Dell Release Date: 8th Sep 2015 VMware ESXi™ 5.5 Update 2 | 8 Sep 2015 | Build 2718055 Dell Version- A05 This is Dell Customized ESXi5.5 Update 2 Patch (Build 2718055) image with latest drivers included in to the image. Please refer Important Information section for additional drivers included in this release. VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes ========================================== VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 Release Notes VMware ESXi™ 5.5 Update 2 | 9 SEP 2014 | Build 2068190 Last updated: 9 SEP 2014 Check for additions and updates to these release notes. What's in the Release Notes The release notes cover the following topics: What's New (#w hatsnew ) Earlier Releases of ESXi 5.5 (#priorreleases) Internationalization (#i18n) Compatibility and Installation (#beforeyoubegin) Upgrades for This Release (#upgrading) Open Source Components for VMware vSphere (#opensource) Product Support Notices (#featureplatfornotice) Patches Contained in this Release (#patches) Resolved Issues (#resolvedissues) Known Issues (#know nissues) What's New This release of VMware ESXi contains the following enhancements: VMware vShield Endpoint Thin Agent is renamed as VMware Tools Guest Introspection plugin - The vShield Endpoint driver bundled with VMware Tools is now called Guest Introspection. Resolved Issues – This release delivers a number of bug fixes that have been documented in the Resolved Issues (#resolvedissues) section. Earlier Releases of ESXi 5.5 Features and known issues of ESXi 5.5 are described in the release notes for each release. Release notes for earlier releases of ESXi 5.5, are: VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 1 Release Notes (https://w w w .vmw are.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esx- 55u1-release-notes.html) VMware vSphere 5.5 Release Notes (https://w w w .vmw are.com/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esx-vcenterserver- 55-release-notes.html) Internationalization VMware vSphere 5.5 Update 2 is available in the following languages: English French German Japanese Korean Simplified Chinese Traditional Chinese Compatibility and Installation ESXi, vCenter Server, and vSphere Web Client Version Compatibility The VMware Product Interoperability Matrix (http://partnerw eb.vmw are.com/comp_guide/sim/interop_matrix.php) provides details about the compatibility of current and earlier versions of VMware vSphere components, including ESXi, VMware vCenter Server, the vSphere Web Client, and optional VMware products. Check the VMware Product Interoperability Matrix (http://partnerw eb.vmw are.com/comp_guide/sim/interop_matrix.php) also for information about supported management and backup agents before you install ESXi or vCenter Server. 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 2/27 The vSphere Client and the vSphere Web Client are packaged on the vCenter Server ISO. You can install one or both clients by using the VMware vCenter™ Installer wizard. ESXi, vCenter Server, and VDDK Compatibility Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) 5.5.3 adds support for ESXi 5.5 Update 2 and vCenter Server 5.5 Update 2 releases. For more information about VDDK, see http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/vddk/ (http://w w w .vmw are.com/support/developer/vddk/) . ESXi and Virtual SAN Compatibility Virtual SAN does not support clusters that are configured with ESXi hosts earlier than 5.5 Update 1. Make sure all hosts in the Virtual SAN cluster are upgraded to ESXi 5.5 Update 1 or later, before enabling Virtual SAN. vCenter Server should also be upgraded to 5.5 Update 1 or later. Hardware Compatibility for ESXi To view a list of processors, storage devices, SAN arrays, and I/O devices that are compatible with vSphere 5.5 Update 2, use the ESXi 5.5 Update 2 information in the VMware Compatibility Guide (http://w w w .vmw are.com/resources/compatibility/search.php) . Device Compatibility for ESXi To determine which devices are compatible with ESXi 5.5 Update 2, use the ESXi 5.5 Update 2 information in the VMware Compatibility Guide (http://w w w .vmw are.com/resources/compatibility/search.php) . Some devices are deprecated and no longer supported on ESXi 5.5 and later. During the upgrade process, the device driver is installed on the ESXi 5.5.x host. It might still function on ESXi 5.5.x, but the device is not supported on ESXi 5.5.x. For a list of devices that have been deprecated and are no longer supported on ESXi 5.5.x, see the VMware Knowledge Base article Deprecated devices and warnings during ESXi 5.5 upgrade process (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2056935) . Guest Operating System Compatibility for ESXi To determine which guest operating systems are compatible with vSphere 5.5 Update 2, use the ESXi 5.5 Update 2 information in the VMware Compatibility Guide (http://w w w .vmw are.com/resources/compatibility/search.php) . Virtual Machine Compatibility for ESXi Virtual machines that are compatible with ESX 3.x and later (hardware version 4) are supported with ESXi 5.5 Update 2. Virtual machines that are compatible with ESX 2.x and later (hardware version 3) are not supported. To use such virtual machines on ESXi 5.5 Update 2, upgrade the virtual machine compatibility. See the vSphere Upgrade (http://pubs.vmw are.com/vsphere-55/topic/com.vmw