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megha012
Contributor
Contributor

Losing remote connectivity on assigning virtual harddisks

I have setup a windows 2003 guest OS on an ESX 3.5 server.

After the machine is up and running, I assigned a virtual harddisk with a virtual scsi adaptor set to "Virtual" for the harddisks.

Once i bring up the machine after this, the remote connectivity for the machine is lost.

Is this the expected behavior or have i missed something ?

Any help would be great.

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Chuck8773
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I would start to troubleshoot this by looking at the log files in the folder with the VM. If you post some of the log file, I can help figure out what is wrong.

You can get the log file by SSH into the host, or by browsing the datastore through the VIC.

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megha012
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I looked into the files but could not make anything of it Smiley Sad

I have attached log files for you.

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Chuck8773
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Unfortunately, I don't see anything either. It looks like the VMTools have not been installed yet? Kind of hard to install them now though. That should not be the cause of what you are seeing.

Does removing the disk that you added, let you manage it again? Is this ESX 3.5 U4?

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megha012
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Yeah, once I remove the virtual disk the remote connectivity is back.

Its a ESX 3.5.0 build 110268.

I have started installing the VMtools though as you mentioned it should not matter.

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Chuck8773
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

That is update 2. Not sure if updating to U4 would fix it, but I would try it. Also, are there any snapshots on the VM?

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megha012
Contributor
Contributor

I updated my ESX 3.5 update 2 to update 4 and still no change.

I can share virtual disks on ESX 3.0 so dont know why its not working on ESX 3.5

Planning to try it on ESX4.0 which will be a lilttle inconvenient though. Will then update my findings here.

Till then if anybody has a solution it would be of great help.

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Chuck8773
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

What do you mean when you say you can share virtual disks? Are you assigning one virtual disk to multiple VM's?

Charles Killmer, VCP

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megha012
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Yes, I am assigning the Virtual disk to 2 VMs on the same ESX by setting the virtual scsi adaptor to "Virtual".

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Chuck8773
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

In what cases does the VM fail?

Single disk

Multiple disks without sharing

Multiple disks with sharing

Is the other VM set ti virtual adapter?

If it is only when it is sharing the disk, we will look more closely at how that works.

Charles Killmer, VCP

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megha012
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I assign a virtual disk to a VM 1 by setting the new virtual scsi adaptor to "Virtual". Virtual scsi adaptor is set to "Virtual", so as to be able to assign the same disk to VM 2.

But once I do this on VM1 and bring it up, the connectivity is lost. At this point I havent even assigned that disk to VM2.

This happens only if the Virtual scsi adaptor is set to "Virtual", if it is set to "none" then the connectivity is fine.

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Chuck8773
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I just tried it in our environment with a Win 2003 guest and it works fine. ESX 3.5 U4.

Did you create the vmdk file thik? I followed this post to get it working.

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/74088

Charles Killmer, VCP

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wila
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Immortal

Hi,

But once I do this on VM1 and bring it up, the connectivity is lost. At this point I havent even assigned that disk to VM2.

You never said that the VM still boots, it's not that the new disk is now the disk the VM tries to boot from by any chance?

PS: VMs are not supposed to share disks unless you install an OS on there which can work with clustered filesystems and a quorum disk.



--

Wil

_____________________________________________________

VI-Toolkit & scripts wiki at http://www.vi-toolkit.com

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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megha012
Contributor
Contributor

@Chuck8773

I have used the following command to create the virtual disk.

vmkfstools -c 5120m -d eagerzeroedthick -a lsilogic /vmfs/volumes/storage1/shared/disk1.vmdk

Will try with just -d thick and see how that goes.

@wila

I have windows 2003 installed on the VM and I am trying to add additional disks.

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