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gommog
Contributor
Contributor
‎03-20-2013 04:00 AM

Vsphere replication configuration not displayed in web client

I have been using vsphere replication now for a couple of months, this morning i noticed that the option for replication was not showing in the home page of the web client. I first tried to restart the vcenter server assuming this was something to do with a service not running, on reboot i still didn't see the option. We are replicating between 2 esxi 5.1 hosts both managed by the same vcenter server and have 2 replication appliances (one on each host), i rebooted both appliances. One rebooted fine but the other is asking for a root password for login, i entered the root password used during setup (this is a standard password i use for many network services) but this was not accepted. I'm now at the stage where replication is showing as an option in the web console but none of my jobs are displaying.

Has anyone come across this issue before? I can't recreate the jobs as if i try to do so i get the message Unexpected status code: 503, someone please help.

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6 Replies
mvalkanov
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
‎03-20-2013 04:15 AM

Hi,

If you are using one vCenter Server, when you must not have more than 1 VR 5.1 appliance in the same vCenter Server inventory.

The VRMS inside the appliance registers as extension to the vCenter Server. Attempting to run a second such appliance will overwrite the extension configuration of the first VRMS. You don't need VR appliance at the source site (if you are using single vCenter Server topology). The source ESXi sends the replication traffic to the VR server at the target site.

It looks like, you deployed and started the second VR appliance, and its VRMS removed all replication configurations done by the first VRMS.

Please power off and remove one of the VR appliances, reboot the remaining one and logout and login in the Web Client. You would also need to reconfigure the replications from scratch (possibly re-using any leftover .vmdks as initial copies and removing the hbr... files at the target datastore - leftover from the previous replication configurations).

Regards,

Martin

gommog
Contributor
Contributor
‎03-20-2013 04:46 AM

Hi Martin,

Thanks for the reply, i did always wonder about having 2 replication appliances but the way i read the docs seemed like i needed 2. I've got rid of the problem appliance, rebooted the working appliance and logged out of the web client. I even went as far as rebooting the vcenter server again. I'm still seeing the error "Unexpected status code 503" if i try to configure replication for a VM though. Additionally if i check the web client there are no sites showing under replication. It seems like my ability to manage replication in any way has completely failed.

If i check the service health of the vcenter server it shows a problem with VR management "Unable to retrieve health data from https://192.168.10.245:5480/service/hms/cgi/health.py" , this IP is the problem VA so for some reason it's still trying to communicate with this, is there any way to remove/reconfigure this?

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mvalkanov
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
‎03-20-2013 05:05 AM

Hi,

Can you check https://vcenter_server_ip/mob/ and browse to the ExtensionManager and see the server property of the com.vmware.vcHms extension?

Also, see the /var/log/boot.msg and /opt/vmware/hms/logs/hms.log files (towards the end) at the VR appliance.

There would be details if VRMS did not update its extension data in vCenter Server after the reboot.

Can you please verify that /opt/vmware/etc/vami/ovfEnv.xml file is non-empty?

Regards,

Martin

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gommog
Contributor
Contributor
‎03-20-2013 05:35 AM

Yes i've browsed through and found the extension, not sure exactly what you're after but  this shows the VA i removed:

Untitled.png

I'm not a linux user so viewing those logs was troubling but i manage to get in, i can't see anything relating to not updating extension data but then i wouldn't know specifically what i'd be looking for. This is the contents of the hms.log

login as: root
Using keyboard-interactive authentication.
Password:
Last login: Wed Mar 20 12:25:09 2013 from czc13127hx.dca-design.com
localhost:~ # cd /opt/vmware/hms/logs
localhost:/opt/vmware/hms/logs # hms.log
-bash: hms.log: command not found
localhost:/opt/vmware/hms/logs # view hms.log
2013-03-20 07:48:55.102 ERROR jvsl.security.authorization [hms-vlsi-server-thread-69] (..security.authorization.VcPrivilegeSupplier)  | Unable to collect user's (hmsuser) privileges.
com.vmware.jvsl.util.ExceptionAdapter: java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException: com.vmware.vim.binding.vim.fault.InvalidLogin:

inherited from com.vmware.vim.binding.vim.fault.VimFault:

