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tylermontney
Contributor
Contributor

vCenter loses connection with host when taking snapshot

Noticed when taking backups with Veeam B&R, it would fail and complain of disconnection. Sure enough, vCenter lists my host as "disconnected". I reconnected and tried taking a snapshot directly, same result.

  • Recently got vCenter through the VMUG program
  • vSphere on 7.0.3
  • ESXi on 7.0.2
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13 Replies
continuum
Immortal
Immortal

You use the terms vSphere and host in an unexpected , unusual way.
Do you mean vCenter when you say vSphere ?
Do you mean ESXi when you say host ?
What is disconnected ?  - a ESXi host or a VM ?

 

 


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Do you need support with a VMFS recovery problem ? - send a message via skype "sanbarrow"
I do not support Workstation 16 at this time ...

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tylermontney
Contributor
Contributor

  • My bad I meant vCenter
  • Yes, vCenter loses connection with the host. The host and all VMs enter a disconnected state, and I must click "Connect" to reestablish management.

I can't move this discussion to the correct board, I assume a mod must do that.

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sjesse
Leadership
Leadership

I really don't think it needs to be moved, vsphere is vcenter and esxi combined, but its important to be clear. What happens if you go to the esxi host and take a snapshot

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compdigit44
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

By any chance is Veeam taking a backup of vCenter when the disconnects are happening. I have seen this when a snapshot is being removed on the VCSA in one of my old environments with slower storage. The VCSA would experience just enough of a delay that the hosts would disconnect.

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tylermontney
Contributor
Contributor

It turns out it was disconnecting on its own too, so it couldn't have just been the snapshot. I also was changing over to a new switch (among other things). Perhaps too many changes at once, and I did something dumb like a duplicate IP address. After moving VCSA to the same VLAN as the host, I'm not seeing any issues.

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Juliper
Contributor
Contributor

Good morning, I have a similar configuration (vCenter 7.0.3 and ESXi 7.0.2 upgraded in 7.0.3) and I have exactly the same problem. I have reinstalled the vCenter and the VEEAM server but when Veeam takes the snapshot on the vCenter, the vCenter is lost. I need to reboot the ESXi which host the vCenter to recover... My VM VEEAM server and the vCenter are in the same ESXi and the same network...

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compdigit44
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

What type of storage are your VM's running on? 

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maksym007
Expert
Expert

This is definitely backup tool. 

With Commvault there is no issues neither it VMFS or NFS or vSAN.

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Kinnison
Commander
Commander

Hi,


In this case I wouldn't generalize too much, I performed the last (of the many) image backup of the vCenter object using the most recent version of the VEEAM backup and replication product no later than an hour ago and also in this case (like all those before) never had this kind of problem. I don't think I'm the only one.

Just a suggestion, I would open a case with them, perhaps even asking for help on their forum.


Regards,
Ferdinando

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Juliper
Contributor
Contributor

I am using Lenovo DE4000H storage array in iSCSI mode.  I have installed lots of Veeam backup coupled with vSphere in differents versions and I did never had this problem...  I have reinstalled the vCenter and Veeam but same thing...

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Kinnison
Commander
Commander

Hi,


I'm sorry but I didn't understand what exactly means: "the vCenter is lost" to the point that you find yourself having to restart the host system on which it normally resides.


I also assume you have scheduled a backup job dedicated only to the VCSA object and with: "VMware Tools Quiescence", "Application-Aware Processing" and "Guest File System Indexing" disabled.


Regards,
Ferdinando

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Juliper
Contributor
Contributor

vCenter comes unreachable and I need to restart the ESXi which hosts vCenter. Of course, it is impossible to vmotion the other VMs so I had to stop them before restart their ESXi... And I have VM with Fault Tolerance...

Veeam job is configured with the good options and I never had this problem before on many other installations...

 

 

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Kinnison
Commander
Commander

Hi,


But sorry for a moment, if no one else has answered you maybe it's because no one has encountered a problem as particular as yours or they solved it by involving the technical support services of VEEAM & VMware. The only thing you say is that the vCenter object is "unreachable", but you don't say once you "reboot" if the logs show some indication of error or you checked the status of the services through the console of the vCenter object (call it DCUI or whatever you prefer).


You say that to regain control of your vCenter object you have to reboot the host system which means, HA (just to say) move it to another host or you have to reboot it brutally.
If you have reinstalled the VEEAM and VCSA objects and in any case the problem has remained exactly the same, perhaps there are other ulrelated causes.


The point of my speech is that a forum does not replace the technical support of the software manufacturer because the similarity of a very specific / particular problem does not imply at all that the causes are the same.


Regards,
Ferdinando

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