ESX Version Control

[Martin T. Greene]

I was able to install the linux version control agent on a ESX server. But when I try to connect to the version control repository just times out.

Does the VCRM have to be on a linux server.

Not even sure it will work on a ESX server

[David Claypool]

VCRM is always hosted on Windows. However, as a ProLiant Support Pack isn't published for ESX, there is no purpose to VCA on the ESX service console at this time.

[schmitty]

I have 6 dl380 g5's in an esx farm that were purchased over the course of a year. they all have the same processors, yet vmware is claiming a processor incompatability prohibiting HA that I was thinking may be related to vca updating...
are you sure that vca is not the culprit?

[David Claypool]

If you have attempted to deploy the Linux version of the HP Version Control Agent onto your ESX service console, please uninstall.

[Rob Buxton]

What you should have installed on the ESX Server are the HP Management Agents (version 8.20 is the latest). You can use these to verify CPU versions and ROM levels. Browse to the SMH and note the details.

I've not encountered a ROM upgrade upsetting VMotion. ROM upgrades here are typically done using the firmware CD.

There's a utility that you can get hold of that shows all of the flag settings, have a look on www.run-virtual.com. That may show some BIOS setting that's been changed or different between the hosts.

[Gareth H Wilson]

when going to v8.20 of the agents if you are running blade servers (460, 465's we have)then the ilo version needs to be v1.60 if you use v1.70 or 1.77 of the ilo firmware when you install the 8.20 agents your server will lockup and have to be physically rebooted, this was identified by the hp engineer we had visit our site when we had a problem with the 8.20 agents killing our servers

[schmitty]

I had installed the 8.2.0 sim package then the vca on top of it. Now I've removed the vca and will install the 8.2.0 package on the other servers to see if I can note any differences.

As I mentioned earlier all physical machines are dl360 G5's.

stay tuned..

thx, Schmitty

[Rob Buxton]

Gareth, That's the wrong way round surely. You need to move to the later version of the firmware to prevent the lock ups. Well that's how I read the advisory.

[schmitty]

I think I've found the problem. Its related to some feature changes on the 54xx processors. VM error and VMware KB 1993 regarding masking processor features. The article is kinda vague how to mask the features so I'll log a support ticket with vm to do it. Allegedly you need to alter a .cfg file on the console server to make it not see the processor mask.