inherited from com.vmware.vim.binding.vim.fault.InvalidLogin: Cannot complete login due to an incorrect user name or password.
        at com.vmware.vim.vmomi.core.impl.BlockingFuture.get(BlockingFuture.java:70)
        at com.vmware.jvsl.sessions.net.impl.vc.ExtensionLoginHandler.doLogin(ExtensionLoginHandler.java:36)
        at com.vmware.jvsl.sessions.net.impl.vc.ImpersonatingLoginHandler.doLogin(ImpersonatingLoginHandler.java:31)
        at com.vmware.jvsl.sessions.net.impl.vc.ConnectionHandlerImpl.doLogin(ConnectionHandlerImpl.java:125)
        at com.vmware.jvsl.sessions.net.impl.vc.ConnectionHandlerImpl.doLogin(ConnectionHandlerImpl.java:39)
        at com.vmware.jvsl.sessions.net.impl.PersistentConnection.connect(PersistentConnection.java:531)
        at com.vmware.jvsl.sessions.net.impl.PersistentConnection.start(PersistentConnection.java:131)
        at com.vmware.jvsl.sessions.net.impl.vc.ServerViewImpl.start(ServerViewImpl.java:76)
        at com.vmware.jvsl.sessions.net.impl.vc.ServerImpl.getVcUserView(ServerImpl.java:144)
        at com.vmware.jvsl.security.authorization.VcPrivilegeSupplier$VcConnector.getVcServerView(VcPrivilegeSupplier.java:297)
        at com.vmware.jvsl.security.authorization.VcPrivilegeSupplier.getPrivileges(VcPrivilegeSupplier.java:97)
        at com.vmware.jvsl.security.authorization.CachedPrivilegeSupplier.getPrivileges(CachedPrivilegeSupplier.java:64)
        at com.vmware.hms.security.authorization.TimeEnabledPrivilegeSupplier.getPrivileges(TimeEnabledPrivilegeSupplier.java:115)
        at com.vmware.jvsl.security.authorization.TicketAuthorizer$TicketPrivilegeChecker.checkPrivilege(TicketAuthorizer.java:301)
        at com.vmware.jvsl.security.authorization.TicketAuthorizer.checkAuthorization(TicketAuthorizer.java:209)
        at com.vmware.jvsl.security.authorization.TicketAuthorizer.authorize(TicketAuthorizer.java:146)
        at com.vmware.jvsl.security.authorization.JvslActivationValidator.validate(JvslActivationValidator.java:103)
        at com.vmware.vim.vmomi.server.impl.ValidationStartTask.run(ValidationStartTask.java:67)
        at com.vmware.hms.util.executor.LoggerOpIdConfigurator$RunnableWithDiagnosticContext.run(LoggerOpIdConfigurator.java:133)
        at com.vmware.hms.util.executor.LoggerOpIdConfigurator$2.run(LoggerOpIdConfigurator.java:100)
        at com.vmware.jvsl.sessions.net.impl.TlsPreservingWrapper$2.run(TlsPreservingWrapper.java:47)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(Unknown Source)
        at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
        at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
Caused by: com.vmware.vim.binding.vim.fault.InvalidLogin:

inherited from com.vmware.vim.binding.vim.fault.VimFault:
                                                                                                                  1,1           Top

I can confirm that the ovfEnv.xml file has values though

Untitled.png

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gommog
Contributor
Contributor
‎03-20-2013 09:36 AM

I decided not to try and fix this in the end as i can see this getting really indepth and beyond my knowledge of vmware replication. I unregistered the faulty appliance from vcenter following this KB article http://pubs.vmware.com/srm-51/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.srm.install_config.doc%2FGUID-EA052863-0... . I then removed the other VA completely from disk. I created a new instance and rebooted the vcenter server, i've now removed all the hbr files from the replicated folders and i've recreated the jobs using the old replica disks as seeds. It seems to have done the job but it's not something i'd want to repeat and raises questions about the validity of using VR in a live environment.

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mvalkanov
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
‎03-22-2013 04:58 AM

Hi,

> I've got rid of the problem appliance, rebooted the working appliance and logged out of the web client.

Rebooting (or power off + power on) of the old appliance normally restores the extension data in vCenter Server.

> Yes i've browsed through and found the extension, not sure exactly what you're after but  this shows the VA i removed:

Somehow, the reboot of the old appliance did not update the extension information. Details would be in /var/log/boot.msg after the reboot.

Regards,

Martin

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