vCenter "Query" task

[andrewkemp]

I fired up my development vCenter after a short hiatus due to re-appropriated hardware. Now that everything is running again, the vCenter server is constantly querying the two hosts that it manages. I have googled for a while and can't find any information as to what the query is or why it would be happening constantly.

Any ideas?

Here is a sample of the event log I'm getting.

User Administrator logged out

info

3/17/2010 9:55:23 AM

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:55:21 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel01.******.local

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:55:16 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel02.******.local

Administrator

User Administrator@::1 logged in

info

3/17/2010 9:55:15 AM

Administrator

User Administrator logged out

info

3/17/2010 9:55:15 AM

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:55:10 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel01.******.local

Administrator

User Administrator@::1 logged in

info

3/17/2010 9:55:09 AM

Administrator

User Administrator logged out

info

3/17/2010 9:55:08 AM

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:55:06 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel01.******.local

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:55:01 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel02.******.local

Administrator

User Administrator@::1 logged in

info

3/17/2010 9:55:00 AM

Administrator

User Administrator logged out

info

3/17/2010 9:55:00 AM

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:54:56 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel01.******.local

Administrator

User Administrator@::1 logged in

info

3/17/2010 9:54:54 AM

Administrator

User Administrator logged out

info

3/17/2010 9:54:54 AM

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:54:50 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel01.******.local

Administrator

User Administrator@::1 logged in

info

3/17/2010 9:54:48 AM

Administrator

User Administrator logged out

info

3/17/2010 9:54:48 AM

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:54:43 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel01.******.local

Administrator

User Administrator@::1 logged in

info

3/17/2010 9:54:42 AM

Administrator

User Administrator logged out

info

3/17/2010 9:54:42 AM

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:54:40 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel01.******.local

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:54:35 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel02.******.local

Administrator

User Administrator@::1 logged in

info

3/17/2010 9:54:33 AM

Administrator

User Administrator logged out

info

3/17/2010 9:54:33 AM

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:54:28 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel01.******.local

Administrator

User Administrator@::1 logged in

info

3/17/2010 9:54:27 AM

Administrator

User Administrator logged out

info

3/17/2010 9:54:27 AM

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:54:22 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel01.******.local

Administrator

User Administrator@::1 logged in

info

3/17/2010 9:54:21 AM

Administrator

User Administrator logged out

info

3/17/2010 9:54:20 AM

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:54:16 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel01.******.local

Administrator

User Administrator@::1 logged in

info

3/17/2010 9:54:15 AM

Administrator

User Administrator logged out

info

3/17/2010 9:54:15 AM

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:54:12 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel01.******.local

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:54:07 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel02.******.local

Administrator

User Administrator@::1 logged in

info

3/17/2010 9:54:06 AM

Administrator

User Administrator logged out

info

3/17/2010 9:54:06 AM

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:54:04 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel01.******.local

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:53:59 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel02.******.local

Administrator

User Administrator@::1 logged in

info

3/17/2010 9:53:58 AM

Administrator

User Administrator logged out

info

3/17/2010 9:53:57 AM

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:53:55 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel01.******.local

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:53:50 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel02.******.local

Administrator

User Administrator@::1 logged in

info

3/17/2010 9:53:49 AM

Administrator

User Administrator logged out

info

3/17/2010 9:53:49 AM

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:53:46 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel01.******.local

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:53:41 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel02.******.local

Administrator

User Administrator@::1 logged in

info

3/17/2010 9:53:40 AM

Administrator

User Administrator logged out

info

3/17/2010 9:53:40 AM

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:53:38 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel01.******.local

Administrator

Task: Query

info

3/17/2010 9:53:33 AM

Query

ind-msesx-devel02.******.local

Administrator

User Administrator@::1 logged in

info

3/17/2010 9:53:32 AM

Administrator

[Troy_Clavell]

my initial thought is this is normal polling of the hardware and hostd of your ESX hosts. The login/logoff's should be very quick. the built in CIM monitoring is probably what you are seeing.

[andrewkemp]

Our production vCenter doesnt do this, all production servers, devel servers, and vcenters are running the same builds. Everything is 4.0U1.

Why the difference between the two environments?

[Troy_Clavell]

I guess my next question would be, what is different? Do you have any 3rd party tools/agents installed? I have not seen your specific error, but like I said before, my assumption would be it has to do something with hardware monitoring.

As a test, disable the vCenter Hardware Status plugin and see what happens.

Same hardware for everything?

[andrewkemp]

same hardware all around except for processors and memory. there is one 3rd party tool installed on the hosts. the second development host doesnt have it yet since i haven't finished building it yet. i wanted to sort out any possible issues before continuing. that could be the cause for all i know.

i have disabled host heartbeat in the cluster and the hardware monitoring plugin with no change.

[Troy_Clavell]

there is one 3rd party tool installed on the hosts. the second development host doesnt have it yet since i haven't finished building it yet. i wanted to sort out any possible issues before continuing. that could be the cause for all i know.

this is probably the culprit. Remove the 3rd party tool and see what happens. Does it happen to use administrator as it's credentials to log in?

[andrewkemp]

yes it does use Administrator to login but the 3rd party tool cannot be removed from the production cluster. i suppose since we aren't seeing the same trouble in production so it doesn't matter on that cluster.

[Troy_Clavell]

I think you found your answer then.