ESX 3.5 Discovery issues

This is going to be a dumb/simple question, but a lot of times those are the most often over-looked problems...

You do have that user account setup on every ESX server, correct? Cause what i read was, you need to have that account on all the servers. Then when you register the Virtual Center, it will point your ECC to all the remaining servers using the credentials you used in Virtual Center.

We have quite a few ESX 3.0 servers and they are not discovered in ECC, EMC support joined with our server team but could not resolve the issue. This was before I started working with this company. EMC support suggested us to go to ESX 3.5 to resolve the issue.

So. we built up this test server ESX 3.5 and couple of other production servers. On virtual center and this test server, we have the same set of credentials.

How about discovery through ESX server than virtual center server? I am not sure why this is not working.

Hi,

Do you have any firewall inplace because it separates the VMWare agent host from the ESX Servers. The VMWare Agent communicates to the ESX Server uses http port TCP/80 and http protocol over TLS/SSL (https) TCP/443. These ports must be open in both directions through the firewall. If you don't have firewall in place then please check emc153847 for ESX Server Discovery requirements.

If it still gives you a problem, then i would suggest to open a Service request with EMC and then provide the server, strore traces including Vmware agent logs for analysis.

Regards,
Nimai Sood
EMC Global Services

Nimai,

I checked that in the ESX servers TCP/80 and TCP/443 were in the listening mode but in the host with VMWare agent both the ports do not show up with the netstat command.

I will get in touch with our firewall administrator and make sure these ports are in listening mode.

Message was edited by:
sriwithfbl

Your vmware agent server does not require a local 80 and 443 listener, it has to connect to the ESX server on those ports.

From the server with the ESX agent (windows box of some sort) telnet to the ESX server on port 80 and 443 and see if it says connection refused or if it opens a connection. From the command prompt just do:

telnet ESXSERVER 80

If the connection appears to open you can type "GET / HTTP/1.1" and see if HTML is coming back or not. Some firewalls will do funny things with connections as opposed to simply denying them.

If it comes back quickly telling you the connection failed it means either the ESX server itself isn't listening properly (less likely) or a firewall is preventing the connection.

start out with "cmd" to open a command prompt and then run the telnet command. It sounds like the connection is being made since the window doesn't just go away. You can type "GET / HTTP/1.1" in the command window but make sure you start up a window with "cmd" and then enter your telnet command.

You mentioned nothing helpful in the error log, how about in the EGN.log?

I guess if your network is functioning and you've completed the proper steps in emc165970 and there is no useful information in your agent log then you might be better off opening a full ticket with support.

Tazal,

telnet phovmware20.fbfs.com 80 opens a blank command window.
Does this indicate that it is the firewall which is blocking the Vmware agent?

Message was edited by:
sriwithfbl

Yes, went through run and cmd to open a command prompt and entered the command.




The cursor is blinking and nothing appears on the command window, when I start typing.




I only found Login fail, in the EGN.log which might be helpful.



I did open a ticket today with EMC.

Seths,

I did try the web address and the login prompt appears but user id and pswd are not allowing me to login.
But the same set of credentials allow me to login through SSH.

FYI
TAZAL mentioned the VMWare agent uses the pegasus service to login.

Message was edited by:
sriwithfbl

Another thing you can try is to point your web browser at the following URLs

http://phovmware20.fbfs.com/mob

or

https://phovmware20.fbfs.com/mob

If things are working, then you will get a login prompt where you can provide the appropriate username/password combination. If that works, i.e. you see some management data that you can click around to navigate, then you should be able to use that same username/password combination in the assisted discovery dialogue in the ControlCenter Console to get the agent to discover properly.

The primary mechanism for VMware discovery is not via Pegasus. It does access the Pegasus provider in some situations but the primary mechanism is the same management API that the Virtual Infrastructure Client uses as well as the Managed Object Browser (mob) which is accessed via the links I provided. The credentials you use for accessing the web address I supplied above must work or your ECC discovery will not work.

Note, by default, http is turned off but https (http over SSL) is turned on.

Once you get access to the MOB working with your credentials, you should be able to get the VMware agent to work.

-- Seth