Knowledge
- Identify CLI commands and tools used to troubleshoot management issues
Skills and Abilities
- Troubleshoot vCenter Server service and database connection issues
- Troubleshoot the ESX Service Console firewall
- Troubleshoot ESX/ESXi server management and connectivity issues
- Determine the root cause of vSphere management or connectivity issue
Tools
Identify CLI tools used to troubleshoot management issues
- vicfg-vswitch
- vicfg-vmknic
- vicfg-vswif
- vpxd.exe -s
There are a few more covered later in this objective for restarting management agents on ESX/i hosts. This VMware article on resolution paths is a great place to start learning about troubleshooting.
Troubleshoot vCenter Server service and database connection issues
- Check the VMware vCenter service is started and the account it’s configured to run as. Check that account isn’t locked out.
- Start vCentre using vpxd.exe;
- ‘vpxd.exe –s’ to start it as an application rather than a service. This will show error messages in plain text rather than the cryptic service codes.
- ‘vpxd.exe –p’ refreshes the password hash used to connect to the database. Used after replacing the default SSL certificates (VMwareKB1003070)
- How to set SQL as a service dependency – blog post
- With a lab setup and SQL Express the database often grows to the 4GB limit, at which point the vCenter service will fail. Follow VMwareKB1025914for details of how to cleardown data in the vCenter database.
- Check the ODBC connectivity using the ‘Test’ button. Check the SQL security logs to see failed authentication attempts.
VMwareKB1003979 gives a good overview of the previous processes.
Read more…
Knowledge
- Identify vCenter Server log file names and locations
- Identify ESX/ESXi log files names and locations
- Identify tools used to view vSphere log files
Skills and Abilities
- Generate vCenter Server and ESX/ESXi log bundles
- Use vicfg‐syslog to configure centralized logging on ESX/ESXi Hosts
- Test centralized logging configuration
- Configure the vMA appliance as a log host
- Use vilogger to enable/disable log collection on the vMA appliance
- Use vilogger to configure log rotation and retention
- Analyze log entries to obtain configuration information
- Analyze log entries to identify and resolve issues
Tools & learning resources
I’m covering the troubleshooting objectives last while preparing for the VCAP-DCA – it seems like the logical thing to do. Learn all the material then play with it, break it, fix it, recreate it etc. Practice makes perfect! I’ve been using the Trainsignal’s Troubleshooting for vSphere course but the official VMware Troubleshooting course has been getting good feedback.
vCenter log files
Located in;
- %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs (W2k3)
- C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\Logs (W2k8)
Available logs;
- sms.log Storage Management Service
- vpxd-xxxx.log vCenter logs
- vpxd-xxxx.log.gz are archived logs. You have to unzip them to see contents.
You can change the logging level (which defaults to ‘normal’) by going to vCenter Server Settings -> Logging Options. This VMwareKB describes how to enable trivia logging in vCenter (even if vCenter isn’t running) although this may have a performance impact and should only be used temporarily while diagnosing issues.
There are numerous ways to do this; Read more…
If you work your way through the vCSHB Reference Guide you’ll have covered every objective in the VCAP-DCA blueprint, so that’s where I’d recommend you start. If you have time, view the VMworld sessions for a bit of background and reinforcement. I went into a bit more detail on this objective as it’s something I wanted to evaluate for my company, so there’s some ‘real world’ issues covered which I doubt you’ll need for the exam.
Knowledge
- Identify the five protection levels for vCenter Server Heartbeat
- Identify the three server protection options for vCenter Server Heartbeat
- Identify supported cloning options
Skills and Abilities
- Install and configure vCenter Server Heartbeat
- Determine use cases for and execute a manual switchover
- Recover from a failover
- Monitor vCenter Server Heartbeat and communication status
- Configure heartbeat settings
- Configure shutdown options
- Configure application protection
- Add/Edit Services
- Add/Edit Tasks
- Edit/Test Rules
- Install/Edit Plug‐ins
- Add/Remove Inclusion/Exclusion Filters
- Perform Full System and Full Registry checks
- Configure/Test Alerts
- Troubleshoot common vCenter Server Heartbeat error conditions
Tools & learning resources
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