Communication with lost with VMM service message on VMM 2.0.1

[Nancy Kafer]

I am running ESX 2.5.2, HP SIM is running on a Windows 2003 Server machine. I installed the VMM Agent on my ESX box. Similar to everyone else I see check boxes under the VM column and my VMs are listed as hosted on my ESX box. When I try to view my VM performance it says:

Communication has been lost with the VMM service.

I tried to view the Virutal machines list on my ESX box via the Identity tab, Virtual machines in SIM and I get the message:

Could not contact the VMM service.

I modified the host file on my SIM box to make sure it included an entry to the ESX box. Still no luck. One thing I haven't tried yet is to reboot the ESX box. I never did this after I installed the VMM agent. Is a reboot of the ESX box necessary?

Thanks.

[Rob Buxton]

No, you should not need to restart the ESX Host after installing the VMM Agent.

On the host you could try:
usr/share/vmm/bin/hpvmmcntsvc status

to get the status of the VMM Client, you can also pass the parameters stop, start and restart to it.

[Martin Quigley]

I am having the same problem. I noticed that the HP VMM service on my SIM server was not running. I started it and then a few minutes later it stopped. There is nothing in the event log to say why.

[Martin Quigley]

I figured out the problem I was having. I looked in the log c:\Program Files\HP\HP Virtualization Management Software\log\hpvmmsvc.log and found that the reserved TCP port for HP VMM, port 1124, was in use. My SIM server had an established connection to port 445 on a Windows DC. I tried killing services and processes to find out what it was, but to no avail. I rebooted my SIM server and all is well.

Thanks

[Todd Schelin]

I am having this problem as well I have rebooted and restarted the services to no avail. It was working fine then I get communications lost. The Service is running, but definitely not communicating with the hosts or vice versa. Anyone have any ideas. How do I determine if there is a conflict with the port? This is frustrating, everytime I turn around I am having some problems with SIM 5.0.

[Nancy Kafer]

I have tried verifying the status on the ESX box and the status of the client shows as started. I looked at the hpvmmsvc.log file on my SIM server but I don't see anything that points to a port conflict.

[Todd Schelin]

I have done the same steps as you Nancy and don't have any answers either. However, it does this on all of my hosts that have a VMM license applied to them. I have looked in the log and found nothing about a port conflict eihter. Do you know where the Troubleshooting guide is or have you used it? I can't find it anywhere.

[Nancy Kafer]

I haven't found a troubleshooting guide. HP's knowledge base doesn't have anything. I'd like to get this fixed so I can evaluate whether the VMM will provide us with what we're looking for but I'm really wondering if we want to even bother with this to manage our VMs via SIM. Does anyone have another way they manage VMs that provides similar functionality to what SIM provides for physical machines?

[Martin Quigley]

There is a troubleshooting guide at the end of:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00498328/c00498328.pdf

Can you upload your hpvmmsvc.log ? I wouldn't mind taking a peak at it.

Thanks

[Nancy Kafer]

Here's the hpvmmsvc.log file.

[Martin Quigley]

Nancy,

Your log shows errors with java and the iscsi version that my logs don't show. I'm not sure if that's what is causing it. Attached is my log from a "working" environment. Maybe you disect the two and find the answer.

Good luck.

[Rob Buxton]

Ahh that reminds me!
I had issues with VMM after I'd gone through the upload drivers options.
I removed the iscsi initiator and then removed and reinstalled VMM 2.0.1.
It worked after that. I thought it was just something I'd done wrong so hadn't done much about following it up.

I've not tried putting back the iscsi initiator, we're due to get some HP Training on using VMM to migrate Servers and so if the issue arose again I'd have an HP person on site to demonstrate it.

[Nancy Kafer]

How do you go about removing the iscsi initiator?

[Rob Buxton]

I think I just went to Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel.

[Nancy Kafer]

Did you do this on the SIM server? I looked in Add/Remove programs and didn't see anything related to iscsi.

[Rich Colbert]

We're having the same issues with the VMM service crashing and then unable to restart without rebooting the SIM server. I had speculated that VMM runs in a java wrapper, and that if the service crashed that the wrapper might be what was holding the port open. Don't know. This has happened three times in the past month and a half, and the priority has been to get the service restarted, hence the reboot.

[Rob Buxton]

Nancy,

Yes, I'd installed the ISCSI Initiator on the HPSIM Server.
If you haven't then this may not be the issue for you. It was one of the other posters comments that triggered my memory.

[Nancy Kafer]

I haven't ever installed the iscsi initiator. Could there be an issue with differnt versions of the Java runtime environment?

[Nancy Kafer]

I did notice that when I tried to deploy the VMM Agent to my ESX host I got the message:

Agent registration failed -
Agent cannot be connected.

I also noticed that this step was run as administrator instead of root. Could this be causing my problem? If so how do I fix it?

Thanks.

[Rob Buxton]

Have you used the mxagentconfig command to register the VMHost Server in SSH?

SSH is used to deliver the Agent, that looks like where that is failing.

If you don't have it already, the VMM Guide provides a step by step guide and ca=n be found at:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DocumentIndex.jsp?contentType=SupportManual〈=en&cc=us&docIndexId=179111&taskId=101&prodTypeId=18964&prodSeriesId=1113762#1

[Nancy Kafer]

The mxagentconfig command worked successfully. Just to make sure I used the mxagentconfig -r command to remove the server and then reconfigured it....everything processed successfully.

But when I run deploy the agent the vmcli command is still failing with the message:

Agent registration failed
Agent cannot be connected.

[Nancy Kafer]

Ok I've figured out what was causing my issue with the vmcli registeragent command but I'm still getting the same error message:

Communication has been lost with the VMM service.

[Todd Schelin]

I have found a resolution to this sporadic issue where you lose communication with the VMM service. I was working in VMM fine yesterday and this morning go to use it and go the VMM Lost Communication with Server.

I had made no changes to anything.

My resolution:
1.Go to the SIM Server and Stopped the VMM Service.

2. Go task manager and find and stop all of the following processes.
hpvmmsvcj.exe

3. Restart the VMM Agent on the SIM server and you should be good to go.

I have been working this issue off and on for a while now and this seems to be the only thing that works.

Whether the Server is VMWare or Microsft Virutal Server the same scenario applies above.

[Scott_278]

I had the same issues, and simply restarting the VMM service on the CMS worked for me.

[Henrikki Häkkänen]

It's old thread, but I still have the same problem! Restarting VMM Service on a SIM server doesn't work for me.

I'm running:

Operating system: Windows 2003
Version: Systems Insight Manager 5.0 with SP4 - Windows
Build version: C.05.00.01.01
Build date: 2006-02-01 12:06

Plug-in applications:

HP Storage Essentials 5.0.1
HP Virtual Machine Management Pack 2.0.2
HP BladeSystem Integrated Manager 2.0.2
HP Server Migration Pack 2.0.2

Occationally, VMM works from 2 to 10 days, and then it just stops working. However, I've managed to get it working again (for 2-10 days) by reinstalling the VVM client agent to the ESX servers. But this is unacceptable.

Anyone?