Can't rename objects due to Inventory refresh/flicker

[davidcomerford]

Hey guys,

I've an odd usability problem that's killing me.

The contents of the inventory in vSphere client is always refreshing and/or flickering. It wasn't really a problem when it was at version 2.5 but now it's upgraded to 4.1 U2 and it's preventing me from renaming objects.

I start to rename and the inventory refreshes which cancles the rename. I could get around it with a fast rename+paste but that's a pain.

Problem is present on multiple workstations and on the vCenter server itself, which rules out network problem I had originally suspected..

Any help would be great, thanks.

Dave

[joshp]

I have seen this issue before. As a workaround, if you are right-clicking an object and selecting "rename", try just highlighting the object and then clicking the object name once more--this will open up the object name up for editing. I have seen that a right-click rename will not work because of refresh/flicker but the alternate method described above will.

[davidcomerford]

Thanks for the input but it's possible even worse that way.

[davidcomerford]

I'm half wondering is it a memory shortage on the vCenter machine.

About 80 hosts, 400 VM's, a mix of 3.5 and 4.1 running on 2008R2 with 6GB of RAM.

[jimraina]

Hi

If you display advanced performance charts for disk in vSphere they are  described by their object name (e.g. naa...). You can rename these  objects under Storage Adapters, but these friendly names do not make it  into the performance counter charts.

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[davidcomerford]

There is a few ways to get around the rename problem but I'm really looking for a solution. Or a cause!

[JCV]

Weird I have just started to see this problem on our VCenter server. We are at 4.1 u1 too. for the past year or so it has not been a problem until within the last month or two. Maybe a MS patch?? Still trying to find out what is causing it.

Sorry can't help, just wanted to say I am seeing the same thing.

[davidcomerford]

I think I might have it figured out.

The problem was happening when I was trying to sort my giant list of VM's into folders.

I noticed the more I had in folders (and less just loose in the inventory) the better the problem got. I have all the VM's in folders now and the problem is gone.

I have a feeling that everytime a VM changes states, green->yellow, red->green, etc, the list is refreshed and hense the annoying flicker.

Bit of a long shot but that's my theory.

[JCV]

I found a way to get around it too. (depending on how you organize your inventory views) If you click on a VCenter, Datacenter, folder, cluster, etc..... and then in the right pane you click on the "Virtual Machines" tab you can rename with out getting caught in the refresh. Sounds similar to the other find in this thread.