How to regain access to console of Windows 2008 Server systems?

[mmohp]

(I didn't find a forum for vSphere Client questions, so I am posting here, which subject-wise seems the closest. If there is better one: please advise!).

I am having a problem with misc. of our Windows 2008 Servers that I am running in ESXi v5.0:

When I log into these systems as admin using an RDP client then all console output is obviously redirected to that client (and the vSphere Client console tab gets diconnected). That wouldn't be an issue if the console would be properly freed again, when the other sessions log out again.

But occasionally, these systems seems to "think", that some RDP session is still active even when there is no client logged in anymore. In such cases, I found it impossible to gain access to the console again. My Control-Alt-Ins commands into these console windows seem to go unnoticed and there is no reaction from the system whatsoever on the vCenter Client console tab.

Strange enough one can still log in via RDP, i.e. those systems ARE running and responsive, it's just, that vCenter Client seems to have no more control over it.

The only way to regain access via the vSphere Client console seems to be to power down (or actually power off, i.e. hard-reset, because one can not properly shut them down without access to the console) and reboot those systems. That is of course absolutely unacceptable!

Any idea or work-around? Any clue, WHY this is happening and how one could regain console access in vSphere Client again more gracefully?

Michael

[AWo]

Moved thread to the vCenter forum.

Have you checked what the Terminal Session Manager is showing you? Are there any other sessions?

AWo

[AWo]

I moved it o vCenter Server. There it should have gone to.

AWo

[mmohp]

>  I moved it o vCenter Server. There it should have gone to.

Thanks! ANd sorry for abusing the forum to alert you, but I saw no other way...

Coming back to your questions:

> Have you checked what the Terminal Session Manager is showing you? Are there any other sessions?

It reports TWO sessions as being active. But I *know* I am currently logged-in only once (i.e. via the currently dark vSphere console only).

OK - I probably didn't log out properly from the other session, but the other system via which I had been logged-in, is currently suspended (that's for sure!).

Is there any method to override this? Other than rebooting the box, that is...

M.

[mmohp]

Complete silence? Does that mean, there is NO way to regain control of the console if VMware has lost it?

IMHO that would render VMware vCenter a rather doubtful alternative when it comes to virtualization of larger server groups.

There *must* be *some* way of regaining the console other than to reboot the VM...

M.

[AWo]

Difficult to analyze which also shows that this seems to happen very rarely. Otherwise you would have seen more answers. I never had any console problem ever since version 2.5.

Are the VMware Tools installed insode your guests?

You simply switch between console and RDP session while the guest is running or are there any activities in between like suspending the guest?

AWo

[mmohp]

> Are the VMware Tools installed inside your guests?

Yes

> You simply switch between console and RDP session while the guest is running or are there any activities in between like suspending the guest?

First case. We never suspended it so far, we only rebooted it a few times to regain access to the console.

M.

[AWo]

AWo