SRM Logging

Recently we were asked to enable trivia logging for SRM to troubleshoot some issues we ran during test recovery

Following are various logging levels for SRM

• Error
• Warning
• Info
• Trivia
• Verbose.

 To change the log level, locate the following section of vmware-dr.xml

Default Location is C\:Program Files\Vmware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\config\vmware-dr.xml

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\Logs

vmware-dr

verbose

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Site Recovery Manager\DumpFiles

Change From: verbose To:trivia

When increasing the log level to trivia, increase the log retention policy as well. This can be achieved by adding the maxFileNum and maxFileSize tags between the <log></log> of the same vmware-dr.xml

Reference Documents 

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1013339&src=vmw_so_vex_mmakh_407

https://pubs.vmware.com/srm-51/index.jsp#com.vmware.srm.admin.doc/GUID-9BBA5A85-F675-425E-8DC1-EF3CEDB354A4.html?&src=vmw_so_vex_mmakh_407

SRM IP Customization Error

I came across the below mentioned issue for which I am working towards to resolve.

We are still having discussions whether we should be performing the work around  given

I thought of sharing and check whether we have other users who also have similar issues and get any feedback from the community

Setup

 VMware vCenter 5.1 Update 2

ESXi 5.1 Update 2

SRM 5.1 Update 2

 Issue

At the time of Test Failover VMs have faced an error “Error - Internal error: std::exception 'class Dr::Vix::SharedSecretNotPermitted' "Shared Secret is not permitted on this guest".” with IP Customization

Resolution/WorkAround

We were asked to modify following setting on all the VMs and it requires VM to be Powered Off and the value needs to be set to either 1 or true.

guest.commands.allowSharedSecretLogin

 Description

 All VIX clients, including SRM, need to have this parameter enabled so the client can do things inside the VM's OS like copying files over to that VM. For example, SRM generates the IP customization script on the fly and copies it together with the three other IP customization tools over to the VM. To do that SRM must open a VIX connection to the VM first (using the "SharedScretLogin" mechanism. That is, in a nutshell, how it works.

The error message we are getting indicates that SRM's VIX connection to the VM will not go through because "SharedScretyLogin" is not enabled for that VM somehow. SRM normally sets this parameter when it opens VIX connection to the VM for the purpose of IP customization. So that means that SRM, for some unknown reason, is not able to enable to set that flag on the fly. The suggestion to add that parameter manually into the VM config file is to do it on behalf of SRM. Then see if SRM is able to open the VIX connection and continue with the IP customization process on that VM.

Horizon View PowerShell Not Working

Last Year I wrote Power CLI Script for VMware View 5.1 to capture the Remote Session details for that particular point in time

http://vcommunique.blogspot.com/2014/04/vmware-horizon-view-remote-session.html

https://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-26512?&src=vmw_so_vex_mmakh_407

We had team upgrading that to Horizon View 6.0 and suddenly we noticed that it was not working as expected. It was generating the empty file

Based on research we found that it was known behavior and followed instructions based on following KB Article which resolved the issue

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1034692&src=vmw_so_vex_mmakh_407

ESXi Dump Partition

Recently we upgraded from ESXi 5.0 to 5.1 Update 2 and we got following alert that’s when we realized that we need to configure coredump server

Researching later we found that it  cannot be located on an iSCSI LUN accessed through the software iSCSI or dependent hardware iSCSI adapter and we were using Boot from SAN using Software iSCSI

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-55/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc%2FGUID-0DF35CC7-5187-4C60-BC3B-C6135A0786EA.html?&src=vmw_so_vex_mmakh_407

Following KB Article disk recommendations for the disk/lun sizes where we understood it was not the default behavior in 5.0 where as it got changed 5.1

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1026500&src=vmw_so_vex_mmakh_407

Now we will need to configure Network Core Dump Collector which is part of the package for vCenter 5.1 Update 2 and following KB Article details around the same

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1032051&src=vmw_so_vex_mmakh_407

Accessing VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM) GUI generates continuous and immediate log-in prompts to remote vCenter Server (2090370)

Symptoms

·    Accessing VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM) GUI generates continuous and immediate log-in prompts to remote vCenter Server.

·    This issue occurs when SRM is deployed in two sites in an environment in which:

o The two vCenter Servers may or may not be in linked-mode.

o The C# VMware Infrastructure (VI) Client is used to access the SRM GUI.

Resolution

This is a known issue affecting SRM 5.0.x, 5.1.x and 5.5.x.

Notes: If you are running:

• SRM 5.0.3, 5.1.x or 5.5.x, contact VMware technical support for assistance.
• SRM 5.8, this issue does not occur as SRM GUI is now managed through the next generation web client (NGC).

To work around this issue, run the VI Client from outside of the vCenter Server machine.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=2090370&src=vmw_so_vex_mmakh_407

Supported host operating systems for VMware vCenter Server installation

This table lists the supported host operating systems for vCenter Server installation.

Windows Operating System

5.5 U2

5.5 U1

5.5

5.1 U2

5.1 U1

5.1

5.0 U3

5.0 U2

5.0 U1

5.0

4.1 U3

4.1 U2

4.0 U4

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 64-bit

Yes

Yes

Yes

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 64-bit

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 64-bit

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 1 64-bit

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 64-bit

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 64-bit

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Service Pack 2 64-bit

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 64-bit

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 64-bit

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 64-bit

Yes

Yes

Yes

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 32-bit

Yes

Microsoft Windows XP 64-bit

Yes

Yes

Microsoft Windows XP 32-bit

Yes

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=2091273&src=vmw_so_vex_mmakh_407