Server Unavailable (Linux) After Upgrade to 5.0 U1 (Not For SSL Certificate)

[fabio_dalfonso]

Hi,

I made the upgrade to 5.0 U1 and after then (neither going back to 5.0), I cannot connect to vSphere getting the message:

Server unavailable at ....  VICommon  line 545.

Ubuntu Desktop 11

The problem is NOT related to PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME, that is permanently set to 0. The message arises immediately so it seems that it is not trying to connect to the server and the response is so empty or invalid.

Some people had the same issue?

Is there something working more than a day? In any case, after having criticised the setup for Windows I have to point at the many changes the installer on Linux make that are not necessary and potentially disrupting.

So after this new jam, I realized that also this setup is quite questionable.

The dist contains a Makefile.PL...  so

perl Makefile.PL

install modules via CPAN

make

make install

And this does not make changes to CPAN options, does not make other settings that no one needs, or better no one requested!

Does VMware think we are DUMB?

Regards

Fabio D'Alfonso

http://www.fabiodalfonso.com

[lamw]

Hi fabio.dalfonso,

Sorry you've had a bad experience with the upgrade. If you're still having troubles with the upgrade, you can file an SR with VMware and someone from our support team can assist and if you're hitting a bug, they can also help file for it to get fixed. I also noticed you're using Ubuntu 11, the list of supported OSes are as follows, please ensure you're using one of these distributions:

For this release, vCLI is supported on the following Linux platforms:

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.5 (32 bit and 64 bit)
• SLES 10 (32 bit and 64 bit)
• SLES 11 (32 bit and 64 bit)
• Ubuntu 10.04.1 (32 bit and 64 bit)

For this release, vCLI is supported on the following Windows platforms:

• Windows 7 (32 bit and 64 bit)
• Windows Vista Enterprise SP1 (32 bit and 64 bit)
• Windows  2008 (64 bit)

(though you can probably just copy the PMs and get it working, you still might hit issues with the compatiablity of the expected libs, and hence this still may or may not work for you)

As an FYI - If you're installing vCLI 5.0u1 (bundles vSphere SDK for Perl) there are no changes to the underlying client stubs, it's exactly the same as vCLI 5.0. The major change as noted in the release notes is specifically to installer behavior for RHEL not having to set the proxy variables for installation.

[fabio_dalfonso]

Hi,

thanks for the answer.

The setup worked fine before the upgrade, and I find(ed) no specific issues related to Ubuntu, also it is not in the certified platforms list.

Just after the upgrade the connection started to fail immediately, so it is not contacting the server. The response is empty or invalid.

I don't know how fill a SR for a free tool as this.

About the experience with the SDK, I get this occasion to present the main issue: there are shortcuts that create a lot of problems. The whole WSman relies on a 3 functions module (UUID) that does not build natively on Windows and there is only one old version for 5.8 820. The solution is not to make a setup of another activeperl 5.8 that is not embedded but merely setup where there will be for sure another perl install.

The solution is:

embed perl (and config yours for yourself, not for the system)

Better, integrate with an exisiting perl and use one of the recent UUID modules that works on recent versions, >or< take over maintenance of the module to release a windows version.

About Linux, your installer makes many changes, and leaves the system changed, for CPAN, and others. Could write a README and put there the 3 commands to let make do the things?

Thanks

Fabio D'Alfonso

http://www.fabiodalfonso.com

[lamw]

fabio.dalfonso,

Though you didn't see any issues with the release of Ubuntu, it's one that VMware has not QA'ed and can't not guarantee you would not hit any type of issues. The tools are free, but if you have VMware SnS, you can definitely file a support request to get some assistance just like you would for any support request.

You can also file feature requests using this form here - https://www.vmware.com/support/policies/feature.html

Thanks and apperciate the feedback

[fabio_dalfonso]

Hi,

this is the message content I get as a string.

Some idea

500 Can't connect to h008sv01:443 (certificate verify failed)
Content-Type: text/plain
Client-Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:53:23 GMT
Client-Warning: Internal response

Can't connect to h008sv01:443 (certificate verify failed)

LWP::Protocol::https::Socket: SSL connect attempt failed with unknown error error:14090086:SSL routines:SSL3_GET_SERVER_CERTIFICATE:certificate verify failed at /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.1/LWP/Protocol/http.pm line 51, <STDIN> line 2.

:1: parser error : Start tag expected, '<' not found
Can't connect to h008sv01:443 (certificate verify failed)
^
- Server version unavailable at 'https://h008sv01:443/sdk/vimService.wsdl' at /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.1/VMware/VICommon.pm line 546, <STDIN> line 2.

Thanks

Fabio D'Alfonso

http://www.fabiodalfonso.com

[fabio_dalfonso]

Hi,

the issue was in a mismatch/typo. It was a chance to go deeply into some subject and learning how to avoid VMware installers.

Apart of having the connection working again, all my thinks about the setup on Windows and Linux, remain.

Fabio D'Alfonso

http://www.fabiodalfonso.com