This happened to me a few months ago on a fresh install of the vcenter appliance 6.5. It just stopped working a week or two after applying an update. Services would not start and there was no indication as to why. It wasn't a space issue, it wasn't that other issue with a duplicate value in the vpostgres database I read about either. I finally gave up and wiped it out to redeploy from scratch.

Well low and behold, sometime last night vcenter stopped working again. This time it wasn't even a full week after having applied the 6.5.0c patch. Only two services start, none of the others will. My deployment is two appliances, a PSC and the vCenter. The PSC appears fine and the services are showing healthy. The vCenter turned to garbage again.  Here's an output of service-control:

root@mp1vsivcs501 [ ~ ]# service-control --status
Running:
 lwsmd vmafdd
Stopped:
 applmgmt vmcam vmonapi vmware-cm vmware-content-library vmware-eam vmware-imagebuilder vmware-mbcs vmware-netdumper vmware-perfcharts vmware-rbd-watchdog vmware-rhttpproxy vmware-sca vmware-sps vmware-statsmonitor vmware-updatemgr vmware-vapi-endpoint vmware-vcha vmware-vmon vmware-vpostgres vmware-vpxd vmware-vpxd-svcs vmware-vsan-health vmware-vsm vsphere-client vsphere-ui

Trying to start any service produces a similar output:

root@mp1vsivcs501 [ ~ ]# service-control --start vmware-vpxd-svcs
Perform start operation. vmon_profile=None, svc_names=['vmware-vpxd-svcs'], include_coreossvcs=False, include_leafossvcs=False
2017-04-24T19:36:49.136Z   Running command: ['/usr/bin/systemctl', 'set-environment', 'VMON_PROFILE=NONE']
2017-04-24T19:36:49.140Z   Done running command
2017-04-24T19:36:49.143Z   Running command: ['/usr/bin/systemctl', 'daemon-reload']
2017-04-24T19:36:49.222Z   Done running command
2017-04-24T19:36:49.222Z   Running command: ['/usr/bin/systemctl', 'set-property', u'vmware-vmon.service', 'MemoryAccounting=true', 'CPUAccounting=true', 'BlockIOAccounting=true']
2017-04-24T19:36:49.227Z   Done running command
2017-04-24T19:36:49.231Z   RC = 1
Stdout =
Stderr = Failed to execute operation: Unit file is masked


2017-04-24T19:36:49.231Z   {    "resolution": null,    "detail": [        {            "args": [                "Stderr: Failed to execute operation: Unit file is masked\n"            ],            "id": "install.ciscommon.command.errinvoke",            "localized": "An error occurred while invoking external command : 'Stderr: Failed to execute operation: Unit file is masked\n'",            "translatable": "An error occurred while invoking external command : '%(0)s'"        }    ],    "componentKey": null,    "problemId": null
}
2017-04-24T19:36:49.231Z   Running command: ['/usr/bin/systemctl', 'unset-environment', 'VMON_PROFILE']
2017-04-24T19:36:49.235Z   Done running command
Error executing start on service vpxd-svcs. Details {    "resolution": null,    "detail": [        {            "args": [                "vmware-vmon"            ],            "id": "install.ciscommon.service.failstart",            "localized": "An error occurred while starting service 'vmware-vmon'",            "translatable": "An error occurred while starting service '%(0)s'"        }    ],    "componentKey": null,    "problemId": null
}
Service-control failed. Error {    "resolution": null,    "detail": [        {            "args": [                "vmware-vmon"            ],            "id": "install.ciscommon.service.failstart",            "localized": "An error occurred while starting service 'vmware-vmon'",            "translatable": "An error occurred while starting service '%(0)s'"        }    ],    "componentKey": null,    "problemId": null
}

The first thing that pops out for me is line 11, "Failed to execute operation: Unit file is masked". I get that on every service I attempt to start and I'm not finding anything in VMware's knowledge portal about it. This is extremely frustrating.

