vMotion disabled on each reboot of new ESXi 4.1 server

[chrisy]

Recently I set up an ESXi 4.1 embedded server, and while it's all fine, every single reboot clears the checkbox that enabled vMotion for an interface. Once it's ticked again, vMotion works fine.... until the next reboot. I think that FT suffered the same problem, although I may have misremembered that.

I notice that one or two other people have reported this over the years but I couldn't find a posted answer for any of them.

Thanks for any tips!

[Troy_Clavell]

I've not seen this.  What happens, while the ESXi Host is online, you uncheck the enabled box for vMotion, say ok, then go back in and check it again? You may also want to restart the management agents on the ESXi Host to see if that helps.

[chrisy]

Restart the agent: Tried that, rebooted, and vMotion was turned off again.

Untick/retick: Tried that, checked vMotion was fine, rebooted - and it had unticked itself again.

I've installed very many ESX servers and never seen this before. I expect it's an ESXi thing as I've not installed so many of those. It's probably not a 4.1 thing as there are scattered reports on these forums going back a long time.

If I eventually solve it I'll update this thread for reference.

[Troy_Clavell]

We have 50 ESXi 4.1 Hosts, and I can't say that I've seen this, but there is a first time for everything.  Maybe somehow there is an IP conflict, DNS issue?

You may want to open an SR as well, just in case.

[bulletprooffool]

Pretty much, every time I find hosts losing config at reboot it has been because of the bootbank /. altbootbank being corrupted.

Posted myself a fixit reminder today:

http://www.get-virtual.info/2011/02/02/esx-host-losing-settings-at-reboot-checking-system-partitions...

see if this helps you (though as you have vMotion problems which are saved per cluster . . it may not help)

this should be worth looking at in any instance where config is lost at host reboot.

good luck

[Exwork]

Is this a Dell server? I encountered this issue before, when I upgraded the ESXi embedded installation from 4.0 to 4.1. I determined that it was an issue with the particular build Dell had been using at the time the servers were ordered. The 'vmotion disabling at reboot' issue didn't show up until the upgrade to 4.1.

[chrisy]

Yes, it's a Dell and yes, I upgraded the embedded version from 4.0 to 4.1 as even though they were ordered with 4.1, Dell decided to ship 4.0 instead.

What was your fix?

[Exwork]

I wouldn't exactly call it a fix - more of a work-around.

The servers (M610 blades) came with 4.0 U1, build 228255. This particular Dell build (VMware-VMvisor-Dell-RecoveryCD-4.0_Update1-228255.i386_DellCustomized_A03.iso) had the issue, but subsequent ones didn't.

I ended up reinstalling the host with various different builds of ESXi, until I found the issue, which took about a week. Once we found that, we ended up getting a run-around from VMWare, who wanted us to contact Dell. We wanted VMWare to work with Dell directly, but VMWare wanted us to be in the middle, because this was a "Dell Embedded" build. I had given them enough information to work the problem on their end, but it just wasn't happening.

The client and I had had enough at that point. We ended up downloading the 4.1 ESXi installable ISO right from VMWare, and reinstalled all their hosts with that. As a point of reference, upgrading from VMWare-provided ESXi from 4.0 -> 4.1 went fine - the problem was only with the Dell build.

[mattdon]

seems vmware consider it a fix

had this problem myself with some of our Dell R710's

found this thread first and then this kb article http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1029771

"This issue occurs when licensing changes are not persistent across  reboots of OEM customized pre-licensed images of ESXi Embedded.

To resolve this issue, reinstall ESXi Embedded on the server using the ESXi Recovery CD image provided by the hardware vendor."

[krishnaprasad]

Hello, I would check the following to see if the license persistence is actually creating the problem ( VMotion setting not persistent across reboots ).

1. Install the ISO

2. Change the license of the host to the one you have ( Using VI Client )

3. Enable VMotion.

3. Reboot the system

4. See if the license is set to the old one after reboot? if yes, then it's obvious that vmotion setting also will be set as disabled.

Dell documented the licensing problem in their ESXi 4.1 Emebedded edition release in their Support website. Here is a screenshot attached for the reference.

[mattdon]

sorry forgot about this one

The vmware kb article is a bit more specific on the symptoms of the issue than Dell, the whole license doesn't get lost after a reboot, the key and  all licensed features remain.  As per the vmware kb, all that is  required is to manually tick the vmotion box again and it starts working (until you reboot anyway)  - not manually relicense the host.

So I've gone through reinstalling ESXi 4.1 Embedded on our servers which fixed it, lots of fun that was.

[warrenwalker]

I know this is an old post but i thought id share a KB article for all those running ESXi 4.1 embedded on IBM hardware. The fix is incuded in a patch that can be run using esxupdate.

Article T1012710 from the IBM Support site.

There is a limitation of IBM Customized ESXi4.1 image with ibmcustomization version 1.0-3. When user update VMware license, a reboot will make the license back to the default one.   

User can login into the ESXi system, use command esxupdate to check the version of ibmcustomization.

esxupdate --vib-view query | grep cross_oem-ibmcustomization

This bundle provides ibmcustomization version 1.0-4. It can fix the problem of former version. User can use vSphere CLI or vSphere Update Manager to install the bundle. User can also apply the bundle on local host. Here are the steps about how to install the bundle on local host.

1.  Upload the bundle to ESXi system.

2.  Login into the system, run the command:     esxupdate --bundle=ibm_sw_hyper_cust10-4_vmwesx41_32-64.zip --nodeps --nosigcheck --              maintenancemode update

3.  Reboot the server

4.  Check if the bundle is successfully installed.   

esxupdate --vib-view query | grep cross_oem-ibmcustomization  Note: If the ESXi system license has been updated, but not rebooted yet, applying the bundle will cause the former updated license lost. In this case, user need to update the intended license again.

Cheers,

Warren