djciaro's Posts

Nobody else has experienced this issue?
Hi Guys, We have been running vCenter server appliance version 6 (version=6.0.0, build=2776510) in production for about 6 weeks now without issue. 2 days ago logons failed to the server. quick... See more...
Hi Guys, We have been running vCenter server appliance version 6 (version=6.0.0, build=2776510) in production for about 6 weeks now without issue. 2 days ago logons failed to the server. quick fix was a reboot of the appliance. going through the logs show too many entries with error or failed to filter. but before the Crash we can see entries such as below: (name of user has been replaced) 2015-12-14T23:54:52.062Z error vpxd[7FED01109700] [Originator@6876 sub=[SSO] opID=24c46df0] [UserDirectorySso] AcquireToken exception: N9SsoClient22CommunicationExceptionE(Operation timed out) 2015-12-14T23:54:52.062Z error vpxd[7FED01109700] [Originator@6876 sub=User opID=24c46df0] Failed to authenticate user 2015-12-14T23:54:52.527Z error vpxd[7FECF3060700] [Originator@6876 sub=[SSO] opID=5ac13399] [UserDirectorySso] AcquireToken exception: N9SsoClient22CommunicationExceptionE(Operation timed out) 2015-12-14T23:54:52.527Z error vpxd[7FECF3060700] [Originator@6876 sub=User opID=5ac13399] Failed to authenticate user 2015-12-14T23:54:57.068Z info vpxd[7FED01109700] [Originator@6876 sub=vpxLro opID=24c46df0] [VpxLRO] -- FINISH task-internal-275213344 2015-12-14T23:54:57.068Z info vpxd[7FED01109700] [Originator@6876 sub=Default opID=24c46df0] [VpxLRO] -- ERROR task-internal-275213344 -- SessionManager -- vim.SessionManager.login: vim.fault.InvalidLogin: looks like an SSO issue. SR has been logged with VMware but it seems they are too busy with other customers to deal with our case. Has anyone experienced anything similar? T his happens in the middle of a busy backup period (netbackup using snapshot based backup of VMs) Regards Ciarán
Hi, Do you have an limits set at memory or CPU for the VM? How is the overall resource usage for the ESXi? You know you are running an upsupported confiration? OSX 10.10 is only suypport... See more...
Hi, Do you have an limits set at memory or CPU for the VM? How is the overall resource usage for the ESXi? You know you are running an upsupported confiration? OSX 10.10 is only suypport on ESXi 6 or Fusion 7 & 8: Apple OS X 10.10.x 64 Fusion 8.0 7.0 ESXi 6.0 U1 6.0 http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?deviceCategory=software regards
Hi If you are running ESXi 5.5 / 6 use the following combination: Driver: elxnet Firmware Version: 10.5.65.21 Version: 10.5.65.4 If you are using 5.1 use: driver: be2net version: 10.... See more...
Hi If you are running ESXi 5.5 / 6 use the following combination: Driver: elxnet Firmware Version: 10.5.65.21 Version: 10.5.65.4 If you are using 5.1 use: driver: be2net version: 10.5.65.4 firmware-version: 10.5.65.21 you cna check current with following command: ethtool -i vmnic0 They will work fine. Ciarán
Hi Guys, Does anyone have a simple explanation for the following metric: VM ► disk►I/O Usage Capacity The Documentation center does not provide much insight: vRealize Operations... See more...
Hi Guys, Does anyone have a simple explanation for the following metric: VM ► disk►I/O Usage Capacity The Documentation center does not provide much insight: vRealize Operations Manager 6.0.1 Documentation Center Metric Key                         →   Metric Name                      →   Description disk | usage_capacity           disk | usage_capacity                I/O Usage Capacity Thanks Ciarán
Hi, There is no problem in disabling the advanced mode in the Emulex BIOS. We worked extensively with HP to try and find the root of this problem. Eventually after months they published the... See more...
