A General Sstem Error occurred: Invalid Fault

I was trying to create a VM on a host and it was throwing following error message

We just have to restart hostd service on the host: service mgmt-vmware restart

VMControl error -999: Unknown Error

I was trying to register one virtual machine on one of the pathetic host (It was giving me hell lots of trouble and cannot reboot for some reason). It was also giving me message

 

So I decided to create a new VM using same vmdk file. I thought I will copy just vmdk file and delete rest of the directory and attach the vmdk to newly created vm. When I was trying to remove the folder it gave me message

 

After doing googling I found following way to remove the directory.

1. First I ran command vm-support –x to get all the available vmid on the host

2. Run vm-support –X <vmid>. It can also be killed using kill -9 <vmid>

This will keep running with different messages.

Once this is completed it will dump the core file inside the VM directory. You should be able to remove the vswmp file.

ESXTOP series 1

“ESXTOP” is very handy command to check host status from the performance point of view. I have decided to write series of ESX related tips.

In this series we will check network status

So if you press

1. esxtop

2. s - to have delay calculated in second

3. then 2 for two second delay

4. n to check nic status

esxtop s 2 n

Output will be

Fix sshd_config issue

Sometime “sshd_config ” get messed because of ILO flaky or if you are not good with VI. So here is what we have to do to get it fix

1. If “sshd_config” is under /etc/ssh/sshd_config got modified you may not be able to do ssh into ESX host.

2. If host is already connected to virtual center then upload the file using “Browse Database ” and upload it under /vmfs/volumes partition. From there move it to /etc/ssh folder. You can use sshd_config from any other host.

mv /vmfs/volumes /sshd_config /etc/ssh/

I usually do this only after I add the host into VC. Then restart ssh service

/etc/init.d/ssh restart.

This should fix the problem

Recover ESX password for different flavor of ESX

ESX Server 3.x:

1. Reboot the ESX Server host.
2. When the GRUB screen appears, press the space bar to stop the server from automatically booting into VMware ESX Server.
3. Use the arrow keys to select Service Console only (troubleshooting mode).
4. Press the a key to modify the kernel arguments (boot options).
5. On the line presented, type a space followed by the word single.
   
6. Press Enter. The server continues to boot into single-user mode.
   
7. When presented with a bash prompt such as sh-2.05b#, type the command passwd and press Enter.
   
8. Follow the prompts to set a new root user password.
   
9. When the password is changed successfully, reboot the host using the command reboot and allow VMware ESX Server to boot normally.

ESX Server 2.x:

1. Reboot the ESX Server Host.
   
2. When the LILO screen appears hit the space bar to stop the server from automatically booting into VMware ESX Server.
   
3. At the LILO prompt select "linux" adding the -s to the end of the line, it should read: linux -s
4. Press Enter. The system begins to boot. The server continues to boot into single-user mode.
   
5. When presented with a bash prompt such as sh-2.05b#, type the command passwd and press Enter.
   
6. Follow the prompts to set a new root user password.

   When the system is finished booting up, you can log in as the root user using the new password. When the password is changed successfully, reboot the host using the command reboot and allow VMware ESX Server to boot normally.

ESX Server 3.5:

A lost Root password cannot be recovered, however it can be reset. The process below outlines how to do this.

1. Power on the host server. When the ESX bootloader selection screen appears, press a to allow you to modify kernel arguments
   
   
   

2. Type single to add the single argument to the kernel arguments and then press enter
   
   
   

3. The host server will now boot
   
   
   

4. Once the host server has booted, you will be presented with a prompt such as sh-2.05b#. At the prompt enter the command passwd and press enter
   
   
   

5. Enter the new Root password. Retype the new password at the prompt. Once changed successfully the all authentication tokens updated successfully message will appear
   
   
   

5. Reboot the host server by typing reboot at the prompt and pressing enter
   

Source

1. http://knowledge.xtravirt.com/hot-tips/esx-3x/11-esx-server-3x/104-recovering-from-a-lost-esx-root-password-in-esx-35.html

2. http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1317898