**Additional info**

Running a search on just unit file is masked took me to a generic ubuntu thread about systemctl showing masked unit files. Here's the output of the systemctl list-unit-files:

root@mp1vsivcs501 [ ~ ]# systemctl list-unit-files | grep vmware
vmware-bigsister.service               static 
vmware-cm.service                      masked 
vmware-content-library.service         masked 
vmware-eam.service                     masked 
vmware-firewall.service                enabled
vmware-imagebuilder.service            masked 
vmware-mbcs.service                    masked 
vmware-netdump.service                 masked 
vmware-perfcharts.service              masked 
vmware-rbd-watchdog.service            masked 
vmware-rhttpproxy.service              masked 
vmware-sca.service                     masked 
vmware-sps.service                     masked 
vmware-statsmonitor.service            masked 
vmware-updatemgr.service               masked 
vmware-vapi.service                    masked 
vmware-vcha.service                    masked 
vmware-vmon.service                    masked 
vmware-vmonapi.service                 masked 
vmware-vpostgres.service               masked 
vmware-vpxd-svcs.service               masked 
vmware-vpxd.service                    masked 
vmware-vsan-health.service             masked 
vmware-vsm.service                     masked 
vmware-bigsister.timer                 disabled

Not sure if that's normal or not, but it appears to be what the error message is complaining about?

Message was edited by: jhboricua

I just upgraded my Dell PowerEdge R320 to 6.5 U1.  When I go into the Host - Monitor - Hardware - Storage, I get the message "The Small Footprint CIM Broker Daemon (SFCBD) is running, but no data has been reported. You may need to install a CIM provider for your storage adapter.". 

The Dell PERC H710 mini appears to be compatible: VMware Compatibility Guide - I/O Device Searchhttps://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/detail.php?deviceCategory=io&productid=39513

I found an older post about needing the CIM driver because Dell doesn't provide one: http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/b/techcenter/archive/2013/07/01/monitoring-dell-poweredge-raid-controllers-in-vm…

Any help/advice on how I can get my storage data?  I'm just connecting to the web GUI for the host, I don't have vCenter setup yet. 

I have one T620 DELL server with vmware6.5 in my hardware storage monitoring have problem

Hello everybody

As per this KB article (http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1026437) I have set these options on the ESXi hosts.

Even after upgrading tools on the VMs and moving them around, I still can't copy and paste files between these VMs and my machine. Text works, though.

I'm I just misunderstanding these options and they are supposed to only allow text? I seem to remember that copying files was possible in 4.0 so what do I have to configure, if it's at all possible, to regain file copying capability?

Regards,

Marco

Hi All

I hope you can help because I've got an issue that's a killer.

we run about 8 ESXi 5.5 and 6 boxes out in Offices with limited internet to provide local DC, FNP and Applications they need in country.

these boxes are a standard build of HP DL380 G8p with ESXi on a onboard SD card with a 6 disk raid 5 datastore.

one of these servers hosting 3 VM's developed a issue (fan Failure) and as such an engineer was called to replace the fan. we shut the machine down remotely and the engineer did the replacement when the system came back-up there where no VM's registered on the datastore and it appeared blank.

we checked the ilo and vkernal logs and it seems on the reboot the SD card failed and the system recovered to a recovery partition on the raid datastore and had reset the partitions and returned to it's original install configuration (i.e. the wrong i.p. address and a 60 day eval license).

we couldn't find a way to restore the VM's ourselves so have had to send the disks to data recovery specialists to get the data restored.

the issues are

1. we didn't know that the recovery partition was there and that this was a possibility.

2.was user input required to set the system to restore or was this an automatic recovery?

3. how do we prevent this happening on our other ESXi hosts ?

ideally we would like to know can we get a Raid 1 pair of disks and move the recovery partition to them (or even to a USB stick in each server) to preserve the Data store.

has anyone seen this behavior before?

we have had SD cards fail before and normally just get a Purple screen of Doom until we replace the Card and reconfigure. but those are in our Vcentre and attached to the SAN.