Hi, There is no problem in disabling the advanced mode in the Emulex BIOS. We worked extensively with HP to try and find the root of this problem. Eventually after months they published the following customer advisory with the workaround: http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=emr_na-c04608235 They claim that the lastest version of the driver resolves this issue: 10.2.477.20 (this is not available with the latest SPP and you will need to download it separately: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib2/software1/sc-linux-fw-sys/p930408510/v105241 or https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=DT-ESXI51-EMULEX-BE2NET-10247720&productId=285 For some background on the cause of this issue (why some cards have advanced mode enabled by default and others don not: (feedback from HP) The Emulex firmware that relates to Advance Mode / SR-IOV being enabled or disabled: With 4.2.x.x FW and previous, customers had the ability to manually set the state of SR-IOV in the NIC BIOS. In 4.6.x.x firmware, this ability was removed and the customer could no longer toggle the state of SR-IOV manually.  This created major issues due to known compatibility issues with SR-IOV and certain OS’s.  The ability to disable SR-IOV needed to be given back to the end user in the NIC BIOS to resolve that.  This was accomplished by tying the SR-IOV state to the Advanced Mode Support State with FW 4.9.x.x and higher. So depending on the firmware version that was initially installed on the nic will affect whether Advanced Mode and SR-IOV are enabled or not. Regards Ciarán
Hi, In your vSphere client go to host profiles - control + shift + P select the host profile assigned to your host, click on hosts and clusters and select the host. In the Compliance failur... See more...
Hi, In your vSphere client go to host profiles - control + shift + P select the host profile assigned to your host, click on hosts and clusters and select the host. In the Compliance failures pane you will see the failures against the profile. You should see more details related to the configuration issue. can you post a screenshot of that? How did you perform the upgrade? Regards Ciarán
Hi Guys, We have been using vCenter operations manager since version 5.0. Use case is for troubleshooting performance issues, dashboard for heatmaps and reports for an oversized and unused ... See more...
Hi Guys, We have been using vCenter operations manager since version 5.0. Use case is for troubleshooting performance issues, dashboard for heatmaps and reports for an oversized and unused VMs (we have a month sprawl process) Our environment is very stable and we have more than enough resources available to cater for the number of VMs. Management has asked for the following: - establish usage thresholds based on market best practices applied to our architecture. - build reports to report on usage vs thresholds. - try to isolate usage of prod from the overall usage.  (dev/test and prod are on the same clusters - separation is at resource pool level) For monthly reporting use a custom dashboard looking at CPU demand and memory usage (at cluster level). I am looking for ideas / suggestions to meet the requirements of management. Thanks Ciarán
Hi Jason, After today's discussion with HP I decided not to pursue the point of finding out why the advanced mode was enabled on the FLB for a particular set of Gen8 blades (although they said... See more...
Hi Jason, After today's discussion with HP I decided not to pursue the point of finding out why the advanced mode was enabled on the FLB for a particular set of Gen8 blades (although they said they will share a document that explains different scenarios for when advanced mode is disabled or enabled). They will keep looking with Emulex but we are not going to proceed with further attempts to reproduce the issue. In our case it was definitely the advanced mode that (off) that solved the issue. The latest SPP for Proliant servers will be release next week (planned) There is also a new version of the customized HP ESXi (30/03/2015) http://www8.hp.com/us/en/products/servers/solutions.html?compURI=1499005#tab=TAB4 which apparently will have fixes for driver bugs  ( related to the ELXNET drivers for 5.5) The firmware is still version 10.2.340.19 but HP mentioned this will also be updated. We will start testing as soon as everything is available, and with a bit of luck plan for a migration to vSphere 6 in July. fingers crossed there are no issues with the emulex cards. I will post if we get any further updates. Regards Ciarán
Hi Guys, I have a case open with HP since the end of October about the following issue: After an upgrade of platform (Blade BIOS / iLO / HP Virtual connect / ESXi to HP customized 5.1 Update 2... See more...
