VM Volders in datastore have no data!

[jblanc03]

Vcenter Version: 4.1

ESX 4.1 (Not ESXi)

Okay this is by far the weirdes thing i have ever encountered and its been making me crazy, as i cannot figure out why i am seeing this.

Maybe you guys can help me.

I have an NFS datastore with all of my VM's in it.  That is, all my VM data resides in this One Data Store period.

I have a couple of VM's that are not showing any data in their designated VM folders!  No .vmx or .vmdk files or nothing! absolutley nothing are in the folders.

yet the machine powers on and in the VM summary, it shows that the .vmx file is located in that same folder.  Yet i cant see anything in the Folder!

Ive tried the following to see what would happen:

* Migrated the VM over to another Datastore:  It migrates, but i still cant see anything in the folders on the new data store.  I noticed that even though the migration is successful, the VM folder does not remove from the old data store.

* Checked to see if the VM's had any Snapshots:  there are none

Anyone know whats going on?

[vmroyale]

Have you tried closing and re-opening the vSphere Client or using it from a different computer? I've had this happen before and closing the client corrected it.

[jblanc03]

Just tried that.

No joy.

It is definitely something to do with the VM. I just cant figure out what?

[a_p_]

Indeed Strange!? Did you already try to adjust the contrast/brightness on your monitor? :smileysilly: (Just kidding)

When you say you don't see any files, are you talking about the datasatore browser or does this also happen using other tools? I remember that I had such a phenomenon some time ago (not with ESXi though) where the issue was caused by a single file with contained special characters in its file name. Maybe worth checking.

André

[f10]

To me this sounds to be a vSphere client issue, have you tried different systems with different version of vsphere client? Also when did u start seeing this issue. Is this through vSphere client - ESX host or vSphere Client -vCenter, did you try resstarting the host & vpxa agents on the ESX hosts?

[jblanc03]

You just might be on to something Andre.

I am actually browsing through the DataStore Browser on Vsphere 4.1

This is bad. If i remove this VM from inventory, then i would not be able to re-add it to inventory because i cant see the .vmx file!!!!

I need desperate help here.

thanks for your input

if you find anything else out let me know

[jblanc03]

Okay here is the update on this Thread!

I dont know why this is happening, but only when i log into Vcenter using Vsphere Client that i cannot see the data in some of my VM folders on the datasores

When i log into the host itself using Vshpere Client, i can see everything.

What in the world could be causing this?

on a side note, i also cannot see anything in Storage Views when logged into Vcenter using Vsphere.

Ive troubleshooted this by using different PC's to log into Vcenter using the Vshpere client.

* Ive tried closing out Vsphere client and re-opening it.

* Ive tried rebooting both hosts

*Ive tried migrating via Storage Vmotion back and forth to different datastores

*Its like the files are somehow hidden from view.

*made sure firewall was turned off

This might verywell be directly related to the same reason i cant see anything in Storage Views in Vcenter.

It attempts to refresh(takes awhile) and then after its done, nothing displays on the screen.  Does not matter if i choose different view filters.

PLEASE HELP this is by far the Most critical issue i need to resolve.

[f10]

Take a look at kb.vmware.com/kb/1010832 I guess this should cover all the troubleshooting steps.

Apart from the steps in the KB I can think of two things that might be causing this issue (i) the vpxa agents are not synchronized on the ESX host so you can just try to restart the vpxa agents on the ESX hosts. (ii) I guess TCP port 902 or 903 is used between the vSphere client and the vCenter/ESX hosts that needs to be open.

[jblanc03]

Hey Thanks!

can you explain the commands to sync the vpxa agents/restart them?

im using ESX 4.1

[f10]

To restart vpxa agents on ESX:

service vmware-vpxa restart

See, [http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=100349...] for more info.

all d best

[jblanc03]

will this shutdown any VM's or cause any downtime?

[f10]

The VMs will remain unaffected, only the virtual center specific tasks like vMotion etc for the host would be interrupted.

[jblanc03]

Thanks

Ill let you know what happens

[jblanc03]

Sorry but this command is unrecconized by ESX 4.1

I was physically at the host logged in as root and this command is unkown.

what is the right command for ESX 4.1?