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afuente26
Contributor
Contributor

Appliance is running low on memory. Add more memory to the machine.

Hello,

a fresh new vCenter Installation of vCenter 7, I get this error. Of course, there is enought memory (12GB), and used only 4 more or less....

any idea?

 

Of the other hand, I get also the "error" or "warning" that the guest OS is linux 3 or higher and should be photon, which is not available to make the change. Photon is available on new installation, but not to change it...

Need help please!!

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LucianoPatrão

Do you have many VMs running on that ESXi where vCenter is running?

I have seen this in ESXi hosts when is getting low on memory and then affect vCenter. But most of the time is just a warning during a pick, nothing to worry about.

Unless you see a lower performance in your vCenter.

Regarding the Gues OS you mean this?

JailBreak_1-1653982997082.png

 

 

Luciano Patrão

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afuente26
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Hello Luciano,

thanks for the reply.

About the memory, could be what you say. There is a pick starting the vCenter, so maybe the warning is due this pick. 

About the guest OS, yes, I meen this. 

The warning says that I´m usung linux 3 or later. But this setup was made doing the deplayment....

 

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LucianoPatrão

Just for security, do a snapshot of the vCenter. Power down, and then connect to the ESXi with Web Client where is located, edit vCenter VM, and in the options change the Guest OS from Linux to Photon.

Power ON and then check if that fix that problem.

 

Honestly never saw that if was installed properly. But try this, if all is good, delete the snapshot.

Luciano Patrão

VCP-DCV, VCAP-DCV Design 2023, VCP-Cloud 2023
vExpert vSAN, NSX, Cloud Provider, Veeam Vanguard
Solutions Architect - Tech Lead for VMware / Virtual Backups

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afuente26
Contributor
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I did this already.

The matter is, that I can not choose Photon, it just doesn´t appear. 

Just for new instalations, but not to change this one.

Nevertheless, I´ve another VW with Windows Server 2022, on the same host, and I could change it to Photon if I liked.

The esxi version is the last one as well as de vCenter.

 

 

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LucianoPatrão


@afuente26 wrote:

Nevertheless, I´ve another VW with Windows Server 2022, on the same host, and I could change it to Photon if I liked.


That is mostly because of the Virtual Hardware version and VMware Tools. Windows 2019/22 have the latest vHW v19, most of the VCSA still use the v10 or v15.

Just an example, I check some of my other vCenters(6.7) and all started with Guest OS Other 3.x or later Linux (64-bit), but when I power on the vCenter after has IP and DNS, the Guest OS change to VMware Photon OS (64-bit).

JailBreak_0-1653997285625.png

JailBreak_1-1653997321480.png

Honestly, I don't think that this is something that you should worry about.

Luciano Patrão

VCP-DCV, VCAP-DCV Design 2023, VCP-Cloud 2023
vExpert vSAN, NSX, Cloud Provider, Veeam Vanguard
Solutions Architect - Tech Lead for VMware / Virtual Backups

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Kinnison
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Hi,

The ability to choose which guest operating system is in use is determined by the compatibility level of the virtual hardware of a virtual machine. But, changing the hardware compatibility level of the vCenter object is NOT SUPPORTED.

Please take a look at this KB article document:

Upgrading a virtual machine to the latest hardware version (multiple versions) (1010675), https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1010675

An excerpt of its contents:

"Modification of the virtual hardware version on the vCenter Server Appliance is not supported. Likewise you should not manually install any additional version of VMware Tools inside the guest OS of the vCenter Server Appliance."

And, if I remember correctly (i'm getting old), the default hardware compatibility level of the vCenter object does not have Photon OS as a possible choice as a guest operating system.


Regards,
Ferdinando

LucianoPatrão


@Kinnison wrote:

And, if I remember correctly (i'm getting old), the default hardware compatibility level of the vCenter object does not have Photon OS as a possible choice as a guest operating system.


Yes, you are right. In v10 you don't have that option.