Hi Guys, I have a case open with HP since the end of October about the following issue: After an upgrade of platform (Blade BIOS / iLO / HP Virtual connect / ESXi to HP customized 5.1 Update 2) we had a issue of half of our uplinks dying after anything from 5 minutes to 1 hours (after booting) after many hours backwards and forwards with HP (recreate server profiles / different iLO versions, ROM, Emulex Firmware / be2net drivers etc) we narrowed issue down to Gen8 blades with Emulex CNAs (554 FLB) The issue did not effect the mezzanine cards (also 554s) be2net driver version  10.2.293.0 Firmware 10.2.340.19 Everything was as per HP recipe for VMware (HP_Service_Pack_for_ProLiant_2014.09.0_792934_001_spp & VMware-ESXi-5.1.0-Update2-2000251-HP-5.68.30-Sep2014.iso) The issue was that on the FLB cards the advanced mode was enabled in the Emulex BIOS. As soon as we disabled this all issues disappeared. I wonder if anyone with these network issues has had a look at the settings in the Emulex BIOS. To disable Advanced Mode Support through PXE Select: 1. After the BIOS initializes and you have selected your controller, the Controller Configuration screen appears. Select Advanced Mode Support from the drop-down menu. The Controller Configuration Advanced Mode Support dialog box appears. 2. From the drop-down menu, select Disabled and press . 3. Select Save and press . 4. After enabling Advanced Mode Support, the Port Selection screen appears. Select the port you want to configure and press . Continue to configure your controller.  - at this point you can exit out of the BIOS and reboot. I'd be interested to know if this solves issues for anyone else. HP have been working with Emulex on this issue, we have tried 2 test drivers for them, unable to produce the issue in their labs (so far) they have sourced the exact same batch of blade that we have and tested... when it happened to us we had 9 of the same blades in our chassis (so 18 in total - 1 per DC) The issue happened on all 18 blades but was solved by disabling the advanced mode. Issue never happened for the remaining Gen7 and older version of Gen8s in the chassis - on all of these Advanced mode was disabled by default on the FLBs and Mezz cards. regards Ciarán VC 4.30 Oa 4.30
Nobody else seems to be using StorageTek 6140 with VMware (which I can perfectly understand) We decided in the end to retire the 6140s and replace them with TinTri boxes after a successful POC. W... See more...
Nobody else seems to be using StorageTek 6140 with VMware (which I can perfectly understand) We decided in the end to retire the 6140s and replace them with TinTri boxes after a successful POC. We are going to use the TinTri T540 (even though there is a new T600 series, the order was made before they were released)
Hi Guys, VMware have finally updated the documentation to reflect the correct steps to be followed: https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/heartbeat_pubs.html Select 6.5 U1 from the drop down and yo... See more...
Hi Guys, VMware have finally updated the documentation to reflect the correct steps to be followed: https://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/heartbeat_pubs.html Select 6.5 U1 from the drop down and you'll see the last update date for each of the docs is now 10/10/2013. The guide now specifically states to restore the vCenter database before proceeding with any other steps, this is copied below for your convenience: "Upgrading the Primary Server Continuation of the upgrade process assumes the upgrade of the Secondary server completed successfully. Procedure 1 Before proceeding with the upgrade procedure, perform a restore of the vCenter Server database, Single Sign-On database, VMware Update Manager database, and SSL certificates that were backed up at Step 4 on the Secondary Server. regards Ciarán
Hi I have a SR open with VMware since last week and I am waiting for their feedback. I found another discussion for upgrading with an older version. Interesting as ther eis no mention of a restor... See more...
Hi I have a SR open with VMware since last week and I am waiting for their feedback. I found another discussion for upgrading with an older version. Interesting as ther eis no mention of a restore of the DB, the main difference seems to be step 9. https://communities.vmware.com/thread/391115 Create a backup of your database, or if your vCenter Server is a virtual machine, make a snapshot of the virtual machine. ·        Ensure that your SQL or Oracle clients are at the supported version.  See Installing vCenter Server 5.0 best practices (2003790) for more information. ·        Verify that all required database permissions have been applied to the database.  See Installing vCenter Server 5.0 best practices (2003790) and the vSphere Upgrade Guide for more information. ·        Ensure that your Secondary Node is active. In order to perform the upgrade, follow these steps below: 1.      Stop the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service, however, leave protected applications running on both nodes by going to Start > Run > services.msc. 2.      Set the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service to Manual on both nodes. 3.      Perform a vCenter Server 5.0 upgrade on the Secondary Node.  Ensure that the database is successfully upgraded during the install wizard. 4.      Reboot and test the vCenter Server 5.0 installlation on the Secondary Node in order to ensure that it is functioning correctly.  