VMware ESXi server stops responding.
I am running VMware ESXi 6.5u1 hosted by OVH.
This morning i receioved an email indicating my server had stopped responding and a hard reboot was completed. Non of my websites had come online so I logged into the ESXi console. I noted that the hosts had not restarted.
I restarted the hosts and also enabled Autostart. Both of the guests restarted and were responding. However a couple of minutes later the ESXi server and guests again stopped responding.
I have again restarted the server and now it does not boot to ESXi console at all. It does not respond to pings and apparently is not working.
I presume that it is the guests starting that is causing the server to stop responding.
I can boot the server into the OVH recovery image and access the server using telnet. However the recovery web console is not available.
Can someone assist in troubleshooting this. The first thing that I think should be done is to disable the autostart on the guests. Can this be done through editing a file from recovery?
Thanks
Raoul
This morning i receioved an email indicating my server had stopped responding and a hard reboot was completed. Non of my websites had come online so I logged into the ESXi console. I noted that the hosts had not restarted.
I restarted the hosts and also enabled Autostart. Both of the guests restarted and were responding. However a couple of minutes later the ESXi server and guests again stopped responding.
I have again restarted the server and now it does not boot to ESXi console at all. It does not respond to pings and apparently is not working.
I presume that it is the guests starting that is causing the server to stop responding.
I can boot the server into the OVH recovery image and access the server using telnet. However the recovery web console is not available.
Can someone assist in troubleshooting this. The first thing that I think should be done is to disable the autostart on the guests. Can this be done through editing a file from recovery?
Thanks
Raoul
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/850 disable/enable auto restart of vms in esxi
ASKER
Murali,
Thank you for your response but I do not have access to the ESXi console. I believe that I have access to the hard drives. Still trying to confirm this.
Is it possible to make a change to a configuration file directly on the hard drive?
Thanks again.
Thank you for your response but I do not have access to the ESXi console. I believe that I have access to the hard drives. Still trying to confirm this.
Is it possible to make a change to a configuration file directly on the hard drive?
Thanks again.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
OVH replied with this
"During our Diagnosis, the server failed to boot into rescue multiple times.
We replaced the RAM and then the CPU. Rescue became usable again.
In rescue we found that /dev/sda was not active in the Soft Raid.
Running SMART tests on the drives showed no errors.
The customer could try rebuilding the RAID or schedule with the Customer advocates to replace the suspected drive.
Unfortunately after contact OVH there were not able to offer much more assistance. I had the following questions
1. How can I best backup the ESXi Guests? I have and FTP drive available.
2. If I rebuild the Raid is that going to require a re-installation?
3. If I get the HDD replaced is that going to require a re-installation?
Thanks
Raoul
"During our Diagnosis, the server failed to boot into rescue multiple times.
We replaced the RAM and then the CPU. Rescue became usable again.
In rescue we found that /dev/sda was not active in the Soft Raid.
Running SMART tests on the drives showed no errors.
The customer could try rebuilding the RAID or schedule with the Customer advocates to replace the suspected drive.
Unfortunately after contact OVH there were not able to offer much more assistance. I had the following questions
1. How can I best backup the ESXi Guests? I have and FTP drive available.
2. If I rebuild the Raid is that going to require a re-installation?
3. If I get the HDD replaced is that going to require a re-installation?
Thanks
Raoul
Replacing hdd is like fresh installation.. If you have raid 0, mirrored drive would help you in restoring config however am not sure on that part..
When you reinstall you can choose preserve vmfs option if you get that or you might have to reach out to data recovery which are mostly paid options..
ASKER
Murali,
Thanks for your help. SO there was apparently lots of confusion over at OVH and with me.
Although I purchased a server with Software RAID, apparently ESXi does not support software raid. So my server has never been running with RAID. They saw old partitions from a previous RAID installation that they thought indicated a degraded raid. So good news my server is all back up to where it was.
However now I am aware that I do not even have RAID. I do now have the second HDD and what to implement a better Guest imaging backup to this secondary drive.
Can you advise of easy/cheap solution. I am looking at Veeam at the moment but have not yet got my head around what is required.
Thanks
Raoul
Thanks for your help. SO there was apparently lots of confusion over at OVH and with me.
Although I purchased a server with Software RAID, apparently ESXi does not support software raid. So my server has never been running with RAID. They saw old partitions from a previous RAID installation that they thought indicated a degraded raid. So good news my server is all back up to where it was.
However now I am aware that I do not even have RAID. I do now have the second HDD and what to implement a better Guest imaging backup to this secondary drive.
Can you advise of easy/cheap solution. I am looking at Veeam at the moment but have not yet got my head around what is required.
Thanks
Raoul
There are lot of good backup softwares in the market like veeam, netbackup, commvault, backup exec. Etc.. Recently I heard good about rubrik also.. I cannot suggest or influence one as such but reach out to all of them and get a sales quote and pick which suits ur budget
Can you take ssh to that host or ping host? If nt I believe some issue with hardware I assume making the host going bad.. In that case the vms can be migrated to other hosts if you have any.. If you have access to host ssh or direct console we can troubleshoot or ping vms and validate if they are down then reboot host