vCenter 5.1 - Hardware Status tab (No Data)

[pegasus20111014]

We are completing our migration in our TEST environment to our new vCenter 5.1 server.  We have migrated our ESXi 4.0 U2 and 4.1 U2 hosts to vCenter 5.1.  We are using the latest version of the HP CIM providers for these servers.  When attempting to view the Hardware Satus for these servers in vCenter 5.1, we receive the message "No alerts or warnings for 0 sensors", and no data is displayed.  When choosing to reset sensors, sometimes receive the message "No new host data available, Data will be updated in 5 minutes", then following by another message shortly after "Host sensor data is not updated.  Communication error with the server". Other times when resetting sensors, after a minute it goes back to the "No alerts or warnings for 0 senors".  Choosing to Update sensors does nothing and goes back to the same "No alerts or warnings for 0 sensors"

I can access the Hardware Health information for the hosts when logging in directly to the host.

I've tried disconnecting the host and reconnecting to vcenter, as well as rebooting, but still having the error.  I also tried a solution mentioned here:

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=201187...

But vCenter 5.1 does not have a register.bat file in the inventory service directory, so had to back out.  Not sure if that article would apply to vCenter 5.1.

We had a spare server and I installed the HP version of ESXi 5.1 and the Hardware Status tab displaying the information correctly for this server.

We have quite a few ESXi hosts that need to be updated to ESXi 5.1, but will take some time.  In the meantime we are unable to receive email alerts from vCenter on these servers due to this issue.

Are there any known issues using the HP CIM providers for ESXi 4.1 and 4.0 servers in vCenter 5.1?  Does anyone here have any ESXi 4.0 or 4.1 servers with the HP CIM providers in vCenter 5.1 and the hardware status tab functions correctly?  This may be a showstopper for us moving forward in production until the issue is resolved.

Thanks

[pegasus20111014]

I just did a test and this issue isactually happening with the VMware native ESXi 4.1 U2 with the VMware native CIM providers as well, not just with the HP version.

[pegasus20111014]

After a long frustrating back and forth with VMware support, they are saying that the Hardware Status view in vCenter 5.1 is not compatible with ESXi 4.0 and 4.1 hosts, and the solution is just to upgrade all hosts to ESXi 5.1

I find this hard to believe.  This is a huge bug in my opinion. Does anyone here have vCenter 5.1 containing ESXi 4.0 or 4.1 hosts where the Hardware Status tab displays the information correctly?  Or is this really a "bug"?

We have many hosts and will take a while before we can update them all to ESXi 5.1.  In the meantime we have no alert capability for hardware issues for our roughtly 30 ESXi 4.1 U2 and 4.0 U2 hosts.  I would think this would be a major issue that VMware would address in a patch or a later update, if there is no fix for it in it's current state.

[twinter]

I just ran into this today.  I moved seven ESXi 4.1 hosts and one ESX 4 host to our new vCenter 5.1 server.  No data on the hardware status tab.  I may have to move them back if VMware doesn't provide a fix.

[pegasus20111014]

This is the solution VMware gave me:

I have good new. Both versions of ESX have patches available to fix the issue with the hardware status information not gettng polled properly from vCenter.

ESX 4.0 is fixed in P11 (build 660575) which means you should be on at least patch ESX400-201203001, and

ESX 4.1 is fixed in P05 (build 659051) requiring at least ESX410-201204001

Both patches are post U2 fixes for 4.0 and 4.1, so running U2 without patches still exhibits the issue.

ESX 5.0 is not affected as you have witnesed.

I just started the process of testing these patches.  The patch for ESXi 4.1 they specified fixed the HW status issue.  I've installed the patch on one of our ESXi 4.0 servers as specified and although that did fix the HW status issue, I cannot login directly to the ESXi 4.0 host with this patch using the vsphere client.  It pushes out a support file installation, I go through the process of the install, then after it completes and I attempt to login into the server, it repeats the same installation of the support files and can never get logged in directly to the ESXi 4.0 host.

I opened another ticket with VMware about this issue just today.  Upgrading to ESXi 5.1 is another option but we do not want to migrate all of our ESXi hosts in production to our new vCenter 5.1 server and not have the ability to view HW status and receive email alerts since will take some time to update all of the hosts.  We were hoping to install the patches they specified while still on vCenter 4.1, so that when we migrate to vCenter 5.1 we will have the ability to view the HW status immediately.  But of course, with every fix they break something else, so we have put our migration on hold again until the issue of logging in directly to a ESXi 4.0 Build 660575 host is resolved.