Leave the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service to Manual at this time. 5.      After successful testing, set the VMware VirtualCenter Server service and the VMware VirtualCenter Management WebServices service to Manual, while still ensuring that the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service is set to Manual. 6.      Start the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service and make sure it comes up correctly.  It won't be able to replicate with the other node because of version differences. 7.      Set the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service to Automatic. 8.      Now shutdown the Secondary Node. 9.      Enable the Public NIC on the Primary Node: a.      Open a command prompt and navigate to the following directory: cd “%ProgramFiles%\VMware\VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat\R2\Bin” b.      Run the command:

 nfpktfltr.exe setfilter PassThru c.      Verify the packet filter’s state to be passthru by running the command:

 nfpktfltr.exe getstate d.      Test connectivity by performing a ping out over Public NIC, such as to a remote workstation with using a command such as: ping 10.    Run the vCenter Server 5.0 Upgrade installation. Note: Do not overwrite the existing database and do not reboot after installation is complete. 11.   Set the VMware VirtualCenter Server service and VMware VirtualCenter Management WebServices service to  Manual. 12.   Set the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service to Automatic. 13.   Shutdown the Primary Node.  VMware vCenter Heartbeat will still think it is passive. 14.   Power on the Secondary (Active) Node.  Ensure that the VMware vCenter Heartbeat server is healthy and that vCenter Server 5.0 tests successfully. 15.   Now power on the Primary (Passive) Node. Ensure Replication activates and is healthy. 16.   Make the Primary Node active.  Ensure that replication activates and is healthy. 17.   Test vCenter Server, and ensure it tests successfully. What do you make of that procedure? Thanks again for your time
Hi A restore makes sense but it is not in the steps (the restore is only mentioned for step 2 (upgrading from vCenter Server 5.0 to vCenter Server 5.1 Update 1) not step 3: Upgrading the P... See more...
Hi A restore makes sense but it is not in the steps (the restore is only mentioned for step 2 (upgrading from vCenter Server 5.0 to vCenter Server 5.1 Update 1) not step 3: Upgrading the Primary Server Continuation of the upgrade process assumes the upgrade of the Secondary server completed successfully. Procedure 1 You have the following options: ■ If you are upgrading from vCenter Server 5.0 to vCenter Server 5.1 Update 1, continue with Step 2. ■ If you are upgrading from vCenter Server 5.1 to vCenter Server 5.1 Update 1, go to Step 3. 2 Before proceeding with the upgrade procedure, perform a restore of the vCenter Server database, Single Sign-On database, VMware Update Manager database, and SSL certificates that were backed up at Step 4 on the Secondary Server. 3 Change the server role to Primary/active: a Launch the vCenter Server Heartbeat Configure Server wizard and click the Machine tab. Change the server role for the current (Primary) server to Active and click Finish. b Using the Service Control Manager, start the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service. c Using the vCenter Server Heartbeat Console, verify that all status icons on the Server: Summary page are green indicating that the Start process has completed and all protected services are started. d Using the Service Control Manager, stop the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service. 4 You have the following options: ■ If you are upgrading from vCenter Server 5.0 to vCenter Server 5.1 Update 1, go to Step 6. ■ If you are upgrading from vCenter Server 5.1 to vCenter Server 5.1 Update 1, continue with Step 5. 5 Upgrade Single Sign-On a Start VMware vCenter Installer for the version you want to upgrade to and select VMware vCenter Single Sign On from the list. b Proceed with the installation. c In the event that errors are encountered during the upgrade process, research the cause of the upgrade. If the issue can be resolved then it is safe to proceed with the upgrade procedure. 6 Start VMware vCenter Installer for the version you want to upgrade to and select VMware vCenter Inventory Service from the list. 7 When prompted, select Do not overwrite. Leave my existing database in place. 8 From the VMware vCenter Installer for the version you want to upgrade to, select vCenter Server from the list. the rest continues on page 63 I have checked 4 different upgrade documents for earlier versions and they all show more or less the same steps.
Hi Yes I have performed step 11. Perhaps I did not mention it, I can use vCenter on the secondary node with all components updated to 5.1 Update1 and everything works fine. When I want t... See more...
Hi Yes I have performed step 11. Perhaps I did not mention it, I can use vCenter on the secondary node with all components updated to 5.1 Update1 and everything works fine. When I want to contiinue with the upgrade (on primary node) the starting of vCenter service fails with the error: Event 1000 VMware VirtualCenter server failed to start, Database version 511 is incompatible with this release of VirtualCenter. regards
Hi Many thanks for the reply. No I did not perform this step as per the guide: You have the following options: ■ If you are upgrading from vCenter Server 5.0 to vCenter Server 5.1 Updat... See more...
