VMware vSphere 6.5 Top Issues and Troubleshooting

VMware vSphere 6.5 Top Issues and Troubleshooting

This morning, VMware hosted a free webinar on vSphere 6.5 top issues and troubleshooting. If you are already on vSphere 6.5 or looking to make the jump, I would recommend watching the webcast. In it, VMware dove into top issues reported by customers and discussed how to identify and resolve said issues. If a resolution is not available, a workaround was given.

If you missed the webinar, here is a recap of the issues and fixes discussed. Most issues have a respective KB attached for reference. Definitely, take a look at those before performing any troubleshooting or resolving.

Purple Screen of Death (PSOD) Issues

If you have never seen the PSOD, it is an actual purple diagnostic screen that is displayed on the console of your ESXi host. A PSOD will happen when the VMkernel on that host experiences a critical error or becomes inoperable. Your virtual machines will cease to run when this happens.

To diagnose the PSOD, use the vmkernel.log and/or the backtrace of the diagnostic screen by console access to the host.

Issue – PSOD: GP Exception 13 in multiple VMM world at VmAnon_AllocVmmPages.

Occurs on destination hosts when vMotioning a virtual machine that contains custom VMX settings.

Resolved in ESXi 6.50a. If you are unable to upgrade, manually change Numa.FollowCoresPerSocket to 1 on the ESXi 6.5 hosts.

Issue – PSOD: World nnnn tried to re-acquire lock.

Occurs on HPE Proliant servers running 6.5 due to an issue in the hp-ilo kernel module charOpen process. The specific driver affected is 65.10.0.1-24.

Resolved by upgrading the hp-ilo driver to version 650.10.0.2 or later

Database Issues

Ensure to back up your database before performing any troubleshooting.

Issue – vCenter 6.5 failure due to a database unique constraint violation at pk_vpx_vm_virtual_device.

Occurs due to a primary key constraint violation, usually duplicate, on the VPX_VM_VIRTUAL_DEVICE. This triggers a vpxd failure.

As per the vCenter 6.50b release notes, unregister the problematic virtual machine in host inventory and restart the vCenter Server. For reference the VPXD log will display the id and device_key.

If that doesn’t work contact VMware Support. They will most likely delete the violating row from the specified table.

Issue – Windows vCenter Server 6.5 install fails with VMware VirtualCenter failed firstboot. An error occurred while starting service ‘vpxd’.

Occurs when vpxd perceives the SQL database to not have enough available space during install check. If you have adequate space, this is a false positive caused by the calculation logic. This triggers a vpxd failure.

Resolved by removing the limit on the database file size.

Upgrade Issues

Ensure to back up your vCenter before troubleshooting.

Issue – Windows vCenter Server 6.5 fails with an exception: Failed to configure identity manager.

Occurs due to a conflicting OpenSSL installation on the same Windows machine. Checking the vmware-sts-idmd.log will show error relating to unable to load library ‘ssleay32.dll’

Resolved by removing any additional OpenSSL installations or applications that bundle OpenSSL. It is always best practice to install vCenter on its own machine. However, if you need to install additional applications, add them after vCenter install.

Issue – vCenter 6.5 upgrade fails with an error stating, VMware VirtualCenter failed firstboot. An error occurred while invoking external command : ‘Command: [‘/usr/sbin/vpxd’, ‘-L’] Stderr:

Occurs due to a duplicate entry for a dvSwitch or dvPortGroup. VPXD.log will show a record of Duplicate entry found for child: dvSwitch in folder:

Resolved by renaming objects (dvSwitch or Portgroup) with unique names.

Issue – vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 upgrade fails with an error stating, internal error occurs during execution of upgrade process.

Typically occurs when eth0 network adapter is not found on the VCSA. If the vCenter Server had previously been restored from backup, had the adapter changed or MAC address altered, the network adapter will no longer be eth0. It would have been renamed to eth1 or 2, etc. Bootstrap.log will show an entry for Eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found.

Resolved by removing invalid entries or renaming 70-persisten-net.rules file.

Clean Install Issues

Issue – vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 install fails with a timeout was exceeded error.

Occurs if no FQDN is provided during the installation. As a result DNS lookup fails.

Resolved by ensuring FQDN is used for vCSA. Also, forward and reverse DNS records should be in place before install.

Other Issues

Issue – Windows vCenter Server 6.5 services fails to start prompting a logon failure: the user has not been granted the requested logon type at this computer.

Occurs when VMware Service Lifecycle Manager service fails to start. Event Viewer log displays an entry stating, logon failure: the user has not been granted the requested logon type at this computer.

Resolved by adding vCenter accounts to the Log on as a batch job policy of effective GPO.

Issue – Unable to deploy OVF/OVA using vCenter Server Appliance 6.5 web client. Error states, this version of vCenter Server does not support Deploy OVF Template using this version of vSphere Web Client. To Deploy OVF Template, login with version 6.5.0.0 of vSphere Web Client

Occurs due to an inconsistency in the SSO token issuer certificate on systems upgraded from vSphere 5.1 or earlier

Resolved in VMware vCenter Server Appliance 6.5b. If you are unable to upgrade, deploy the OVF with OVF Tool.

VMware Webcasts Link

Comments are closed.