the vsphere client so i don't have access to my virtual machines. so i can't change the date

I have restart hostd and vpxa byt the same error appear. i have some problems to execute some command like:

esxcli network ip interface set -e false -i vmk0; esxcli network ip interface set -e true -i vmk0

and how to to determine if NSX is installed on my the ESX host (esx-vsip,esx-vxlan).

thank's for your answers

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bimdf
Contributor
Contributor

hy i can't execute yhis command to recover PID

# ls -l vmware-hostd.PID watchdog-hostd.PID

it say that it's not a command or file directory

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MBreidenbach0
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

If you don't know whether you have NSX then you don't have it. It doesn't work with ESXi 4.1 anyway.

If hostd isn't running then vSphere Client can't connect.

So I understand this happens when booting the ESXi host and not after it's running for some time - that's bad. I haven't seen that happen (I've had broken SD cards/USB keys that needed to be replaced and a ESXi reinstall but here usually ESXi boot already failed)

Maybe there's a clue in the log files:

VMware Knowledge Base

Reinstalling the ESXi host may be an option to consider.

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bimdf
Contributor
Contributor

I haven't solve the problem for hostd service in ESX 4.1,

Now i want to connect a extern disk to ESX and copy the vm file (vmdk) to this disk by command powerShell

I try this commands but i don't find the  file in the disk after the copy:

fdisk -l

sudo mkdir /tmp/cle

sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /tmp/cle

cp nom de la vm.vmdk /tmp/cle

can you help me please?

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