Hardware Status tab update frequency

[gzulauf]

How often does the data displayed on the Hardware Status tab of the vSphere Client update?

In the upper right-hand corner it indicates the last time it was updated and there is the option to manually force a refresh. But there does not seem to be a consistent frequency at which vCenter is polling for the hardware status data. On some of our servers it appears to be every few hours, others whole days can pass before a refresh.

Is there an option in the vCenter configuration to change the default polling frequency? We would like the data to be updated in parallel to our external monitoring systems (Nagios).

[vmroyale]

Hello.

"In the VI Client, and the vSphere Client logged into an ESX/ESXi host, the system defined automatic refresh interval is 90-120 seconds. In vSphere Client logged into vCenter Server, the system defined automatic refresh interval is 10 minutes." - from kb 1011608

Good Luck!

[gzulauf]

vmroyale-

Thank you for the information and link.

I can confirm that the refresh interval for the Hardware Status tab is not working as described in the KB article.

Notice the "Updated" time in the screenshot. It is from nearly two days (40 hours) ago. When I manually refresh, the "Updated" time will reflect the correct time.

This feature is bothersome, because hardware faults and conditions that are remediated or cleared (replacing of failed disk drive, etc.) are not being reflected until someone manually forces a refresh on the Hardware Status tab. The host continues to show to be in an alarmed state.

Has anyone else seen this?

[rhass]

Hi

I have same problem. Did you found any solution to this problem ?

[UniOfWyo]

I just opened an SR on this. Especially troublesome for ESXi on a platform that doesn't have another form of HW monitoring agent installed, like Ciscso UCS.

Anyone able to work around this?

[BrandonJ]

+1 for updates not occuring automatically.  I've got servers that haven't updated since 12/19/2010.  We noticed an ESXi server this morning that has had a memory error since yesterday (almost 24 hours ago).  After manually updating, VCenter shows the memory error too.  This is actually plesently surprising since historically, memory errors in some of our older hardware never made it to VCenter status.  Please keep us posted on the status of the open case.  We may go ahead and open one too.

[rhass]

Brandon,

go ahead and open SR case at VMware tech-support. For me I still don't have resolved this problem

It's look a lot of people have silimar problem with updating Hardware Status. But also a lot of people doesn't know that updates at Hardware status are down very very rarly eg. almost never.

[susan84]

Hi All - Were you guys able to find a solution to this issue ? I am facing the same issue with both ESX and ESXi hosts managed by vCenter 4.1 not updatin the hardware status at the scheduled frequency

Thanks

Sudrsn

[avlieshout]

I've checked things in my environment. The refresh frequency is every 5 mins. according to vCenter 4.1.

I must agree that indeed the last updated time is much much longer, even days on some servers.

When I force a manual update, the view gets updated every 5 mins. though. Even if I don't have the Hardware Tab open and get back later, it is still getting updated every 5 mins.

Must agree that it looks buggy.

[wdugas]

All,

I’m having the exacted same problem, has anyone that opened a SR with VMware received a solution from them yet?

I opened a SR with VMware support yesterday and feel like I’m getting the run-a-round on this issue.

We are running VMware ESXi 4.1.0 (embedded) build: 260247 on IBM x3650 M2's and M3's servers and I’m relying on the VMware Hardware Status and VMware alerting to inform me of hardware problems.

So far I’ve had hardware problems on two different VMware hosts that didn’t show up on the Hardware Status until I manually updated the Hardware Status tab.

[BrandonJ]

I had intended to open an SR aleady but just haven't gotten around to it.  I'm now going to wait until we have a chance to do Update 1 (probably in the next 2-3 weeks).  I saw some fixes in the release notes that made me think we might see an improvement.  If not, I'll probably open an SR.

[wdugas]

All

This was the VMware response:

Having analyzed the issue where the health status tab does not auto refresh, I found that this is a bug. Please be informed that VMware engineering team is actively working on it.

Regarding the fix, regret to inform you that, there is no tentative time or an ETA as to when it will be released. But once available, it will be published on our VMware website.

Once again, thank you for your time and patience.

This was my reply back to them:

1.) I’m a little disappointed that it took you 2 day to confirm that the issue is a software bug and not an issue with our hardware or system configuration… even after provided you with the URL of your own company’s forums that showed many other customers having the same problem.

2.) I find it completely unacceptable and irresponsible to not provide any fix or work around and no ETA for a solution to the problem.  Since we are running VMware ESXi 4.1 embedded on our VMware host’s I’m unable to install a hardware monitor agent to alert me to hardware failures.

3.) I want this issue escalated to a manager and to be contacted ASAP.

Does anyone know if this happens with update 1?

Thanks

[rhass]

Hi

Do you have any new response from VMware ? Did they released some patch for this issue ? (I'm using ESX/ESXi 4.0 Update 2)

Did you check is also ESX 4.1 Update 1 affected this problem ?

Many Thanks

[UniOfWyo]

We never had this addressed.  Our action plan with VMware was to update VCenter to 4.1 and test ESXi 4.0 u2 and 4.1 - but we've had to put it off for a few more weeks.

[wdugas]

As per VMware support there is no tentative time or an ETA as to when a fix will be released...

[Squuiid]

Any updates folks? This is quite the bug and it is very disappointing that VMware still don't have a fix for it.

[UniOfWyo]

We've had no luck other than manually refreshing the page.   We upgraded to the latest VC 4.1 and esxi 4.1 to no avail.     Our SR wasn't much help either.

[FredPeterson]

bumpers

Last week I had an HDD fail on a host and was expecting to see the alarm in vCenter and woe to my discovery that the hardware status refresh simply doesn't work automagically.

You'd think something so fundamentally critical would be resolved rather rapidly.

[SyApps]

Confirmed that this is an issue, but we've never relied on vCenter to alert us with hardware issues. We run a complete HP shop with DL360s as our hosts with a mixed bag of generations. The HP tools are all we need for hardware monitoring. I'd be surprised if this was just some easy fix that they could throw into the next patch. We're talking about communicating with every make and model of hardware that our ESXi servers sit on. They may find fixes for popular hardware platforms, but it would be very impressive if they could come up with a solutions across the board.

[UniOfWyo]

We’re a mixed shop and have made the transition to ESXi.   The HP monitoring agent for ESXi requires a special installation of ESXi delivered from HP (as far as I know, maybe you can install with a bundle now).  This means using a different deployment media for our HP blades as opposed to our UCS blades or Dell rack mounts.   Not a huge deal, but it is nice to have things relatively similar.  

That being said, using WBEM for the HP ESXi (through SIM) agent isn’t attractive in our environment.  I can manually refresh the Vcenter hardware status page for any type of hardware and have an accurate representation through CIM.   It just doesn’t automatically refresh.

We also feel it is asking for problems to rely on any single source of monitoring.   We would like to use Vcenter in conjunction with what  HP/UCS/DELL/Nagios can offer.

I hope VMware has a solution but given that ‘most shops’ use a vendor specific agent I don’t think it’s on the top of their priority list.