Thanks in Advance

Michael Groombridge

I am installing few rack servers to put in a new VMware data center. My focus is networking on the physical switch side.

Each server has two 10GbE nic cards for vDS to support multiple ports group. I am configuring it to  use "route based physical nic load." I do not have a clear picture on physical switch configuration side. Let's say if I go with " Route based physical nic load" (LBT), what would I need to get configured on Cisco physical switch.

Do I still need  EtherChannel trunk port on the physical switch or just trunk port? I was asked by the network team whether I need LAG, port channel/EtherChannel, etc.  I would appreciate if you share/guide me some information.

Hi,

I am using ESXi 5.5, build 1281650.

I am having the problem of not being able to start any VM's without getting the following message

Transport (VMDB) error -45: Failed to connect to peer process.

Failed to power on '/vmfs/volumes/51a6288d-06384dd1-6fd5-089e01a03cd5/test/test.vmx'.

There are currently 5 VM's. 1 of them is running and it is fine, but I am afraid to turn it off worrying it may not come back up again.

The above error happens even when i create new machines.

I have in total 3 of these ESXi installation, all running on the same build and same hardware.

Only difference that I can see right now is that int he server summary under Genreal there is no Image Profile, it is blank. My w other working servers show ESXI-T.T.0-1331820-standard. I do not know if this means anything

Any assistance will be appreciated.

Regards,

I need to parse data, which just got a lot when I found the esxcli --formatter=keyvalue,

which for example gives me data like this.

The data I treat as a String

Question: Can I always assume each line is terminated by a single '\n'   (0x0A) ?

If not, what usable can I use to separate the lines when I parse the data?

esxcli --formatter=keyvalue network ip interface ipv4 get

structure[0].IPv4Interface.AddressType.string=STATIC

structure[0].IPv4Interface.DHCPDNS.boolean=false

structure[0].IPv4Interface.Gateway.string=10.243.0.1

structure[0].IPv4Interface.IPv4Address.string=10.243.1.43

structure[0].IPv4Interface.IPv4Broadcast.string=10.243.15.255

structure[0].IPv4Interface.IPv4Netmask.string=255.255.240.0

structure[0].IPv4Interface.Name.string=vmk0

structure[1].IPv4Interface.AddressType.string=DHCP

I have ESXi 5.0 FREE version; works great except this one issue I cannot resolve.

I have 2x Intel NICs, 10GE dual port 82599EB.

Issue: only first 1st port of the card is getting detected and available through vSphere client. I checked this by matching the MAC addresses.

From ESXi CLI the network list shows 2 1G ports (which is fine), and 2 10G ports (which should be 4)

If I look at PCI list of devices, you shall see all 6 (2x 1G and 4x 10G showing up there).

~ # lspci | grep vmnic

000:002:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation 82599EB 10-Gigabit SFI/SFP+ Network Connection [vmnic0]

000:002:00.1 Network controller: Intel Corporation 82599EB 10-Gigabit SFI/SFP+ Network Connection [vmnic1]

000:003:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation 82574L Gigabit Network Connection [vmnic2]

000:004:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation 82574L Gigabit Network Connection [vmnic3]

000:005:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation 82599EB 10-Gigabit SFI/SFP+ Network Connection [vmnic4]

000:005:00.1 Network controller: Intel Corporation 82599EB 10-Gigabit SFI/SFP+ Network Connection [vmnic5]

Hi, I have a problem with a virtual machine, it is not possible to expand the space, I have other machines in the usual esxi that have no problems, no problem in other esxi, how can I do? Can I expand from the command line?

Thanks

Marco

I am looking for a utility to organize and manage VMWare Remote Console connections outside the VSphere Web Client.

