VMware Cloud Community
daniellynn
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Can't connect to Data Recovery Appliance

I keep running into this one error trying to set up Data Recovery. I have it installed and the appliance imported. I go into the Solutions and Applications section and the VMware Data Recovery screen. I put in the IP of the appliance and click connect. It asks me for the password for the vSphere server and while that prompt is up, it shows an "Authentication failed" error. Once I enter that password, every time I click connect for the rest of my vSphere session, I'll get this error:

Error: Could not log onto the server. The connect attempt timed out. Please make sure that the Data Recovery Appliance is turned on

It is, of course turned on and I can go to the web interface, log in and click around fine. Not sure what I could be missing. Is there a specific port it's trying to connect on that I could test out? I'm at a loss as to why it would break at this point.

-Daniel

Reply
0 Kudos
97 Replies
Mithryx
Contributor
Contributor

If I understood correctly I have the same issue on my server. I installed the plugin, installed the OVF template as described in the doc, and then booted it. I changed the IP to what I want it to be, connected to the webinterface and SSH without problems, but when I enter the IP (tried both IP and DNS) and press connect, it fails after I enter my credentials with the following error:

Error: Connect: BegingSession: failed to authenticate

Please make sure that the Data Recovery Appliance is turned on.

I have deleted the appliance and recreated it just as it says I should, and I have tried everything regards to DNS and IP, nothing helps. Oh, and there are no firewall running on the server that host VC, and I am running the vSphere client locally on that server to make sure I dont get any problems.

Any suggestions?

Edit: An update; the vSphere Center server is a Windows 2008, 32-bit server, running as a VM. I can not connect to the appliance from it (locally), but when I used a 32-bit 2003 server with the same vSphere client and the VmwareDK plugin, I could connect to the appliance and setup jobs. I will see if the jobs ran as they should by tomorrow morning, but atleast it seems to be working now. I could also connect a SMB share, opposed to the limitations to NFS shares on the ESX itself. So its looking good, cant wait to see the result.

Reply
0 Kudos
Steve_Tron
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi,

I had this issue and I found that if I used the IP address of the VC server rather than its DNS name in the vSphere client when logging in, then used the VC IP address again in the VMware Data Recovery appliance when registering the VC everthing worked ok.

Regards

Reply
0 Kudos
mcwill
Expert
Expert

Yes I can confirm there appears to be an issue relating to the OS of the client performing the initial connection setup.

I was unable to connect with a client running under vista x64, yet a client on XP x86 worked first time.

Once the initial connection had been configured with the XP client, the Vista x64 hosted client could connect as normal.

Reply
0 Kudos
conradsia
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I had an issue connecting, turned out you can not put the appliance in a vApp, but you can put it in a resource pool. Bug?

Reply
0 Kudos
admin
Immortal
Immortal

For the OS that you were initially doing the login from, was the networking of that OS configured behind a NAT or firewall? (in relation to the appliance)

Reply
0 Kudos
Erik_Bussink
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I'm in the same situation. I cannot get the DataRecovery Appliance to connect back to the vCenter.

My vCenter runs on Windows Server 2008 (x86-64). What is strange is that the Release Candidate of DR worked fine on the same vCenter.

Will attemps to connect from a x86 box to the DR Appliance and point it to the vCenter.

Erik

Erik Bussink Solution Architect @VMware CISSP, VCP#67, RHCE, DCUCD
Reply
0 Kudos
Erik_Bussink
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

With vCenter 4.0.0 running on a Windows Server 2008 (x86-64), I had to install the vSphere Client 4.0 on a Windows Servwer 2003 R2 (x86) system and add the VMwareDataRecoveryPlugin.msi

Pointing the vSphere Client towards the vCenter using the IP address and using the IP addresse during the DataRecovery configuration worked for me.

Now I can open the DataRecovery Plugin on my vCenter and continue the configuration and setup. Thanks a lot for the help.

Erik Bussink Solution Architect @VMware CISSP, VCP#67, RHCE, DCUCD
Reply
0 Kudos
billz0r
Contributor
Contributor

I've got the same issue.

My VCenter was at first a 2008 VM. After reading this I ran up a 2003 VM and installed Vcenter onto that. I readded the host to the new VCenter but got the same fault. I used IP addresses to login into VCenter and into DR VM. I'm going to reimport the DR VM now as a few errors come up on it during boot I noticed.

Update: Reimported the DRVM, same fault. Back to the drawing board. I'm puzzled why it says failed auth before I've even had a chance to enter the VCenter password. I'm also using my VI client from XP 32-bit and server 32-bit, still not working ;(

Reply
0 Kudos
Mithryx
Contributor
Contributor

Seems several of us had the same issue then. As I said earlier, when using a 32-bit 2003 with vSphere client it works perfectly, but not from the same client running on the 2008 server VC is installed on. Also, I can not get the vSphere client to work on a Windows 7 x64 computer, and I also had the same problems on Vista x64 when I ran vSphere beta earlier. So there also seem to be an issue with 64-bit Windows and the vSphere client.

