vMotion failing at 9%: Error 0xbad010d

A short post, even though its been ages since my last post. But I promise I will fix that next week. 🙂 This one is more of a personal reminder cause  the VMware KB had nothing on this, only this which didn’t work at all.

I was trying to vMotion a VM today (actually Redeploy VMs in vCloud but still)  and I got this error:

A general system error occured: Failed to start migration pre-copy Error 0xbad010d. The Esx host failed connect over the VMotion network.

All host were using vDS and different VLANs for Managment and vMotion vKernels.

First thing to check is vmkping vMotion IPs on the hosts, everything checked out fine.
Then I glanced over the event log on the host and I saw that the vMotion vKernel was trying to contact the mangement IP on another host, not its vMotion vKernel (which were not on the same VLAN, as they should).

Just before I had to remove the receiving host from the vDS by unassigning all pNics from its vDS, restore vSS and re-add the host to the cluster.
So the easy way to fix that is to deselect vMotion on the management vKernel on the receiving host.

Took me at least good 20 min to finally check for that small line in the event log 🙂 I hope this helps someone in the future so they can use the 20 min to get more coffee and bacon.

vExpert 2012

Every year VMware’s Social Media Guru John Troyer @jtroyer and now Alex Maier @lxmaier, choose vExperts which are:

“individuals who have significantly contributed to the community of VMware users over the past year. The title is awarded to individuals (not employers) for their commitment to sharing their knowledge and passion for VMware technology above and beyond their job requirements.”

As of yesterday I made it to that coveted list 🙂 I couldn’t be more happier 🙂

IBM to support Lotus Notes on hosted virtual desktops

IBM stated recently they will support Lotus Notes on virtual desktops. This means that they will support virtual desktops as they do with physical desktops. Good news for everybody that uses Lotus Notes and has a VDI infrastructure. See the official technote here.

Passed the VCP5

I passed the VCP5 yesterday. Hurray!
Without telling to much, you really need to know the whole range of the new vSphere features.(and the old ones 🙂
The study guides I used are:
Simon Long’s VCP5 Questions; Good questions on VCP5. A bit easy though.

vReference Documentation Notes; Really enjoyed reading these, found lots of “Oh I didn’t know that” facts in there 🙂

Jason Langer and Josh Coen Notes; Good overview of the VCP5 BluePrint.

vInfrastructure.it VCP5 links and Notes and lots of other good stuff; Must visit if studying for the VCP5.

And Scott Lowe’s Mastering vSphere 5. Excellent book, but will in no way make you “master” vSpere 5.

Other Links for VCP5 info and even more links:

http://thesaffageek.co.uk/vcp5/

http://damiankarlson.com/2011/11/01/vmware-vcp-5-resources/

http://vcp5.wordpress.com/

http://cosonok.blogspot.com/2011/10/vcp510-vcp-on-vsphere-5-exam-cram-notes.html

http://vmwaretraining.blogspot.com/2011/10/vcp5-information-and-preparation.html

VM “virtually” running in vCenter

The other day I got a strange case regarding a “frozen” VM in vCenter.

The machine in question was a Lotus Notes Server that had crashed because of a failed snapshot task.

vCenter said that the machine in question was running, but inaccessible. Console showed an error regarding its vmx file.

When trying to power down the VM an error popped up: “Cannot power Off: Another task is already in progress.”.

That was strange as there were no running tasks in the vSphere client.

Next stop was Tech Support mode as this was a ESXi 4.0 Host.

Next command was :”vmware-vim-cmd vimsvc/task_list”. That informed me that there was an active task on the host that had the VM. See kb.vmware.com/kb/1013003

PID or ESXTOP showed that the VM was not running. So no-go on the kill command as there was nothing to kill. See kb.vmware.com/kb/1004340.

vCenter = Machine running < Host = Machine not running

So there was nothing left but to restart the vCenter MGMT agent on the host.

To sum it up: vCenter agents don’t always show the correct state of a VM. Confirm VM state at a host level.

Prepping for the VCP5

As usual when prepping for a VCP I write the Configuration Maximums on my chalk wall to get a glimpse every time I walk by and all the (high) numbers seems to have stirred a unknown artistic side of me…

A closer look at the Monster VM shows its reading preferences 🙂

First post!

This is my first virtualization post, hopefully one of many.