My scenario is this:  I want to setup a Test Lab with no IP connectivity to my Corporate LAN.  Complete Isolation.  I will have a need to connect to each machine through the Remote Console connection but wanted to avoid the need to log into VSphere Web GUI to accomplish this.  I was hoping someone knew of a utility that could connect to a VCenter Server or ESXi Host itself and display a listing of each available VM in the Host or VCenter.  This would eliminate the need to setup complicated routing and what not and allow for a simple isolated test lab environment.

I appreciate any feedback and direction that anyone would like to share.

Something Like SolarWinds VM Console is just shy of the mark.  If it incorporated a connect to console option it would be a great soltution.

FREE VM Console | SolarWinds

Thanks,

Darren

Hi,

We have a strange problem/bug in our new VMware cluster.

Environment

BL460 gen10 with HP FlexFabric 20Gb 2-port 650FLB Adapter

HPE C7000 chassis

vSphere 6.0 (build 6775062)

ESX01,ESX03 and ESX03 are in chassi01

ESX04,ESX05 and ESX are in chassi02

VMs intermittent loses network connectivity. 

When this happens the “remedy” is to migrate the specific VM to some other host in the cluster.

So far it seems that it doesn’t matter if I migrate the VM to a VMhost inside the same chassis or to the other chassis , just a migration seems to solve the issue. (I can’t migrate it back to the same host though)

I have around 150 VMs in this cluster and so far I’ve had issues with 5-6 of them , completely random.

They could be on any of my VMhosts in the cluster.

Haven’t created any support case with VMware or HPE yet , this forum post is my first advance to tackle this problem.

All firmware is updated to the latest from HPE 

Someone who have seen similar issues?

Regards

Johan

There are so many postings and discussions about Meltdown and Spectra. They are keep getting updated.

We have applied the early release VMware patches and BISO update for E5-2699 V4 CPU.

I think there is an issue with that patches based on VMware KB 552345

1 Do we have to add cpuid.7.edx = "----:00--:----:----:----:----:----:----" to workaround in addition to the patches?

2. Do we have to power down/power up the VMs?

Is there an ESXi command line command that can apply assigned licenses?

I got a list of the assigned licenses my company acquired, the ESXi machines still have evaluation license on them. I need to know how to proper update the systems to match the license.

And though the answer may be different I have the same question for a VCenter installation as well

Hello Everyone,

I'll start by saying I've spent the last few days consistently trying to find a solution to my problem.  If the answer is obviously out there, I'm sorry, cause I missed it.

My host has ESXi 6.5 installed on it.  I want one of the VMs to function as my (physical) desktop computer.  I have successfully passed through my GTX 1060 (PCIE GPU), so when I boot the VM up, it beautifully displays on my physical monitor.  The drivers successfully installed too.

My challenge now is to get a physical keyboard and mouse dedicated to the Windows VM, rather than the console.  My Windows VM has a USB controller.  With that said, here is my thought process:

- When I add a "USB Device", HID (mouse and keyboard) devices are not shown.  My SanDisk Cruzer USB drive immediately shows up, but neither my Microsoft media keyboard, or my 2 other usb periphrials (1 mouse 1 keyboard) show up to pass through.  However, when I SSH into my ESXi server, and I run the command "lsusb", all the devices (including keyboards) show up. So this tells me my host is recognizing it, but intentionally not allowing it to be passed through.

I read online that this is intentional, so you accidentally don't lock yourself out of your console.  I am perfectly happy with my console not responding to my keyboard.  I found a few flags online, to put in the VMX file of the VM, but these did not work.  I tried rebooting my host.

I thought of passing through the entire USB interface.  The Web Admin only shows that I have 1 USB Controller (Intel).  It is not capable of pass through (greyed out).  I think this is because the console has confiscated it, do the usb driver can run.  So there is nothing I can simply pass through.

I tried reverting to the legacy USB drivers (disable the new VMKUSB driver) , by using SSH, and entering, "esxcli system module set -m=vmkusb -e=FALSE".  When I enter this command, and reboot my host, the only usb device I see is "intel bluetooth", which is obviously confusing for me.

