Virtualization Blog

I recently experienced an issue with vCenter 5.5 was getting disconnected sporadically. vCneter was running on windows 2012 server. I was able to see following errors in windows logs. vCenter Logs were showing following errors -          2018-08-18T01:30:03.630-04:00 [11432 error 'Default' opID=92132b4] An unrecoverable problem has occurred, stopping the VMware VirtualCenter service. Error: Error[VdbODBCError] (-1) ODBC error: (08S01) - [Microsoft][SQL Server Native Client 11.0]TCP Provider: The specified network name is no longer available.         2018-08-18T01:30:03.630-04:00 [11432 error 'Default' opID=92132b4] An unrecoverable problem has occurred, stopping the VMware VirtualCenter service. Error: Error[VdbODBCError] (-1) ODBC error: (08S01) - [Microsoft][SQL Server Native Client 11.0]TCP Provider: The specified network name is no longer available.         2018-08-19T19:28:31.801-04:00 [06368 warning...

I was working in an environment where NSX was configured with Trend micro deep security in VDI environment to protect VDI desktops. We had 2 vCenters setup in that way and one of the vCenter is showing some odd symptoms. We are seeing some weird actions with NSX manager in one vCenter. So, I lose the connection to the vCenter from fat client, web client is still fine and doesn’t kick me off. In the process, the Guest Introspection appliance or GI VMs (appliance managed by NSX) from some  random hosts were getting deleted automatically -  from the cluster that was protected with NSX. When I checked the windows logs (as vCenter was on windows server) this is what I saw -  I opened a case with VMware support - They reviewed the NSX logs and came to conclusion that this is not the NSX issue but it's vCenter that is deleting those VMs. vCenter gets disconnected for few seconds, then connects back. It doesn't recognizes those GI VMs and starts de...

Add-PSSnapin  VMware.VimAutomation.Core    (For vSphere 5.5 or below) Import-Module VMware.VimAutomation.Core   (For vSphere 6.0 and above)   Connect-VIServer  vCenterName Get-Datastore | Select Name, @{N="NumberofVMs"; E={@($_ | Get-VM).count}} | Sort Name |Out-file "C:\Temp\VMcount.csv"

Here is a script to check Power state of a VM using power shell. Create the .csv file (vmlist.csv) with header name as "name" and list all the VMs under it, for which power state needs to be determined. Enter the appropriate vCenter name to connect to the vCenter. The list of VMs and its power state will be displayed on the screen. Add-PSSnapin  VMware.VimAutomation.Core    (For vSphere 5.5 or below) Import-Module VMware.VimAutomation.Core   (For vSphere 6.0 and above)   Connect-VIServer vCenterName $vms = Import-csv " C:\temp\vmlist.csv " foreach ($vm in $vms) { $p = get-vm $vm.name | Select-Object Powerstate $q = ($p).powerstate Write-output "$($vm.name) `t $($q)" }

Here  are the high level step to upgrade the HPE 3PAR Storage Replication Adapter (SRA) - If old SRA is visible in add remove programs -  View certificates for old array (that will be removed after migration) from SRM server using following path and TPDsrm utility -        C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery manager\Storage\SRA\3Parinsrv>              TPDsrm.exe viewcert Uninstall old 3PAR SRA from SRM server using uninstall program feature. Reboot the SRM server. Install new 3PAR SRA using the .exe file provided by vendor. Check if you can see the new SRA in Program list. If so, reboot the SRM server.  Validate certificates for new array using following path and command on SRM server -        C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Site Recovery manager\Storage\SRA\3Parinsrv>               TPDsrm.exe validatecert -s...

The NSX manager was deployed and configured correctly. It was showing up in vCenter, when I configured it. After few days when I checked suddenly NSX  disappeared from the vCenter inventory. I logged in to NSX manager and it was all fine. It was showing as connected with its respective vCenter but wasn't showing up in the vCenter.  I tried to restart the vCenter services and vCenter server that did not resolve the issue. Easiest fix that worked with me for this issue is to restart the NSX manager and then it shows up back in vCenter.