What ELSE can I do when my host is in Not Responding state?

After I posted "What to do when my host is in Not Responding state?", I received a few queries about the issues people ran into.

I captured my notes when explaining some of the errors folks reported. I thought that it might be interesting to share them, in case you ran into a similar issue and you would find this information useful.

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For the Add Hosts errors you encountered, let’s take them one at a time.

· For error 410, next time if you run into this error code, here are the steps I’d like you to try:

o It’s likely an WinRM issue during the agent install process.

o Immediately after the remote Add Host failure, try installing the agent locally on the host by using the following command: “msiexec.exe /i vmmAgent.msi /L*V c:\tmp\vmmagent_install.log”.

o If the agent install still fails, inspect the msi log file (c:\tmp\vmmagent_install.log) and see where the failure occurs or just send me the log file and we’ll help you to root cause the install failure.

Error (410)

Agent installation failed on IDC-HVH-02.xxxxxx.com.

 (Fatal error during installation (0x80070643))

Recommended Action

Try the operation again. If the problem persists, install the agent locally and then add the managed computer.

· For error 415,

o This error is very straightforward – it simply means that when the VMM server tried to copy the agent install service executable over to the ADMIN$ share on the remote host (IDC-HVH-01.xxxxxx.com), the copy process failed.

o The troubleshooting steps are also straightforward:

§ See if you can manually access the ADMIN$ of the remote host form the VMM Server, if cannot, fix the network share issue.

§ See if the volume is full, if so extend the volume (or clean up some space).

§ See if there is a file there with the same name already, if so, remove / rename the file.

o If none of the steps help, we’ll need your VMM Server AND host traces to help you further troubleshoot.

Error (415)

Agent installation failed copying C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008\agents\I386\2.0.3194.0\msiInstaller.exe to \\IDC-HVH-01.xxxxxx.com\ADMIN$\msiInstaller.exe.

 (The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process)

Recommended Action

1. Ensure IDC-HVH-01.copaair.com is online and not blocked by a firewall.

2. Ensure that there is sufficient free space on the system volume.

3. Verify that the ADMIN$ share on IDC-HVH-01.xxxxxx.com exists. If the ADMIN$ share does not exist, reboot IDC-HVH-01.xxxxxx.com and then try the operation again.

· For error 415,

o This error indicates that the WinRM service on the host is not responding as what the VMM Server expects.

o Besides the basic diagnostic advices VMM team typically gives (check to make sure WinRM service is running, Listner is configured, firewall is not blocking the HTTP port, etc.), your best option is to contact WinRM team and get their expertise to exam the host to see why the WinRM service is not responding.

Error (407)

The agent operation with server IDC-HVH-01.xxxxxx.com was not successful.

 (Unknown error (0x80338012))

Recommended Action

Try the operation again. If the problem persists, ensure that the VMM server is able to communicate with the managed computer.

FYI - C:\Users\chengwei>winrm helpmsg 0x80338012

The client cannot connect to the remote host specified in the request. Verify that

the service on the remote host is running and is accepting requests. You may

use the following command to analyze the state of the WinRM service and to configure

the service, if necessary: "winrm quickconfig".

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For the Host Refresh errors you encountered, let’s take look at them one at a time.

· For error 500 below, it seems to be a typical system resource issue with the host (or could be a WinRM internal issue).

o Typically for this error, you either need to restart WinRM service, or you might need to restart the machine, if the machine is really running out of system resources.

Error (500)

Could not retrieve configuration data from the virtual machine host IDC-HVH-02.xxxxxx.com.

 (No more threads can be created in the system (0x800700A4))

Recommended Action

Verify that Windows Management Instrumentation, Windows Remote Management (WS-Management), Virtual Server, and Virtual Machine Manager Agent services are running on IDC-HVH-02.xxxxxx.com. Then try the operation again.

· For error 2915,

o It seems that WinRM cannot find the host.

o Try and see if the host name can be looked up in DNS. And the host SPN is registered in AD.

o If none of the steps help, we’ll need your VMM Server AND host traces to help you further troubleshoot.

Error (2915)

The WS-Management service cannot process the request. Object not found on the IDC-HVH-02.xxxxxx.com server.

 (Unknown error (0x80338000))

Recommended Action

Ensure that the agent is installed and running. If the agent is installed, the WMI object may not have been found.

C:\Users\chengwei>winrm helpmsg 0x80338000

The WS-Management service cannot process the request. The service cannot find the

resource identified by the resource URI and selectors.

· For error 422,

o As what the error message says, either the machine is no longer in existence (name/IP changed, brought to other network or taken down for service?), or the machine is associated with other VMM server.

o Recommended next steps include:

§ Check to ensure that the machine is still available on the network (IP/name has not been changed).

§ Check to ensure that the computer is not associated with other VMM Server. If it’s accidentally associated with a different VMM Server, remove it from the other VMM Server and then re-add it back to this VMM server.

o If none of the steps help, we’ll need your VMM Server AND host traces to help you further troubleshoot.

Error (422)

Machine is not associated with this Virtual Machine Manager server.

Recommended Action

Check the machine name, and then try the operation again.

 

Hope this is helpful & thanks for reading!

Cheng

Comments

• Anonymous
  May 25, 2012
  Hi Cheng Like many others I was struggling with the "Connection status: Unknown" problem. Removing and re-adding the host / cluster didn't help. Eventually it turned out to the performance counters on the host were corrupt. Performance Monitor only showed a few counters - the basic ones like CPU / disk were missing. As administrator I ran "LODCTR /R". Performance Monitor started working and after a refresh in SCVMM it came up good.