VC 4 Crashing on virtualized XP

P

Private Citizen

Gawd
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We have six locations running one Equalogic PS4000 and two Dell PE-R710s at all six locations. VMware Vsphere 4 update 1 Bundle Plus is running on all the servers (for HA support) and we also have one VC4 server virtualized running on XP.

The problem is that after a few days of running we cannnot contact the VC server using the Vsphere client anymore because tomcat stops running and then after a reboot the server starts blue screening. This happens at all six locations so it is obviously something with VC that is causing the crashes. The only thing running on the virtualized XP SP3 servers is VC 4 and that is it.

I know that running VC virtualized isn't a best practice however it is what we had orginaly setup. Has anyone ran into the is issue before too and what did you end up having to do to get this working? Thanks
 
Hmm. I haven't run into this, but then again, most people don't use XP for VC - it's really a server grade application. Try 2k3 on any of them? What are you using for the DB?
 
Questions,

1) whats the specs on your VC (vHardware)
2) how many exact hosts and how many Virtual Machines?
3) what kind of database backend are you using? SQL, SQL-Express, Oracle
4) what is the current size of your database (mdf and ldf)

have u checked the vpxd logs for any traces for the issues

location C:\Documents & Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\Virtual Center\Logs\vpxd-*.log

where * is some god awful number based upon the rotation of the logs.

the web components dont usually crash without there being some actual reason for it happening please provide the information and any crashes within the windows logs and i might be able to help you.
 
lopoetve

We had purchased XP licenses for all locations so we were tryting to maximize our purchases. We may have to go 2k3.

dasaint

qoute:
"1) whats the specs on your VC (vHardware) 40GB disk space, 1GB RAM, 1 CPU
2) how many exact hosts and how many Virtual Machines? 2 physical hosts, three VMs so far
3) what kind of database backend are you using? SQL, SQL-Express, Oracle. SQL Express
4) what is the current size of your database (mdf and ldf) Will add after I get that info.

the web components dont usually crash without there being some actual reason for it happening please provide the information and any crashes within the windows logs and i might be able to help you. " Will add a reply with this info.
 
just at a glance i can tell u its recommended for Virtual VC's to run 2 vCPU's and 3Gig of ram that's the recommended sheet, im running a 2vCPU and 2Gig of ram without any worries.

the SQL Express database can become a problem if you expand too much it has a 4gb Limit on it and as soon as you add too much it can cause issues where the database will just stop working.

if u used the native installer it should have made the SQL database in a simple recovery model so that shouldn't be an issue.

i am just assuming this but you are using 32Bit Windows not 64bit is that correct? the ODBC DSN has to be a 32bit realm or the VC wont work correctly.

also if you haven't already (Enable VT and NX) on the motherboard VT will allow 64-bit VM's where NX will help with HA Technology, make sure you are using a proper DNS setup (either on the DNS Server or /etc/hosts) HA is extremely dependent on HA technology.
 
i used to run vm VC on xp, it worked ok but sometimes after running 3+ days it would become unresponsive and I was unable to connect with vsphere client. I moved my VC to server 2k3 and no problems since then.
 
is SQL Express running on the VC VM? If so, your VirtualCenter Service will likely not be starting correctly after the VM boots. There's a service dependancy. For VC to start successfully, the SQL Express service must already be running, or the VC service can't access it's DB. Additionally, if the SQL service has a hiccup, the VC service will also have to be restarted (after the SQL service is restarted, that is).
 
Private Citizen said:
lopoetve

We had purchased XP licenses for all locations so we were tryting to maximize our purchases. We may have to go 2k3.

dasaint

qoute:
"1) whats the specs on your VC (vHardware) 40GB disk space, 1GB RAM, 1 CPU
2) how many exact hosts and how many Virtual Machines? 2 physical hosts, three VMs so far
3) what kind of database backend are you using? SQL, SQL-Express, Oracle. SQL Express
4) what is the current size of your database (mdf and ldf) Will add after I get that info.

the web components dont usually crash without there being some actual reason for it happening please provide the information and any crashes within the windows logs and i might be able to help you. " Will add a reply with this info.
Click to expand...
1. 1GB of ram ain't gonna cut it
 
I've installed 2003 and it seems to be working a bit better however I still get Tomcat service not autostarting on reboot as before but atleast this time I'm not getting BSOD.

Anyone have any ideas on teh Tomcat issue? Fresh install of 2003 32bit with VC 4. VM specs 3 GB RAM, 40GB HDD, 2 CPU.
 
check your VMWare Web Sevices in the services panel (services.msc) make sure that A) your using the same account that u are using as your Virutal Center Service, and make sure its set to automatically start.

if both of those pass i would check your events viewer to catch a timeframe of a non-startup possible crash and then check the tomcat logs
 
dasaint said:
just at a glance i can tell u its recommended for Virtual VC's to run 2 vCPU's and 3Gig of ram that's the recommended sheet, im running a 2vCPU and 2Gig of ram without any worries.
Click to expand...

Private Citizen said:
Fresh install of 2003 32bit with VC 4. VM specs 3 GB RAM, 40GB HDD, 2 CPU.
Click to expand...

I just want to pitch in that I am running VC virtualized on 1 CPU and 4 GB of RAM (on 2008 R2). Regardless of what the recommendations are, I'd run any VM on 1 CPU unless there's a proven need to use more than 1 CPU. Proven as in proven by your own setup as you monitor resource allocation and consumption. My guess is that VMware recommends 2 CPUs to cut down on support calls for true Enterprise were 1 CPU just isn't enough. I have three physical hosts going on 30 VMs and had no VC issues that were related to CPU/memory.

Sadly I don't have any input on the tomcat issue though. ;(
 
the cpu isn't a big concern with VC (although it can use it sometimes), but the RAM is picky.

Tomcat: Make sure VC is up first, set a dependency. IIRC, when it tries to connect to VC to access the MOB if it's not up, it'll die.
 
UPDATE:

For anyone that is having a similar issue I think I have solved my problem. Initially I had VC running on a virtualized XP setup. I was getting the Tomcat service not starting at boot and also BSOD so I ditched XP and went with 2003 server. With 2003 server I ddin't get any BSOD but I was getting the issue with Tomcat not starting at boot time. During both installs Tomcat would not start at boot 100% of the time but would start with no problem when going in and manually clicking "start" for the service. Also not it would take about four days for the issue to even start to show up.

To make a long story short, I set the Tomcat service to Log On using the admin account instead of SYSTEM account and that has solved the problem. Simple fix but it was agraviating trying to get it resolved.
 
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