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Archive for December, 2009

virtualcenter 2.5.x stops due to a full transaction log.

December 16th, 2009 No comments

Since several weeks, one of my customers had some issues with a virtualcenter that kept crashing at random moments.

The virtualcenter itself is running 2.5U4 (ok not the latest version) and is currently managing about 20 hosts and some 150 virtual machines. The size of the database was set to 5gb and the log file was initially around 3gb. so nothing special here.

In the event viewer of the virtualcenter server, we saw that the transaction log for the database,  was full and therefore the virtualcenter received an unrecoverable error and stopped.   Since we did changed the statistics level of the performance counter to level 4 (we really needed those performance counters), we were forced to change them back to the default settings.
To free up some table space, we disabled the rollup job and stopped the virtualcenter and started purging some old data (see vmware kb 1000125) – Restarted the virtualcenter service  but unfortunately after 10 minutes the log file of 12Gb was again full.

Since we do not own the sql server, we had a long discussion with the database team if it was possible to increase the log file size.   So in the end, we changed the log file to 50gb – restarted the rollup job and saw that the job was successfully completed after 1hour.  The job used around 20gb to complete.

so bottom line
– do not size your log files to small, be sure to have a lot of free working space available so that the sql rollup jobs can complete without errors.  If not you will have a snowball.
– if you increase the statistics level, increase of reserve additional disc space for the log files.
– remember that your database size and log file size will growth depending the evolution of the number of virtual machines and hosts that your virtualcenter must manage.
– and monitor the success rate of the rollup jobs

some intresting links
– Updated sql scripts|
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1009857&sliceId=1&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&dialogID=52428114&stateId=0%200%2053090810
Purging old data from the database used by vCenter Server| http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1000125

Categories: VMware Tags: , ,

problems when installing vCenter 4

December 10th, 2009 No comments

when you having problems while installing vCenter 4 and get an error at the moment he’s installing vCenter Server Directory Services Instance check the following:

vCenter Server installation fails if the root drive of the directory where it is installed does not have Read permission

Details

If you are installing vCenter Server, you may experience the following symptoms if the Windows Network Service account does not have Read permission on the root drive of the directory where vCenter Server is being installed:

  • vCenter Server installation fails
  • vCenter Server installation fails when the installer attempts to install the VMware ADAM instance

Solution

This issue occurs because Read permission is required on the root drive of the directory where the vCenter server is being installed.

To add the Network Service account with Read permission:

1. Right-click the root drive and click Properties.

2. Click the Security tab.

3. Under Group and user names, click Add.

4. Enter Network Service and click OK.

5. Check Allow for the Read permission for the Network Service account in the Permissions for Administrators pane.

6. Click Apply and OK.

Note: If the Everyone account has the Read permission, then the Network Service account also has this permission.

If these steps do not resolve the issue, remove the system from the domain, install the vCenter Server, then re-join the system back to the domain.

Categories: Uncategorized Tags: , ,