Anyways, all is working great now when I did the workaround to 2003 server, so I'm "happy" in the sense that I got it working. I do hope VMWare will have a second look at the appliance/system and perhaps make it work between on 64-bit/2008 aswell.

Regards, Tom

Reply
0 Kudos
depping
Leadership
Leadership

for running vSphere Client on W7: http://www.virtuallifestyle.nl/2009/05/vmware-vsphere-client-on-microsoft-windows-7/

Duncan

VMware Communities User Moderator | VCP | VCDX

-


Blogging: http://www.yellow-bricks.com

Twitter:

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

Reply
0 Kudos
Mithryx
Contributor
Contributor

Hey Duncan.

Thanks for the tip. I tried this, downloaded the system.dll file from his site, made the Lib folder as suggested (it wasnt there from original install), made the bat file and edited it for correct commands, but still its not working as it should.

(Edited cause I found a small error on my side, but this is the new errors I get)

First I get the error saying "The request failed because of a connection failure. (Unable to connect to the remote server)

When I remove that error with OK I get a new one

"vSphere Client could not initialize a connection with server "myserver.domain". Details: A connection failure occured (Unable to connect to the remote server).

I think thats the same errors I had when I tried without the system.dll, my system is a 7100 RC build, not the 7127, but I guess that wont be the thing making the problems here.

Regards, Tom

Reply
0 Kudos
Roelofz
Contributor
Contributor

Hi,

Another symptom just seen:

When rebooting the VC server with an active appliance (backups were running), same errors are result.

Solution is connecting with another account (I used earlier domain\admin, now used vcserver\admin) to vc server with Vsphere client (and consequently this account will also be used in connecting the appliance to vc center).

It seems the appliance can't refresh its sessions by itself, leaving the old sessions open and blocking new sessions using the same credentials.

Regards,

Roelof

Regards, Roelof
Reply
0 Kudos
diphe
Contributor
Contributor

Hi, just to report same problems, vcenter installed on a w2k3 hw server, installed the plugin on a wxp client with vsphere client, imported virtual appliance, tried to register in vcenter with auth errors.

same errors if I install vdr plugin on the vcenter viclient and try to register dr appliance.

bye

Reply
0 Kudos
mauricev
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I had this issue and I found that if I used the IP address of the VC

server rather than its DNS name in the vSphere client when logging in,

then used the VC IP address again in the VMware Data Recovery appliance

when registering the VC everthing worked ok.

This was a bug in the release candidate that was supposed to have been documented in the release notes. I don't think it was affected by which OS the VC server/client was running on.

However, it seems that there was some attempt to fix it that went awry and now it doesn't work at all, even giving the error before the password is typed as someone already noted.

Reply
0 Kudos
buckmaster
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Since 2008 64 bit is supported for VC I figured our clients are going to want to install it there so I better understand how well it works. I'm chiming in to validate as well that running VC as a VM on 2008 64bit with a 32bit ODBC connection to SQL2005 that the vdr plug-in does not work or should say does not authenicate to the VC srv. Running the vsphere client and installing the vdr plug-in on a 2003 std 32 bit server authenication works to the VC server. Maybe we should open a ticket with VMware support!

Tom Miller
Reply
0 Kudos
CHogan
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Folks,

Just to reiterate that the beta name resolution issue has been resolved at GA. The vCenter name is now resolved to an IP before this information is handed off to the appliance.

With regards to the other connectivity issues related to the type of OS on which the VI Client resides, could you please file Service Requests so that we can track these issues.

Many thanks

Cormac

http://cormachogan.com
Reply
0 Kudos
billz0r
Contributor
Contributor

I would log a support request but the products I'm using are in eval mode. Obviously the purpose for this is so we can Eval VSphere and Data Recovery before we sell it to our clients as a solution. Our NFR licenses have expired (2 weeks before VSphere was released Smiley Sad ) so can't use those licenses either. I might call as long as I don't get "You don't a support contract, good bye, approach"

Reply
0 Kudos
mauricev
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I'm suggesting that it was not only not resolved, but also that it doesn't work at all! And I'm also in eval mode.

Reply
0 Kudos
CHogan
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I see. OK, well if you do have a support contract, please file an SR.

I have also brought this issue/thread to the attention of our DataRecovery eng & QA folks - hopefully we can figure out what is causing it pretty quickly.

Thanks all.

Cormac

http://cormachogan.com
Reply
0 Kudos