I don't have another PCIE slot to put in a USB hub, so I think my only option at this point is to figure out a way for HID devices to be allowed as USB devices by ESXi.  It's comically ridiculous that it's this hard to simply plug a usb device into a VM.

I have only been using the Web Admin.  I tried installing the VMware client for windows, but it is not supported by my version of ESXi (6.5)

Thank you for reading my question.  I really appreciate your time and help!

Hi i created a vm on my server running esxi and i logged in from a windows 10 computer on the same lan.. Now i have some operating systems on the windwos 10 computer that im managing the ESXI server with.. I have created a vm but now how to I get it to boot from an ISO i have on the windows 10 computer.. Iv tried up loading the ISO to the data center where the virtual machine i created lives.. but i dont know how to get it to boot from the iso.. its trying to boot PXE.. help please

how can I mount a local ISO without uploading via the web console?  like how the vSphere client used to be?

I have ESXI 6.5U1 installed and am trying to pass through a USB controller to my windows 10 VM.

I have set it for passthrough:

I can then choose it as a new device in my VM config:

When I try and start the VM i get the following error:

Device 68:0.0 is not a passthrough device

If I look in the gaming.vmx file i can see that it is indeed trying to use the wrong id

pciPassthru2.id = "00000:068:00.0"

pciPassthru2.deviceId = "0x0014"

pciPassthru2.vendorId = "0x1912"

pciPassthru2.systemId = "5a75a61b-0038-9af5-991e-107b44926fee"

pciPassthru2.present = "TRUE"

If I manually change the ID to 00000:044:00.0 I get an error saying that device 44 cannot be found.

lspci shows correctly too

0000:44:00.0 Serial bus controller: Renesas Technology Corp. uPD720201 USB 3.0 Host Controller

The highest group i have is 0000:46

Am I missing anything or have I hit the wonderful world of threadripper issues?

Cheers

In older versions of esxi vSphere client for windows, you use to be able to set the VM’s to start and stop when the host machine was powered on/off by going to Configuration tab and Virtual Machine Startup / Shutdown. I’m running esxi 6.5 and can’t seem to find this option in the vSphere HTML5 Web Client?

Is it still possible to use the vSphere client for windows with 6.5 or has this been discontinued? Can’t seem to find a download for it.

Thanks,

Tim

I had the IBM ServeRAID M1015 running OK with ESXi 5.1 until an extended power failure that outlasted the UPS backup.  The ESXi 5.1 on a USB got corrupted so I decided to install fresh using ESXi 6.5.

THe install went OK and I was able to get my other VMs going but the one that used the IBM ServeRAID M1015 is having the following error and won't start:

The systemId does not match the current system or the deviceId, and the vendorId does not match the device currently at 2:0.0.

I've read many posts and used Google but I don't seem to be able to figure out what is wrong.  I think the deviceID and vendorID are OK.

From the VM settings:

I've clicked the "Reserve all memory" but that hasn't helped at all.

lspci -v gives:

0000:02:00.0 Serial Attached SCSI controller Mass storage controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic LSI2008 [vmhba1]

     Class 0107: 1000:0072

The esx.conf shows:

/device/00000:002:00.0/owner = "passthru"

/device/00000:002:00.0/device = "72"

/device/00000:002:00.0/vendor = "1000"

/device/00000:002:00.0/vmkname = "vmhba1"

The VM.vmx shows:

pciPassthru0.deviceId = "0072"

pciPassthru0.vendorId = "1000"

pciPassthru0.systemId = "508e907b-f95c-2f44-9df2-6470021053df"

pciPassthru0.id = "02:00.0"

pciPassthru0.pciSlotNumber = "160"

I think the system ID is from: /vmfs/volumes/50901e07-4bc606a0-29b7-6470021053df/

The esx.conf, VM.vmx now all show 0x72; 0x1000 but the VM won't start.

Yes, the IBM ServeRAID M1015 is certified to work on 6.5.

What have I missed?  What should I be doing next?

Thank you in advance.