Unexpected vib installation on hosts

[a_p_]

Today I deployed vSphere Replication 5.8 on a vSphere 5.5 U1 cluster (single site installation). Installation and configuration went fine, and I was able to configure replications as expected. However, shortly after recovering a replicated VM, an installation task - initiated by "com.vmware.vcHms" - started on all ESXi hosts. After this, all host's had event entries like "Installation started" and "... 0 vibs installed, 0 vibs removed ...", and all hosts are flagged with "Reboot required" now. I didn't find anything related to this in the documentation, the Release Notes nor online.

Did someone else see this too, or have an explanation for this behavior? I didn't open a support request yet, but may do this later.

André

[tonyjwood]

Thanks Martin, do you know when we can expect an update to 5.8?

[mvalkanov]

Hi,

VR 6.0 is compatible only with SRM 6.0. VR 6.0 is not compatible with SRM 5.8.

Regards,

Martin

[Dipak]

This is what i got from VMware support an hour ago.

This is the answer from the escalation

--- Summary
There is currently a known issue in HMS (VR) whereby the HMS component on ESXi is triggering ESXUPDATE to attempt to download the package "vr2c-firewall.vib" from the VR appliance (i.e VRM/HMS server) even though that package may already be installed. This download attempt is retried each time ESXi connects with VC.

The ESXUPDATE logs show the download activity but also show that the installation of this package will be skipped since it is already installed.

---
2015-01-12T07:21:51Z esxupdate: downloader: DEBUG: Downloading from https://10.x.x.x:8043/vib/vr2c-firewall.vib...
2015-01-12T07:21:51Z esxupdate: Transaction: INFO: Skipping installed VIBs VMware_bootbank_vr2c-firewall_5.8.0.1-2170514
---

So to stop this behavior, the HMS (VR) agent on ESXi needs to check if the package "vr2c-firewall.vib" is already installed before attempting to download it. If it is installed, there won't be a need to download it.

This is exactly the fix that engineering is working on

Workaround:
-----------

  For the HMS continuous download of the 'vr2c-firewall.vib' package, there is no practical workaround. Shutting down the VR appliance is the only one we know of as the customer has already verified.

Thanks again for all your patience

[astardjiev]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for reporting the omission.

The interoperability matrices have been corrected.

Best,
Hristo

[bleibold]

Hristo,

When you say the interoperability matrices have been updated, what exactly did you mean there?

This link says that "vSphere Replication 6.0 requires vCenter Server 5.5 or higher" - http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere/VMware-vSphere-Replication-Overview.pdf

But the interoperability matrices seem to say that vSphere Replication requires vCenter 6.0 - VMware Product Interoperability Matrixes

Can someone confirm for me?

Thanks,

Bob

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[Bill_Oyler]

Martin,

I am running vSphere Replication 5.8 on (2) ESXi hosts in a single vCenter which contains about 25 ESXi hosts world-wide.  Even though vR is only in use on (2) ESXi hosts, the VRA seems to kick off an "Install" task on a regular basis, pushing the VIB to all 25 hosts world-wide repeatedly.  Just today it pushed the VIBs at 4:49am, then at 5:38am, then at 8:43am, then at 9:50am.  This seems a little excessive, especially for hosts that are not even involved in vSphere Replication.  Can you discuss with the product team ways in which a future version of vSphere Replication can be a little more selective with where it pushes out the VIBs, and how often they get pushed out?

Thanks,

Bill

[bleibold]

Looks like there might be a workaround:

kb.vmware.com/kb/2110304

Bob

[tonyjwood]

Hi

This is from the release notes of the latest version compatible with vSphere 5.5

VMware vSphere Replication 5.8.1 | 16 SEP 2015 | Build 2915556

NEW After upgrade to vSphere Replication 5.8.x all hosts in both sites repeatedly display VIB install message

The repeated VIB install messages reappear each time a host reconnects to vCenter or changes certificate.

Workaround: You must disable the automatic DR2C firewall rules of VIB by using the following procedure.

1. Connect to the vSphere Replication appliance by using an SSH connection.
2. On the console, run the /opt/vmware/hms/bin/hms-configtool -cmd reconfig -property hms-auto-install-vr2c-vib=false command.

I deleted my old appliances and re-deployed using this version.  I carried out the above steps BEFORE connecting the network on the appliances, preventing it from pushing out the VIB when it started up for the first time, as it will auto-register to vCenter and I assume then push out the VIB if the network is connected.  This meant I had to connect direct to the console instead of SSH but the process is the same.   I have not seen a single vib install message. 

Tony