vmware 1.x servers

[jkstraw]

Hi,

I have two RHEL ES 4 servers running VMware Server 1.01. I am running the HQ-Agent as root, HQ Server find the server, HQ-Agent and NTP, but not the VMware Service.

I went to add the server manually but ran into problems.

I am specifying the path of install as /usr/sbin (because this is where the vmware-serverd and vmware-authd reside).

Once I do that I get prompted that the server need configuration (authd port, uname, password and server hostname). I enter this information and get the error that port 2144 is not open (which it is).

Any thoughts? Am I specifying the wrong vmware install location (should I be specifying /usr/lib/vmware) - would this misconfiguration lead to a false error message (that port 2144 is not open?)

[mjpe]

I too have the rpm version, althoug 1.0.3 but that should not matter.

I downloaded the server tar.gz package and extracted the libvmcontrol-helper from it. (should be in 1.0.4 as well) And put it in the dir where the vmware-vmx resides, (/usr/lib/vmware/bin/), chmodded it so every user may execute it.

Another thing was that the user hyperic is running under had to have rwx perms on the vmx files to be able to control and get detailed virtual machine stats.

But currently libvmcontrol-helper crashes after some hours with a segfault on my centos 5 x86_64 system. So all the work was for nothing.... 😞
But there may be a bug in the above compiling process causing that, as another thread in the forum describes...

hope i could help...

[Linux_ETC]

I finally found the "libvmwcontrol-helper" (my typo in using "find"). For those reviewing this thread, the tarball has it in

<where ever you unpacked it>/vmware-server-distrib/lib/bin/libvmcontrol-helper

I was focusing on the vmware-server-distrib/lib/lib directory instead and got tunnel vision.

However, I still get the "Plugin error: VMware control library not available." when trying to configure this with the server. Did I miss something perhaps when I copied that file to the /usr/lib/vmware/bin directory?

[mjpe]

can the user the agent is running under access and execute libvmcontrol-helper?
can this user execute a vmrun list?
was the compilation successful? (is the .so file in the agent directory? I don't know exact name an path now)
Is there more debug output from the agent?

[Linux_ETC]

Comments below:

> can the user the agent is running under access and
> execute libvmcontrol-helper?

Yes from what I can see of the permissions, 755 for that. I do wonder what the results of since I left it sitting on the CLI with a "-?" afterwards to see a simple result of a possible help or info file for a few minutes, but nada showed up. Just the next prompt for input on the system.

> can this user execute a vmrun list?

Yes, also 755. Seems to work as well.

> was the compilation successful? (is the .so file in
> the agent directory? I don't know exact name an path
> now)

Found ./pdk/work/lib/vmware/vmcontrol64.so in the Hyperic Agent directory. Cannot tell nor answer about the compilation part since I just opened up the tarball and started things via ./hq-agent start which went through the setup routine.

> Is there more debug output from the agent?

<date and time stamp omitted>,651 WARN [RuntimeAutodiscoverer] Error running autodiscoverer for plugin: VMware Server 1.x: Error discovering VMs: An internal error occured
org.hyperic.hq.product.PluginException: Error discovering VMs: An internal error occured
at org.hyperic.hq.plugin.vmware.VMwareDetector.getServices(VMwareDetector.java:505)
at org.hyperic.hq.plugin.vmware.VMwareDetector.discoverServices(VMwareDetector.java:391)
at org.hyperic.hq.product.ServerDetector.discoverResources(ServerDetector.java:201)
at org.hyperic.hq.autoinventory.agent.server.RuntimeAutodiscoverer.doRuntimeScan_internal(RuntimeAutodiscoverer.java:292)
at org.hyperic.hq.autoinventory.agent.server.RuntimeAutodiscoverer.doRuntimeScan(RuntimeAutodiscoverer.java:220)
at org.hyperic.hq.autoinventory.ScanManager.mainRunLoop(ScanManager.java:165)
at org.hyperic.hq.autoinventory.ScanManager.access$000(ScanManager.java:41)
at org.hyperic.hq.autoinventory.ScanManager$1.run(ScanManager.java:107)
Caused by: org.hyperic.sigar.vmware.VMwareException: An internal error occured
at org.hyperic.sigar.vmware.VMwareServer.connect(Native Method)
at org.hyperic.hq.plugin.vmware.VMwareDetector.getServices(VMwareDetector.java:480)
... 7 more

So I am not sure what the above is pointing to, though I did comment out the line before the installation of openssl-devel via yum to exclude vmware initially. Since the installation though, added it back into the mix to see what is happening and to work on this some more of course. 😉

I did go back to the Agent's .bash_profile and added in the additional info for the PATH to see if that might also assist with the above. Will post anything different in a few minutes while I let Hyperic plug away some more.

TIA again. 🙂

[Linux_ETC]

Upon restarting the agent after making the modifications to the .bash_profile PATH statement, apparently it is now liking things a little bit. Instead of WARN, I have INFO coming up with the following

2007-11-28 13:56:50,256 INFO [RuntimeAutodiscoverer] Running runtime autodiscovery for VMware Server 1.x
2007-11-28 13:56:50,469 INFO [VMwareDetector] Cannot link guest to host: Permission denied: You need write permission in order to set guestinfo variables
2007-11-28 13:56:50,492 INFO [VMwareDetector] Cannot link guest to host: Permission denied: You need write permission in order to set guestinfo variables
2007-11-28 13:56:50,517 INFO [VMwareDetector] Cannot link guest to host: Permission denied: You need write permission in order to set guestinfo variables
2007-11-28 13:56:50,965 INFO [RuntimeAutodiscoverer] VMware Server 1.x discovery took 0.69

So it seems the PATH variable for the Hyperic Agent user account might need some firmer adjusting. I included the "/usr/lib/vmware/bin/" specifically here.

More to come after I let this round of mods plug and chug some more. Seems like some progress though! B-)

[Linux_ETC]

That seems to have been the issue, or at least a fix or work around with the adjustment of the Hyperic Agent's PATH variable in .bash_profile.

I presently have VMware Server showing up as "green" and the server's VM's also coming up slowly as "green" for the ones that are active. The inactive VM's needed confirmation on their configuration with Hyperic on the Server side, which took a few clicks.

Thanks for the assistance, hopefully this will help on your end as well.

B-)

[Linux_ETC]

I guess I spoke too soon on "everything is working fine". The VM's at the "Services" level apparently disappeared (went from "available" status to "unknown" status) later the same day. I will be starting a new thread on this shortly since it seems from the logs and such to be a new issue.

[mjpe]

look for a segfault of libvmcontrol-helper in /var/log/messages, you could also check ps aux | grep -i libvm , the agent should have started that process. Seems hyperic needs it to get the VM's metrics (and availability).

Another user may have discovered something:
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/349583?tstart=0

bye

[lundrog]

I am running vmware 1.0.5 on SLES 10.0 64 and my agent crashes without any error's. Hyperic 3.2.4

Anyone have any updates on this?


I am not sure how to do what the last post said.

Message was edited by: lundrog

[lundrog]

I installed the agent again using the full 64 installer, and now it doesn't crash, but doesn't auto discover either.

[lundrog]

See post for fix


http://communities.vmware.com/message/1929324#1929324