vWorkspace locks VM

Recently a colleague of mine was playing with the vWorkspace broker from Quest Software. It was all fun and games until vWorkspace decided to lock one of the VMs. Result:

-Unable to delete snapshots (creating them was no problem)

-Unable to migrate the virtual machine

-Unable to delete the virtual machine

-Unable to remove the virtual machine from the inventory.

Notice, they did not throw an error. The options were just grayed out.

Of course I like a challenge so I started my quest ;)

First of all I noticed that I was able to create snapshots, remove the virtual machine from the inventory and so on directly from the ESX host. This was my first clue. Removing the machine from the ESX locally created an orphaned machine. Luckily since the VM was down I could power it on and it was reregistered and no longer orphaned. This lead me to believe that the problem was in the vCenter database.

I started searching the KB and I found the following article

So I started by shutting down vCenter. I then opened up the database and executed

• select ID from VPX_ENTITY where name ='';

This returned an ID. I then executed

• delete from VPX_VM where ID=;
• delete from VPX_ENTITY where ID=;

In my case this deleted 2 rows (one row for each VM)

Lastly I restarted the virtual center. Because the virtual machine was still available on the ESX it was "rediscovered" by vCenter after booting. Result : VM unlocked.

This let me believes that the vWorkspace changes something in the database that locks the virtual machine. Probably the result of some linked-clone locking...

Notice : I have no idea if this broke vWorkspace things though ;)

IBM Quick Links

• BOMC tool download
• Firmware bladecenter
• Quickpath box bladecenter in the right corner
• AMM firmware
• Electronic service calls

ESX and HS22 : some pointers

I recently had some problems with ESX(i) and HS22 blades. Thought I just blog them for future reference.

First of all 2 driver problems. You'll need to install the vsphere cli to solve them (http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vcli/)

• If the management network for your HS22 blade is acting funny and you can't seem to get digital video (KVM) on your HS22 blade to work, you'll need to update the broadcom driver. It can be downloaded from the vmware site http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/esx_esxi_40_broadcom_bnx2_dt/ZHcqYmRqZHRidGR3
• If you are using the Emulex CFFH oneconnect or CNA or whatever you want to call the card, you'll also need to install the driver before any of the nics show up. Same site, other link http://downloads.vmware.com/d/details/esx_esxi4x_serverengines_dt/ZHcqYmRAZXdiZHdlZQ==

The procedure for both drivers is similar:

• Extract the ISO
• Find the offline bundle f.e BCM-bnx2-2.0.7c-1.0.4.00000-offline_bundle-229199.zip in the offline-bundle directory
• Install the driver by executing : vihostupdate.pl --server --password --username root --install --bundle c:\path\to\zip\BCM-bnx2-2.0.7c-1.0.4.00000-offline_bundle-229199.zip

Another problem. If you have an ESXi recovery cd for you HS22 with Part number (P/N) 60Y0073 you might find that the cd is not booting. If you put the cd in a laptop you will see why. The manufacturer has burned the iso literally on the cd. This means you will need to copy the iso file to you hard disk and then properly burn it to a cd with for example cdburnerxp , brasero or disk utility in Mac. Alternatively, you can open a call at IBM and wait for a replacement part

Lastly while updating the HS22 I have been encountering a lot of problems with doing firmware upgrades. One neat trick I learned is that the uEFI will load it defaults settings after 3 unsuccessful boots! Another thing I learned is that it is better to update the IMM first and then the rest of the components. What I do is now

• Update the IMM via the AMM Blade Taks > Firmware Update. This allows me to push the IMM firmware update to multiple blade at the same time
• Wait until the blades get rediscovered and are stable. This means waiting around 10 minutes after the update
• Update the rest of the components via the BOMC (Bootable Media Creator). If you don't know this tool, here is the link http://www-947.ibm.com/systems/support/supportsite.wss/selectproduct?taskind=2&brandind=5000020&familyind=5375180&typeind=0&modelind=0&osind=0&psid=sp&continue.x=1&matrix=Y#Bootable%20Media%20Creator
• Update some components manually like the Emulex CNA (the first firmware update is not supported via the BOMC)