Changing Guest OS on the vCenter I don't see any issue, since is just information after the system is installed. Changing VMware Tools or Virtual Hardware yes it is and should never be done.

Luciano Patrão

VCP-DCV, VCAP-DCV Design 2023, VCP-Cloud 2023
vExpert vSAN, NSX, Cloud Provider, Veeam Vanguard
Solutions Architect - Tech Lead for VMware / Virtual Backups

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afuente26
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Ok. So for the moment, I dont worry abouy it.

Thanks for th good explication to both.

😉

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Kinnison
Commander
Commander

Hi,

 

Of course that's not a problem,

But it's a little annoying because what the graphical interface of vCenter reports is one thing and what the interface of an ESXi host can report another.

The GUI of the ESXi host whenever it complains like that (is an example, it's a vCLS with minimal installed profile of PhotonOS):

"The configured guest OS (Other 3.x or later Linux (64-bit)) for this virtual machine does not match the guest that is currently running (Other 4.x or later Linux (64-bit)). You should specify the correct guest OS to allow for guest-specific optimization".


Regards,
Ferdinando

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LucianoPatrão

Well, there is a KB for that particular situation.

vCenter Server Appliance displays a warning message on ESXi Host Client 

Luciano Patrão

VCP-DCV, VCAP-DCV Design 2023, VCP-Cloud 2023
vExpert vSAN, NSX, Cloud Provider, Veeam Vanguard
Solutions Architect - Tech Lead for VMware / Virtual Backups

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afuente26
Contributor
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In the link you´ve sent me, I see the message "This messages indicates just a warning. It could be ignored.", so I will not worry about it. Otherwise, without message, would be better....

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Kinnison
Commander
Commander

Hi,


Therefore, to answer the question of the OP for what is my experience, the amount of RAM associated with the deployment model called "Tiny" sometimes seems to be insufficient during certain operations, and therefore can produce the reported error, if I remember correctly the topic had already been discussed several times in this same forum.
I preferred to add RAM and "remove the root problem", my choice.

The other point of my speech is that I do not understand why the VCSA 7.0 product line nowadays maintains a specific hardware compatibility at the level of ESXi versions that are no longer supported and that it cannot even manage. Asking myself this question is my personal limitation.

I know that the warning I mentioned can be safely ignored, but I apologize but that's another story.


Good things everyone,
Ferdinando

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LucianoPatrão

As I said in the beginning, not something to worry about.

PS: You should not set your replies as the accepted answer to your question.

Luciano Patrão

VCP-DCV, VCAP-DCV Design 2023, VCP-Cloud 2023
vExpert vSAN, NSX, Cloud Provider, Veeam Vanguard
Solutions Architect - Tech Lead for VMware / Virtual Backups

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afuente26
Contributor
Contributor

Thank you very much for your replies. Very instructive for me.

About the OS linux 3 or higher, I really don´t understand how it could happened. It´s a new installation with new hardware..., everything new. I don´t know how to resolve this, althought it seems not to be a problem, I would like to see it with de Photon OS...

Abouth the RAM, you are right. I´m ordering now 32GB extra RAM, and problem will be resolved 😉

PS: You should not set your replies as the accepted answer to your question. (sorry!!), and thanks again.

 

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LucianoPatrão


@afuente26 wrote:

About the OS linux 3 or higher, I really don´t understand how it could happened. It´s a new installation with new hardware..., everything new. I don´t know how to resolve this, althought it seems not to be a problem, I would like to see it with de Photon OS...

 


Honestly, I can't answer that question. Maybe support can answer.

Last try, did you reboot vCenter and see if this still happens? Or do you have a different ESXi host where you can migrate the vCenter VM and reboot and try see if this still happens?

