database guest OS freezes and I need to restart entire ESX Box!!

[mrose1120istar]

hey all, for about a week now, our SQL 2005 box we have on the a vmware esx server has been crashing. Regardless of why its crashing (i'm guessing its on the server). I can't reboot it, It will start rebooting and get to 95% and then I have to restart the ENTIRE ESX BOX!!!

Any idea what this is???

[kurtwest]

Are you using the VI client to reboot the VM or command line? I had a VM that would stop at 95% when rebooting and once I stopped and started it from the command line it completely started.

vmware-cmd /<path to VM directory>/server.vmx stop

vmware-cmd /<path to VM directory>/server.vmx start

[eharvill]

Try running -

/etc/init.d/mgmt-vmware restart

from the service console instead of rebooting your host. A lot of times the ESX hosts and Virtual Center can get confused. This will restart you management agent and temporarily disconnect the VMs/Host from Virtual Center (about 45-60 seconds) and get them synched back up. That should be less painful than a reboot.

As to why that particular VM is acting up is another story. It could be an underlying issue with that host or even the LUN it is on.

[Texiwill]

Hello,

In addition to what eharvill states, you should start to look at logfiles for the ESX host and VM in question.... Host logs are in /var/log/vmkernel, /var/log/vmware/hostd.log and vmware.log for the VM. Find out what they tell you.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the forthcoming 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', publishing January 2008, Copyright 2008 Pearson Education. Available on Rough Cuts at http://safari.informit.com/9780132302074

[mrose1120istar]

ok...no luck on all the ideas so far....

here are the results from all the above commands :

# /etc/init.d/mgmt-vmware restart Stopping VMware ESX Server Management services:

VMware ESX Server Host Agent Watchdog

VMware ESX Server Host Agent

Starting VMware ESX Server Management services:

VMware ESX Server Host Agent (background)

Availability report startup (background)

# vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/vm_store_sp_os/NY-SP-DB/NY-SP-DB. vmx stop

stop() = 1

# vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/vm_store_sp_os/NY-SP-DB/NY-SP-DB. vmx getstate

getstate() = on

# vmware-cmd /vmfs/volumes/vm_store_sp_os/NY-SP-DB/NY-SP-DB. vmx reset

VMControl error -999: Unknown error: SoapError: ServerFaultCode(1520) : (A general system error occured: Cannot execute scripts)

#

This is getting BAD!!!

And on top of that theres nothing in the Windows event logs for this server so i'm not sure whats causing this

[dmadden]

Type "vm-support -x"

Get the WorldID for the virtual machine you want to kill

Type "vm-support -X WorldID"

This will generate a support log for the virtual machine and try to kill it as well. Type "yes" if it asks you to send an NMI request and an abort to the virtual machine. This should take about 10 minutes. It will also create a support log after so make sure you delete it.

[mrose1120istar]

ok i'm running the vmsupport -x command...we'll see if it reboots it, but would it make sense to actually use these files in a support case? I have no idea whats happening with this machine but its really not a good thing...nothing that bad in the windows logs....

[dmadden]

It would be better to run "vm-support". That will collect all of the logs minus performance snapshots. Then call into tech support and they will help you from there.

[mrose1120istar]

hey all, i have a case open with vmware right now..i'll update w/ the resolution