VMware Cloud Community
foxy1977
Contributor
Contributor

Host disconnecting and refusing to reconnect

Hi there,

We are experiencing a problem with vcenter 4.1 and esxi 4.1 hosts.  We have 4 hosts running at one site and a few weeks back we had a problem with a (normally working fine) host disconnecting from the vcenter server.  Despite trying all of the usual things I was not able to get the host to reconnect in vcenter.  I restarted the management service with no luck, even logged a call with vmware to see if they could get it going.  After 2 hours of reinstalling the agent they could still not reconnect the host.  All of the VMs continue to operate as normal without a problem.  I was able to get the host to reconnect by putting it into maintenance mode and restart the host.  This reconnected the host (for a week or so).

Whilst the host is dicsonnected you can point the VI client directly at the host and it connects fine.

Now the same host has disconnected along with another one.  This has now stopped my veeam backup jobs running correctly!  I am struggling to get them connected again in the vcenter installation.  As usual I have tried to restart the management agent on the host but this didn't work either.  I have one host with no VMs on so I am able to poke it and play around with it but the other machine is running a couple of VMs for our office.

Anyone any ideas as I need to try and get the servers back into my vcenter installation.

Thanks

Tags (2)
Reply
0 Kudos
7 Replies
idle-jam
Immortal
Immortal

if you could install a new vcenter in a VM and see if the things happen again or not, with that in place you could nail down that it could be OS of the vcenter related issue. since you have a support ticket raised i would escalate it to the right person to get it resolved (after all you have paid and have all the rights to get the solution)

Reply
0 Kudos
foxy1977
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the advice.  I would like to try and avoid another reinstall of vcenter as we have only recently moved it to a new VM as part of the upgrade to 4.1!

I logged a call with vmware on Friday and I am just waiting for a callback

When I try and connect the host you can see the Vsphere client retieving data from vcenter agent on host2 and then I get an error saying 'a general system error occurred: internal error: vmodl.fault.hostcommunication'

Reply
0 Kudos
idle-jam
Immortal
Immortal

Reply
0 Kudos
foxy1977
Contributor
Contributor

The KB article is to do with connecting 4.1 hosts to vcenter 4.0.  We are running 4.1 for both vcenter and hosts

Reply
0 Kudos
foxy1977
Contributor
Contributor

I have just tried to update esxi to the latest build (ended up wiping and reinstalling the host).  This has now been added successfully into the vcenter installation.  This has happend previously and I am expecting it to be ok for a few days before dropping out again.

Just need to get the second host back into the VC now but it is a little bit more difficult as I have live VMs on it and no vmotion!

Reply
0 Kudos
idle-jam
Immortal
Immortal

looks strange, i would raise a ticket with vmware support as it would identify the root cause faster via logs and remote support webex ..

Reply
0 Kudos
foxy1977
Contributor
Contributor

Hi All,

Just to let you know after several months I have got to the bottom of the issue.  The problem is related to a particular VM.  When the VM is powered down I am able to connect the esx host machine again with no problems.  Once the host machine is reconnected we can then power on the VM again and the host stays connected.

I think this problem was caused by me cloning the VM and possibly not letting the cloning process finish properly.

Reply
0 Kudos