Lately i’ve run into a strange issue where an ESXi server gets into a state where VMs running on it are not able to be migrated to other ESXi servers. This is the error that comes up when you try to vMotion the problematic VMs. A general system error occured: Virtual machine must be running… Continue Reading
We’re using HP BL495c G6 blades with ESXi 4.0 U1, and the onboard NICS are disconnecting randomly upon reboot. Sometimes it happens after a single reboot, other times it takes 4 to cause the issue. The server uses the HP NC532i embedded NIC which is a rebadged Broadcom 57711E. In ESXi, the NIC uses the… Continue Reading
At some stage while in contact with VMware support, they may give you drivers to try. These drivers will be in VIB (vSphere Installation Bundle) format and will look something like vmware-esx-drivers-net-bnx2x-400.1.52.12.v40.4-1.0.4.00000.x86_64.vib. I don’t know why this is not documented anywhere in the official docs, but here’s how to install these driver bundles into ESXi…. Continue Reading
When you forcefully remove a Datastore while ESXi servers are still connected to it, all sorts of weird and wonderful things can happen. We recently had a team member accidentally install ESXi onto a LUN, blowing away the Datastore that was on it. ESXi servers become unstable, the VM’s that were running from the Datastore go… Continue Reading