Unable to run a SSA on VMware environment

Question
#1

When running a smart state on a VMware I receive the following error

Unable to mount filesystem. Reason:[VixDiskLibApi#open (errcode=3 - VIX_E_INVALID_ARG): NBD_ERR_MALFORMED_NAME - [datastore1] Test/Test.vmdk] for VM:[[datastore1] Test/Test.vmx]

Using the vddk - 5.5.3
ESX Host 5.5

ESX is running of my VMware Workstation 10 and the VMs are running on the ESX server. Windows 7 is the base OS for VMware workstation

Any suggestions?

Thanks
P

#2

Pranesh,

  1. Which version of ManageIQ?
  2. What version of vCenter are you running?
  3. What is the “scan_via_host” setting in the Advanced Configuration?

Thanks.

#3

Hi Jerry,

Thank you so much for your prompt response.

Answers inline :

  1. Which version of ManageIQ?
    master.20141125040738_2f1ec4b

  2. What version of vCenter are you running?
    Not using vCenter - connecting directly to the host

  3. What is the “scan_via_host” setting in the Advanced Configuration?
    scan_via_host: true

Thanks Jerry.

Kind Regards

P

#4

Hi Jerry,

Thank you so much for your prompt response.

Answers inline :

  1. Which version of ManageIQ?
    master.20141125040738_2f1ec4b

  2. What version of vCenter are you running?
    Not using vCenter - connecting directly to the host

  3. What is the “scan_via_host” setting in the Advanced Configuration?
    scan_via_host: true

Thanks Jerry.

Kind Regards
P

#5

Hi, Pranesh. We currently have a case open with VMware support investigating this issue. As of now we have had to ask a customer in Australia who is also experiencing this problem to run tests for us in their environment. Would you be able to run a test with the vddk sample program supplied by VMware in their VDDK package? Also - what version of the VDDK are you using?

Thanks for your patience in this matter.

Jerry

#6

Hi Jerry,

No worries at all. I don’t mind running those tests at all. Interesting :slight_smile:
I am also based in Australia and work with the guys at Red Hat on
CloudForms opportunities and am aware of these issues that some customers
are facing as well. The vddk version is 5.5.3

Happy to conduct further testing.

Kind Regards
Pranesh

#7

Hi, Pranesh,

Here is the text of the request from VMware support regarding running a test for this issue:

"Since only a few customers are facing this issue, engineering and I believe this is may be an environmental issue. We now expect that when your customer runs our sample code, it is likely to fail the same way that yours did. If they have not yet tested it, would it be feasible for you to request the following additional items when running ‘vix-disklib-sample’:

  1. Set “vixDiskLib.transport.LogLevel=6” in config file.
  2. Run “vix-disklib-sample” test program something like below,
    ./vix-disklib-sample -info -host 172.21.130.10 -user root -password -initex -vm “vm=” -ssmoref <SNAPSHOT_MOREF> “[vv.prd.esx.Tier2_DS.2] dg_additional_testing_esx9/dg_additional_testing_esx9.vmdk”
  • and need to be replaced with VM moref and snapshot moref. This can be obtained by logging to MOB browser of ESXi host 172.21.130.10. - need to be replaced with actual file which has value set as in step 1.
  1. Capture the log output generated from the above and provide.
    Also engineering wanted to know whether customer has any special characters like “@”, “:”, “?”, “!” as part of their password."

Now my input:

  1. The vix-disklib-sample is a ‘c’ program that is shipped with VixDiskLib. After you expand the downloaded package from VMware, you will find it under vmware-vix-disklib-distrib/doc/samples/diskLib/vixDiskLibSample.cpp

  2. There is a Makefile there for it - so running “make” should build the test program but it did involve some work to get it to work. I have a prebuilt copy of it available if you like.

  3. Note that the config file VMware refers to should have the following contents:
    tmpDirectory="/tmp"
    vixDiskLib.transport.LogLevel=6
    vixDiskLib.nfs.LogLevel=4

  4. VMware have asked that we test using the datastore path to the VM hard disk. From your notes it seems that this is what you are doing already.

  5. Finally after running the test program (and probably recreating the error), please download the logs from the ESXi host with Trivia enabled. If you are not sure how to do this I can provide the steps.

  6. Be sure to set your LD_LIBRARY_PATH to include the location of the VixDiskLib libraries before running vix-disklib-sample. The location should be /usr/lib/vmware-vix-disklib/lib64.

#8

Hi all,

I hit the same wall a while ago, and removing “@” and “!” from account password fixed my issue.

Btw. I’ve managed to compile and test the connectivity with vix-disklib-sample afterwards, I can help with these steps if anybody needs it.

Regards,

Ekin.

#9

Ekin, if you can recreate the NBD_ERR_MALFORMED_NAME error consistently we would like you to run
the tests with instructions from VMware. Please let us know if you can help. Thank you.

#10

Hi Jerry,

I can reproduce NBD_ERR_MALFORMED_NAME with 5.5.2 and a password containing special characters - I’ll be happy to test and help. I’m not absolutely sure, but I think this issue is isolated to 5.5.x - I can’t reproduce it with 5.1.3 & 5.1.4…

Btw, right now I’m dealing with a similar issue - mind to take a look if you’ve not seen it already?

Thanks & Regards,

Ekin.