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CyberV
Contributor
Contributor

FIX : VMX connection handshake failed for mks of /vmfs/volumes/ ...

Hi all !

Recently I got a problem with 2 VMs on ESX 3.5 from time to time, I tried to access these VMs and I got the error VMX connection handshake failed for mks of /vmfs/volumes/ ... All the time the both same VMs.

Tried :

1) Power Off and Power On the VM : No Success

2) Reboot the ESX : Works for a while and then start again after a couple of days with the same error.

Solution :

1) Create a New Virtual Machine

2) At the HARD DRIVE specification choose : No Hard Drive.

3) Go to ESX command line and then CLONE the problem VMDK with this command :

My problem server is called : CRM and the new server is called : NEWCRM

Exemple :

vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volume/vmfiles/CRM/CRM.vmdk /vmfs/volume/vmfiles/NEWCRM/CRM.vmdk

4) After the VMDK is finished to be cloned, go in EDIT SETTING of the NEW VM and then ADD A HARD DRIVE.

5) Browse to VMFILES/NEWCRM/CRM.vmdk

6) Power on the NEWCRM server.

7) If everthing is going well then DELETE FROM DISK the problematic VM.

Hope this will help you guys.

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6 Replies
jitendrakmr
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Umm.. are you just looking to share the solution of issue you faced?

I would prefer troubleshooting the initial problem and will prefer to find out root cause of initial probalem instead of just creating new VM with cloned vmdk.

were you able to find out root cause of initial problem by checking various logs?

Thanks!

Jitendra Kumar

MCSE 2003, VCP, CCNA, ITIL Foundation

VCP, MCSE 2003, MCITP Enterprise Admin, CCNA, ITIL Foundation, Netapp NS0-153 (Storage Networking) Personal Website - http://www.virtualizationtrainings.com, http://www.hillsindia.com
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CyberV
Contributor
Contributor

Ummm ... the thing is : I opened a SR with VMware ... No result.

I look to this forum, many people complain about this situation, but no ones have a solution.

At this point, I gave my solution, even if it's not the better one, it works.

I agree the investigation could be interesting, but, VMware investigated this situation and after 4 weeks waiting, my server still continu to crash and you know when your CRM server who's also your SQL server at the same time .... where too many softwares connected on it, you can't crashed every 2 days.. So after a while, i need a solution and this solution that I found was the one a gave in this post.

Thanx for your concern.

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mdsullivan
Contributor
Contributor

The CDROM thing was the issue for me. I put a Windows CD in my ESX server yesterday afternoon to load IIS and SNMP on a Windows VM. Then today, only about an hour ago, 2 of my 10 hosts on that ESX server went

offline with the "VMX connection handshake failed..." message. I powered them off and back on - same thing. I started researching - about the time calls and email started coming in - and saw this post. I remembered the CD I put in and ran into the server room and ejected it. Then I changed the settings for both VMs to NOT connect the CDROM at power on. Powered them back and and they are fine.

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Rotface
Contributor
Contributor

The problem for us was quite simply resolved ...

Check that if using a 64 bit OS that the correct OS type is selected under the options for the VM

We had one VM that somehow was changed to Other 32 bit rather than windows 2008 64 bit ...

Changed it and problem vanished

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RutgerKoster
Contributor
Contributor

OMG, changing the OS type was the solution.

Thanx.

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tonman23
Contributor
Contributor

YES! Changing OS did the trick thanks!

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