Luciano Patrão

VCP-DCV, VCAP-DCV Design 2023, VCP-Cloud 2023
vExpert vSAN, NSX, Cloud Provider, Veeam Vanguard
Solutions Architect - Tech Lead for VMware / Virtual Backups

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Kinnison
Commander
Commander

Hi,


As I said, the ability to choose from a list which is the guest operating system depends on the hardware compatibility level set and supported by the version used for ESXi.
vCenter detects it through the VMtools tool and there is a correspondence between what the vCenter tool reports and the reality of things, Esxi instead signals with a warning any discrepancy between what we have set and what comes from the VMtools tool.


Now, I'm repeating myself, since the compatibility level set for the hardware at the time of installation of vCSA 7.0 did not provide for the possibility of choosing the Photon OS operating system, here is the appearance of the warning on your ESXi host we are discussing. And the same is true for vCLS objects despite the fact that they were introduced starting with vSphere 7.0U1 onwards.


So, to remove the warning you would have to raise the hardware compatibility level, but since it is NOT supported at all in case of problems you will find yourself on your own, so DON'T do this in any production environment (and in any case, concept valid in general, never without being sure of having robust backups on hand). These warnings, as they have already told you, can be safely ignored (it works anyway).


Returning to your original question, usually, in case of updates or at the time of a start / restart, the amount of RAM consumed by the vCSA object sometime exceeds the minimum set of 12 Gigabytes and then the error you reported appears.


Regards,
Ferdinando

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LucianoPatrão


@Kinnison wrote:

Hi,


As I said, the ability to choose from a list which is the guest operating system depends on the hardware compatibility level set and supported by the version used for ESXi.
vCenter detects it through the VMtools tool and there is a correspondence between what the vCenter tool reports and the reality of things, Esxi instead signals with a warning any discrepancy between what we have set and what comes from the VMtools tool.


Now, I'm repeating myself, since the compatibility level set for the hardware at the time of installation of vCSA 7.0 did not provide for the possibility of choosing the Photon OS operating system, here is the appearance of the warning on your ESXi host we are discussing. And the same is true for vCLS objects despite the fact that they were introduced starting with vSphere 7.0U1 onwards.


So, to remove the warning you would have to raise the hardware compatibility level, but since it is NOT supported at all in case of problems you will find yourself on your own, so DON'T do this in any production environment (and in any case, concept valid in general, never without being sure of having robust backups on hand). These warnings, as they have already told you, can be safely ignored (it works anyway).


I think we already bypass that part, were not to update vHW and VMware Tools in a VCSA VM.

Regarding the Guest OS on a VCSA, I have several vCenter with 6.7 and 7(7.0 and 7.01) that always show VMware Photon OS (64-bit). So Photon will show regardless of the if vHW is v10 or v15

Luciano Patrão

VCP-DCV, VCAP-DCV Design 2023, VCP-Cloud 2023
vExpert vSAN, NSX, Cloud Provider, Veeam Vanguard
Solutions Architect - Tech Lead for VMware / Virtual Backups

________________________________
If helpful Please award points
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Blog: https://www.provirtualzone.com | Twitter: @Luciano_PT
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Kinnison
Commander
Commander

Hi,


Sure, we are over this part, I beg your pardon, because I probably didn't make myself clear.

What is reported in the vCenter object is not use be discussed anymore.
Whenever there is no correlation between the guest operating system that can be chosen according to the hardware compatibility level and what instead detected by the tools called VMtools and it ends with the interface of an ESXi host that insists and persists every time with bringing back a warning, which you can safely ignore, IMHO it's conceptually a nosense.

I call it consistency aimed at a better user experience.

Anyway, let's not talk about it anymore.


Regards,
Ferdinando

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LucianoPatrão

All good Ferdinando, we are here to help and clarify any doubts.

Honestly for me, that Guest OS think doesn't bother me. If it is working properly with no issues, that is just information.

Luciano Patrão

VCP-DCV, VCAP-DCV Design 2023, VCP-Cloud 2023
vExpert vSAN, NSX, Cloud Provider, Veeam Vanguard
Solutions Architect - Tech Lead for VMware / Virtual Backups

________________________________
If helpful Please award points
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Blog: https://www.provirtualzone.com | Twitter: @Luciano_PT
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