Vmware Infrastructure Restarts Host unexpectedly almost every other day

TTG2010
TTG2010 used Ask the Experts™
on
Almost every day my vmware server host restarts unexpectedly.    Windows event log gives me event id: 6008.  Its a power edge 2950 with 16gb ram, Raid5 setup for vmware disks, mirrored drives for OS, Windows 2003 Standard x64. two 4 core xeon processors at 2.33ghz.

Its been giving me trouble for months and i've isolated it to vmware as I had another vmware server and moved all the vmware disks to this new server.  Same problem is occuring.  I know its not windows updates as i checked carefully on my WSUS and server logs.  I have a couple other physical servers in this domain and none of them have this issue. I have been keeping a log of all the start up times which i've listed below.  I was running vmware server 1 for about 2 years and this issue never occured.  Any help would be much appreciated.

System Restart Log
2/9/2011 5:52 AM
2/10/2011 9:37 AM
2/10/2011 5:15 PM
2/12/2011 5:52 AM
2/12/2011 5:35 PM
2/13/2011 3:23 AM
2/13/2011 5:52 AM
2/15/2011 6:45 AM
2/15/2011 5:30 PM
2/16/2011 5:52 AM
2/16/2011 5:47 PM
2/16/2011 10:08 PM
2/17/2011 4:02 AM
2/18/2011 7:16 PM
2/19/2011 4:49 PM
2/21/2011 5:52 AM
2/22/2011 5:52 AM
2/22/2011 6:50 AM
2/23/2011 5:53 AM
2/26/2011 5:52 AM
2/27/2011 9:41 AM
3/2/2011 5:53 AM
3/4/2011 9:25 AM
3/7/2011 5:53 AM
3/8/2011 6:11 PM
3/10/2011 5:53 AM
3/11/2011 5:53 AM
3/13/2011 6:35 PM
3/13/2011 9:02 PM
3/14/2011 6:52 AM
3/14/2011 1:20 PM
3/14/2011 6:25 PM
3/15/2011 6:52 AM
3/16/2011 6:52 AM
3/17/2011 6:52 AM
3/18/2011 6:52 AM
3/18/2011 7:52 AM
3/23/2011 6:52 AM
3/29/2011 10:07 AM
3/30/2011 6:40 AM
3/30/2011 6:52 AM
3/31/2011 9:30 AM
4/2/2011 6:46 AM
4/3/2011 5:52 AM
4/4/2011 5:52 AM
4/4/2011 9:59 AM
4/5/2011 10:20 AM
4/7/2011 9:40 AM
4/12/2011 7:34 PM
4/17/2011 5:52 AM
4/18/2011 6:18 AM
4/18/2011 7:21 AM
4/18/2011 7:26 AM
4/19/2011 1:20 PM
4/20/2011 9:45 AM
4/22/2011 5:52 AM
4/23/2011 8:13 PM
4/27/2011 11:25 AM
4/28/2011 9:30 AM
4/30/2011 12:13 PM
5/4/2011 8:42 AM
5/5/2011 4:58 PM
5/5/2011 7:50 PM
5/7/2011 12:14 PM
5/8/2011 12:13 PM
5/13/2011 10:03 AM



Comment
Watch Question

Do more with

Expert Office
EXPERT OFFICE® is a registered trademark of EXPERTS EXCHANGE®
View Solutions Only
Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert / EE Fellow)VMware and Virtualization Consultant
Fellow 2018
Expert of the Year 2017
Commented:
I'm assuming this is VMware Server 2?

Just so you are aware VMware Server 2.0.2 is end of life. It's been discontinued. and Extended Support with VMware ends on 30 June 2011.

It has been replaced by the free superior Type 1 Hypervisor, vSphere HYpervisor (ESXi)

VMware vSphere Hypervisor is the new name for ESXi.

Have you tested the memory on the server with Memtest86?

http://www.memtest.org/

Or tried reducing the number of VMs, as a temp measure to check?

The free download is available from here

http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere-hypervisor/overview.html

you need to register to download for free.

The latest versions is ESX 4.1 U1


Here are the documents

http://www.vmware.com/support/pubs/vs_pages/vsp_pubs_esxi41_i_vc41.html

Getting Started Guide

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_esxi_i_get_start.pdf

Please make sure you server is on the Hardware Compatibility List

http://www.vmware.com/go/hcl

http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php

http://partnerweb.vmware.com/comp_guide2/search.php

and you use a 64 bit server and enable Intel Virtualisation Tecnology also called Intel-VT.


compare the differences between ESX and ESXi (the replacement for ESX)

http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/esxi-and-esx/compare.html

VMware and Virtualization Consultant
Fellow 2018
Expert of the Year 2017
Commented:
As you server is on the HCL for ESXi, you may be better migrating to ESXi (free).
TTG2010

Author

Commented:
I've read your comments and your right, its not supported anymore.  My best bet is to upgrade.  It looks like a relative easy install as well.  Thank you for your help and i plan to do it over the weekend when no users are on it.

On another note, i did redcuce the system to two vmware servers at one point even with the bios change for Intel-VT and it kept doing it.

Do more with

Expert Office
Submit tech questions to Ask the Experts™ at any time to receive solutions, advice, and new ideas from leading industry professionals.

Start 7-Day Free Trial