Maintenance Mode is not moving VMs off ESX host, so failing

[emmar]

We have an ESX 3.5 and VC 2.5 install.

VMotion is functioning fine and when DRS is set to Auto the VMs are migrated off when put into Maintenance mode.

But when we set the DRS to partial or manual or disabled, maintenance mode is not attempting to vmotion off the VMs and is stuck at 2% until will cancel or manually vmotion the VMs off.

We even get a message along the lines of. "there are virtual machines on this host, it will not be put into maintenance mode until they are migrated off or shut down"

So because of this things like UM are not working for us at the moment as it cant migrate the VMs off.

Can anyone think of any reasons!

Thanks,

E

[emmar]

One extra thing I have just thought of ...we are running in EVAL mode (waiting for the licences to be sorted!!)... anyone seen this functionality working in eval mode?

Cheers,

E

[fabian_bader]

AFAIK uses VMware DRS to automaticaly relocate the VMs entering maintenance mode. If it's on manual or disabled you have to do it on your own. I've seen the same in production and with VC 2.0.2 and ESX 3.0.1

[emmar]

as far as i know in esx3.5/vc2.5 this is a new feature and putting a host into maintenance mode should migrate any live VMs off and also gives you the option to m igrate any powered off or suspended VMs as well.....

[Exwork]

Seconded. Maintenance mode won't move VMs off for me unless set to automatic.

[LiamGP]

Third'ed - I had the same 'issue' on 3.0.2 / 2.0.2 when I forgot to set DRS back to 'auto' after testing something.

Now on 3.5 / 2/5 - I just set DRS to manual on my cluster and then put a host in maintenance mode and experience the same scenario. DRS needs to be in automatic mode for the 'Enter Maintenance Mode' task to move the VMs off the host.

[emmar]

Bizarre - to quote the VMware doc

"To ensure a consistent user experience, Update Manager migrates virtual machines to other ESX Server hosts before the server being remediated is put in maintenance mode."

And Mike Lavericks guide says :

"In VI-3.5 maintenance mode has been improved. When maintenance mode was triggered in the past it would only move VMs that were powered on. In this release maintenance mode will also move VMs which are powered off and suspended. Whilst this is an improvement, templates which are registered with an ESX host in maintenance mode are still unavailable, until maintenance mode has been exited. In the past maintenance mode in with manual or partial automated DRS would generate a whole list of 5-Star recommendations. This no longer happens and VMs are just moved automatically. It's assumed if you are entering maintenance mode you want to evacuate the ESX host of all VM's"

So it looks like this should happen in 3.5 - so it sounds like you guys are all having issues with it as well

[emmar]

BUMP!!

Anyone got anything to add to this?

Cheers

E

[sbeaver]

DRS MUST be set on fully automated for maintenance mode to vacate a host of VM's. That is about all there is to it

Steve Beaver

VMware Communities User Moderator

*Virtualization is a journey, not a project.*

[emmar]

thanks all - wording must be misleading in those docs then.

cheers,

e

[kimono]

Yes a common complaint we have. It would be nice to have an override button so maintenance mode forces vmotions.. but I guess without DRS all of the placement calculations aren't available. But they could probably easily implement something simple like round robin vmotioning across hosts in the cluster..

/kimono/

[mcowger]

Also be sure none of your VMs are somehow pinned to the host their are on (a connected floppy or cdrom device passed thrugh from the host will do it).

--Matt

[mbrown2010]

I ran into very similar issues and ended up manually migrating my hosts manually to use the update manager... I couldn't get the VMWare Update Manager to work without doing this as it wouldn't get into maintenance mode. At least its still easier than doing the updates manually... VMWare Update Manager - ESX Host upgrade.

[ibewhoiam]

I too have the same issue. DRS is set to Automatic and yet it still fails entering Maintenance Mode. The machines can be vMotioned manually however the convience of having them automatically vMotion is important. The status gets to about 2% when it starts "Enter Maintenance Mode". It hangs there for about 3 to 4 minutes. The Task times out. In the Event description it says that it was "unable to automatically migrate" the VM's on the Host in question. The DRS recomendations work and move machines without a problem. Any help would be welcomed. Thanks!

[iSinclair]

By chance do you have a different networking Setup on the ESX server running the VM you can't migrate then the others? I'm running into a similar issue and it seems that one of my hosts have an extra switch group that the VM has tied itself to that the rest do not. Somehow I think I have to try and delete this switch group (unfortunately its hosting my Virtual Centre VM making this a bit tricky but once this is gone it should work

[Edouard_GAULUE]

I've got exactly the same problem and no solution yet !

[Erik_Zandboer]

Please check if you have any DRS rules in place. Even if DRS is set to fully automated, VMs will not migrate if that would violate the DRS rules. For example, if you have two ESX nodes, and two domian controllers, you might add a DRS rule to keep those two domain controllers on different hosts. Whe you enter maintenance mode on any of the hosts, the DC on that host will NOT migrate because then both DCs would end up on the same box.

Edit: If in doubt, try to manually migrate the VMs. It might be that manual migration fails as well, and the error will usually give you a direct clue as to what is wrong (network stringnames different, CDROM images mounted etc etc).

[ibewhoiam]

In addition to ensuring the DRS settings are configured correctly, install some of the more recent updates. I was running into the same problem but my ESX servers were not up to date. Once they were, my issues disappeared. Note: because you entering Maintenance mode does not automatically move your VMs you will have to manually move your VMs to your other HOST so it can be updated.

[Edouard_GAULUE]

It's true. I was just installing a new version and now it seems to work...

I say "it seems" because it just moved one out of five but not the rest.

to be continued...

[Edouard_GAULUE]

Maybe a good idea.

I have no DC. But, I have choose to virtualise my Virtual Center. Is it possible there are rules on this ?

Where to see those rules ?