Sean Crookston

VCAP-DCA Objective 6.5 : Troubleshoot vCenter Server and ESX(i) Host Management

August 21, 2010

Sean Crookston

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Another VCAP-DCA objective here. For a complete list of study objectives for the VCAP-DCA ( VDCA-410) browse to http://www.seancrookston.com/vcap-dca/.

This is the first pass through the objective for troubleshooting vCenter Server and ESX(i) Host Management. . If you haven’t already done so, download the zip file full of additional study resources from Kendrick Coleman’s blog. These can be found at his VCAP exam landing page. He has compiled a lot of resources and broken them down by objective, and these make great additional reading if you are not greatly familiar with any of the following.

Knowledge

Identify CLI commands and tools used to troubleshoot management issues

Skills and Abilities

Troubleshoot vCenter Server service and database connection issues

Troubleshooting vCenter server and db issues can be at times frustrating, but it is important to note as this blog entry did that your virtual center issue may not be like all the others you are reading about. Be cautious and check all the little things including the SQL server backend.

A good KB on this is for Troubleshooting the Virtual Center Server Service when it fails to start.

Troubleshoot the ESX Service Console firewall

Quick reminder, this is for ESX only.

From the man pages for the esxcfg-firewall command:

esxcfg-firewall provides an interface to query and modify the service
console firewall settings.

OPTIONS
-q –query
Displays the current firewall settings.
-q –query service name
Displays the state of the specified service.
-q –query incoming|outgoing
Displays the whether or not incoming/outgoing ports are blocked
by default.
-s –services
Lists the known firewall services.
-l –load
Load the current firewall settings.
-r –resetDefaults
Resets all firewall parameters to their default values.
–blockIncoming
Block all incoming connections on non-required ports. This is
the default.
–blockOutgoing
Block all outgoing connections on non-required ports. This is
the default.
–allowIncoming
Allow incoming connections on all ports.
–allowOutgoing
Allow outgoing connections on all ports.
–e –enableService service
Opens the ports in the firewall required by the specified ser-
vice.
–d –disableService service
Closes the ports in the firewall required by the specified ser-
vice.
-o –openPort -AR -port,tcp|udp,in|out,name
Opens a port in the firewall. Closes a port previously opened by
–openPort.
-h –help
Print a brief usage message.

EXAMPLES
esxcfg-firewall –query sshClient
esxcfg-firewall –openPort 873,tcp,in,”rsync”
esxcfg-firewall –enableService sshClient

Troubleshoot ESX/ESXi server management and connectivity issues

This VMworld presentation from last year goes through some good vCenter troubleshooting http://www.vmworld.com/docs/DOC-3969

Determine the root cause of vSphere management or connectivity issue
Again you may see many issues that appear the same but are different then others. Refer to the resolution paths for some great information and troubleshooting steps on this.

Tools

 ESX Configuration Guide
 ESXi Configuration Guide
 vSphere Command-Line Interface Installation and Scripting Guide
 Product Documentation
 vSphere Client
 vSphere CLI
o vicfg-*