3PAR Management Plug In for vSphere

[ernique]

I am new to the world of 3PAR and VMWARE. I installed the 3PAR plug in for vsphere and I get the Website cannot display the web page error 500. Has anyone seen this or come across this issuse?

Thanks

ecb

[Morten_Dalgaard]

Hi.

Sadly i do not know the solution to this problem, but i have it as well.

VMware vCenter 4.1 on Windows Server 2003 x64, and 3par plugin 1.1.0 P01.

Sadly 3par support seems limited to 3par support documents which is pretty much limited to release notes. If you like googling for answers to issues, 3par is definitely not the storage system to get.

[ernique]

Yes 3PAR support is not the greatest. I upgraded to 2.1.0 and it works on Windows 2008 with no issues.

[HPstorageGuy]

DISCLAIMER: As my user name suggests, I work for HP Storage - and we of course acquired 3PAR about a year ago.

I asked one of my field guys and he responded with this:

For vSphere 4.1 do not install the 3PAR plug-in version 1.1.  Install the 2.1 version instead and you will be ok. I think the 1.1 version still ships when you order our plug-in and that’s why people stumble with this.

Sounds like you've already solved your issue - but let me know if you did not.

[Morten_Dalgaard]

I've also solved the issue by installing 2.1 instead.

However, i am now trying to get the vSphere Host explorer service working, but it doesn't, and the log fills up with:

[2011-07-05 23:35:33.0911 (001272.000004)] [VMTpdHostExplorerSvc.Worker_DoWork [Info]Generating Hostinfo..
[2011-07-05 23:35:45.0268 (001272.000004)] [VMTpdHostExplorerSvc.Worker_DoWork [Info]Unexpected exception in Worker thread
[2011-07-05 23:35:45.0268 (001272.000004)] [Util.PrintException [Error]Exception : The request failed with HTTP status 400: Bad Request.
[2011-07-05 23:35:45.0315 (001272.000004)] [Util.PrintException [Error]Source: System.Web.Services
[2011-07-05 23:35:45.0315 (001272.000004)] [Util.PrintException [Error]StackTrace:
[2011-07-05 23:35:45.0330 (001272.000004)] [VMTpdHostExplorerSvc.Worker_DoWork [Error]   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.ReadResponse(SoapClientMessage message, WebResponse response, Stream responseStream, Boolean asyncCall)
   at System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHttpClientProtocol.Invoke(String methodName, Object[] parameters)
   at Vim25Api.VimService.Login(ManagedObjectReference _this, String userName, String password, String locale)
   at TpdVMUtil.TpdVMConnection.Connect(String url, String username, String password)
   at TpdVMUtil.TpdVMVirtualCenter.Connect_Initialize(String url, String user, String passwd)
   at TpdVCInfoHelper.TpdVCInfo.BuildInfo()
   at VMHostExplorerSvc.VMTpdHostExplorerSvc.Worker_DoWork(Object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
[2011-07-05 23:35:45.0330 (001272.000004)] [VMTpdHostExplorerSvc.Worker_DoWork [Info]Flush all cache and thread will continue
[2011-07-05 23:35:45.0330 (001272.000004)] [VMTpdHostExplorerSvc.Worker_DoWork [Info]Recreating VMTpdHostInfoToken
[2011-07-05 23:35:45.0330 (001272.000004)] [VMTpdHostExplorerSvc.Worker_DoWork [Info]Sleeping 12 Hours

[ernique]

I got the Host explorer to work with no issues on our Windows 2008. I do not have any other Windows versions or Unix servers connected to the 3PAR. There is two versions one for 32bit and one for 64bit. I have not seen any of what you listed in any of our log files.

I am trying to get the Host explorer piece that comes with the Recovery manager for VMware working. Have not any luck getting that to work.

[HPstorageGuy]

Did you do the credential file stuff?  Did you start the Host Explorer service on the RMV server?  You should open a case if you have done all that and still can’t get it to work. One of my lab architects thinks this looks like a missing username/password issue.  He also thought reading the manual/release notes might help.

[ernique]

I got the credentials set up and have the Host Explorer service running. Been over the manual and release several times. Have not opened a server call yet, have not had the time. Should not have to work so hard to get something so simple to work.

[Morten_Dalgaard]

I have credentials set up for the InServ system as well as the vCenter server. The service is also running, but generating above errors.

I do have a support ticket open, but it seems to take ages to get any response on those.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is another one of those internationalization errors 3par's had before. Even though i do have the locale set to English-US, only because this seems to have been an issue earlier.

I have not tried to change my timezone however, even though having timezones east of GMT has triggered other bugs before. (seriously!!)

[Morten_Dalgaard]

I finally solved the problem with Host Explorer for VMware.

After adding both the InServ systems, and the vCenter server - with the credential file, i found that you have to create the credential file with PowerCLI v4.0. v4.1 WILL NOT WORK.

Luckily our installation technician knew this, because i have no idea how i would have figured it out myself.

[ernique]

That is awesome, I will have to give it a shot. I used the Perl scripts to create the credential file, not sure what version I used. Something to put on the list of things to do for next week. The list is only about 6 feet long at the moment.

[HPstorageGuy]

Guys - got this from the HP 3PAR engineering team:

>  The Host Explorer error is more like the invalid vCenter credential.

>  Customer need to add vCenter credential from Host Explorer tab of RMV Admin GUI tools so Host Explorer can connect to vCenter to retrieve ESX information

Sounds like you found the same - but wanted to let you know what I got from the engineering team.

(Disclaimer - I work for HP storage)

[ernique]

I used to work for HP…..

[ernique]

So I created the credential store file using PowerCLI v4.0, Set up and configured everything in the Host Explorer tab on the RMV GUI. Now the big question how to tell if it is pulling information. I have Host Explorer install on my Windows 2008 and the servers show in the Host Explorer tab on the 3PAR IMC. Should my VMwares show up in the same tab? Should the VMware show the same information that I see from the Windows 2008? Windows show the multipath and Healthy paths, VMware show multipath as unknown and Healthy paths as zero. Am I expecting too much form the VMware Host Explorer?

[Morten_Dalgaard]

I think the answer to that is yes.

After getting my VMware hosts to show up under the Host Explorer tab on one of our F200 InServs, i wanted to get it working on the other one as well.

However no hosts were showing up on that, even though they are configured exactly the same, except for the fact that the 2nd InServ wasn't presenting any LUN's to the VMware hosts.

It turns out that apparently no hosts will show up under the Host Explorer tab, until you present them with a LUN.

I mean?!?!?! Thats half the use of Host Explorer - Not having to map the WWNs to hosts, but since you can't present a LUN to a host without doing this mapping first its chicken or the egg all over.

[ernique]

Yes, I downloaded v2.1 form the 3PAR website and it works fine. 3PAR support got back to be about a week or so after stating that v1.1 does not work and to install v2.1. Better late than never I guess.

[PeterAlam]

Hello Mate,

i'm facing similar issue but this time with vCenter 6 and RMV 2.6.1, also getting page can't be displayed from vshpere client and the plugin is not displayed at all in the Web client.

all suggestions are welcomed.

regards,

P