Hi Many thanks for the reply. No I did not perform this step as per the guide: You have the following options: ■ If you are upgrading from vCenter Server 5.0 to vCenter Server 5.1 Update 1, continue with Step 2. ■ If you are upgrading from vCenter Server 5.1 to vCenter Server 5.1 Update 1, go to Step 3. I go to step 3 (skipping step 2) as I am upgrading 5.1 to 5.1 update 1 regards Ciarán
Hi Wei-Yen, Your error seems to match one that is documented in the VMware KB: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2030307 Resol... See more...
Hi Wei-Yen, Your error seems to match one that is documented in the VMware KB: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2030307 Resolution To resolve this issue: 1.Remove or comment out the stale entries in the vcdb.properties file. For example, if the stale entries are similar to: For Windows, just deduce the JDBC URL and user/password from the data source information in the VC registry usevcdb=true url=jdbc:sqlserver://SERVER\\INSTANCE dbtype=mssql driver=com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver Comment these entries by adding a hash (#) sign before them similar to: # For Windows, just deduce the JDBC URL and user/password from the # data source information in the VC registry usevcdb=true #url=jdbc:sqlserver://SERVER\\INSTANCE #dbtype=mssql #driver=com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver Note: By default, the vcdb.properties file is located at: ◦Windows Server 2008 – C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\ ◦Windows Server 2003 – C:\%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\ 2.Restart the VirtualCenter Management Webservices. For more information, see Stopping, starting, or restarting vCenter services (1003895). Regards Ciarán
Hi, I saw this once before (not involving heartbeat) and it was due to a hostname that was incorrectly spelt. DNS entry was correct, I could connect with IP address but not by name and after s... See more...
Hi, I saw this once before (not involving heartbeat) and it was due to a hostname that was incorrectly spelt. DNS entry was correct, I could connect with IP address but not by name and after some checking I found that the host name was incorrect: SRVEXCH001 was named SRVEXCH01. Perhaps you have the same problem? Regards Ciarán
Hi, If I understand you perform a power off of both vCenter nodes? So not a clean shutdown of Heartbeat. In order for Heartbeat to complete replication and sync without data loss or other issues... See more...
Hi, If I understand you perform a power off of both vCenter nodes? So not a clean shutdown of Heartbeat. In order for Heartbeat to complete replication and sync without data loss or other issues you should always perform a shutdown of Heartbeat first then shutdown windows. If you do want to power off in this manner and want to bring Heartbeat backup on the passive node, you would need to power on VM, stop heartbeat service, launch the vCenter Server Heartbeat Configure Server wizard and click the Machine tab. In the Current Role section, choose Active and click Finish, then start heartbeat. You will need to do the opposite on the active server (set current role to passive) Do you mind if I ask under what circumstances you would need to power off both nodes and want to bring Heartbeat protected services on the previously passive node after starting the servers? Regards Ciaran
Hi Guys, I am in the middle of an upgrade of vSphere 5.1 to vSphere 5.1 Update 1. I have vCenter protected by HB and SQL on a separate machine (also protected by HB) I am also running Syslog, ... See more...
Hi Guys, I am in the middle of an upgrade of vSphere 5.1 to vSphere 5.1 Update 1. I have vCenter protected by HB and SQL on a separate machine (also protected by HB) I am also running Syslog, Update manager and Authentication Proxy on vCenter. I have successfully upgraded HB on all 4 nodes (2 x vCenter & 2 x SQL) and started the upgrade of vCenter and components on the secondary server as per •vCenter Server Heartbeat 6.5 Update 1 Installation on Windows Server 2008 When the Secondary Server is Virtual (PDF)  http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vcenter-server-heartbeat-65-u1-installation-windows-2008-virtual-guide.pdf I have got to step 3.c 3 Change the server role to Primary/active: a Launch the vCenter Server Heartbeat Configure Server wizard and click the Machine tab. Change the server role for the current (Primary) server to Active and click Finish. b Using the Service Control Manager, start the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service. c Using the vCenter Server Heartbeat Console, verify that all status icons on the Server: Summary page are green indicating that the Start process has completed and all protected services are started. d Using the Service Control Manager, stop the VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat service. As the vCenter service does not start I am stuck at this point. As far as I am concerned the error is perfectly logical. I have updated vCenter using the secondary server and then I am trying to connect (as per guide) with another version which fails. If I continue with the services stop and launch  the SSO installer it tries to perform an uninstall! Am I missing something in this upgrade? Regards Ciaran