are.vsphere.upgrade.doc/GUID-18B7B4BB-C24A-49CD-AE76- 13285157B29F.html ) documentation. vSphere Client Connections to Linked Mode Environments with vCenter Server 5.x vCenter Server 5.5 can exist in Linked Mode only with other instances of vCenter Server 5.5. Installation Notes for This Release Read the vSphere Installation and Setup (http://pubs.vmw are.com/vsphere- 55/topic/com.vmw are.vsphere.install.doc/GUID-7C9A1E23-7FCD-4295-9CB1-C932F2423C63.html ) documentation for guidance about installing and configuring ESXi and vCenter Server. Although the installations are straightforward, several subsequent configuration steps are essential. Read the following documentation: Licensing in the vCenter Server and Host Management (http://pubs.vmw are.com/vsphere- 55/topic/com.vmw are.vsphere.vcenterhost.doc/GUID-3B5AF2B1-C534-4426-B97A-D14019A8010F.html ) documentation Networking in the vSphere Networking (http://pubs.vmw are.com/vsphere- 55/topic/com.vmw are.vsphere.netw orking.doc/GUID-35B40B0B-0C13-43B2-BC85-18C9C91BE2D4.html ) documentation Security in the vSphere Security (http://pubs.vmw are.com/vsphere- 55/topic/com.vmw are.vsphere.security.doc/GUID-52188148-C579-4F6A-8335-CFBCE0DD2167.html ) documentation for information on firewall ports Migrating Third-Party Solutions You cannot directly migrate third-party solutions installed on an ESX or ESXi host as part of a host upgrade. Architectural changes between ESXi 5.1 and ESXi 5.5 result in the loss of thirdparty components and possible system instability. To accomplish such migrations, you can create a custom ISO file with Image Builder. For information about upgrading your host with third-party customizations, see the vSphere Upgrade (http://pubs.vmw are.com/vsphere- 55/topic/com.vmw are.vsphere.upgrade.doc/GUID-18B7B4BB-C24A-49CD-AE76-13285157B29F.html ) documentation. For 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 3/27 information about using Image Builder to make a custom ISO, see the vSphere Installation and Setup (http://pubs.vmw are.com/vsphere-55/topic/com.vmw are.vsphere.install.doc/GUID-7C9A1E23-7FCD-4295-9CB1- C932F2423C63.html ) documentation. Upgrades and Installations Disallowed for Unsupported CPUs vSphere 5.5.x supports only CPUs with LAHF and SAHF CPU instruction sets. During an installation or upgrade, the installer checks the compatibility of the host CPU with vSphere 5.5.x. If your host hardware is not compatible, a purple screen appears with a message about incompatibility. You cannot install or upgrade to vSphere 5.5.x. Upgrades for This Release For instructions about upgrading vCenter Server and ESX/ESXi hosts, see the vSphere Upgrade (http://pubs.vmw are.com/vsphere-55/topic/com.vmw are.vsphere.upgrade.doc/GUID-18B7B4BB-C24A-49CD-AE76- 13285157B29F.html ) documentation. Supported Upgrade Paths for Upgrade to ESXi 5.5 Update 2: Upgrade Deliverables Supported Upgrade Tools Supported Upgrade Paths to ESXi 5.5 Update 2 ESX/ESXi 4.0: Includes ESX/ESXi 4.0 Update 1 ESX/ESXi 4.0 Update 2 ESX/ESXi 4.0 Update 3 ESX/ESXi 4.0 Update 4 ESX/ESXi 4.1: Includes ESX/ESXi 4.1 Update 1 ESX/ESXi 4.1 Update 2 ESX/ESXi 4.1 Update 3 ESXi 5.0: Includes ESXi 5.0 Update 1 ESXi 5.0 Update 2 ESXi 5.0 Update 3 ESXi 5.1 Includes ESXi 5.1 Update 1 ESXi 5.1 Update 2 ESXi 5.5 Includes ESXi 5.5 Update 1 VMware-VMvisor- Installer- 5.5.0.update02- xxxxxx.x86_64.iso VMware vCenter Update Manager CD Upgrade Scripted Upgrade Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes update-from-esxi5.5- 5.5_update02.zip VMware vCenter Update Manager ESXCLI VMware vSphere CLI No No Yes* Yes* Yes Using patch definitions downloaded from VMware portal (online) VMware vCenter Update Manager with patch baseline No No No No Yes *Note: Upgrade from ESXi 5.0.x, or ESXi 5.1.x, to ESXi 5.5 Update 2 using update-fromesxi5.5- 5.5_update02.zip is supported only with ESXCLI. You need to run the esxcli software profile update --depot= --profile= command to perform the upgrade. For more information, see the ESXi 5.5.x Upgrade Options topic in the vSphere Upgrade guide. Open Source Components for VMware vSphere 5.5 Update 2 The copyright statements and licenses applicable to the open source software components distributed in vSphere 5.5 Update 2 are available at 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 4/27 http://www.vmware.com/download/vsphere/open_source.html (http://w w w .vmw are.com/dow nload/vsphere/open_source.html) , on the Open Source tab. You can also download the source files for any GPL, LGPL, or other similar licenses that require the source code or modifications to source code to be made available for the most recent available release of vSphere. Product Support Notices vSphere Web Client. Because Linux platforms are no longer supported by Adobe Flash, vSphere Web Client is not supported on the Linux OS. Third party browsers that add support for Adobe Flash on the Linux desktop OS might continue to function. VMware vCenter Server Appliance. In vSphere 5.5, the VMware vCenter Server Appliance meets high-governance compliance standards through the enforcement of the DISA Security Technical Information Guidelines (STIG). Before you deploy VMware vCenter Server Appliance, see the VMware Hardened Virtual Appliance Operations Guide for information about the new security deployment standards and to ensure successful operations. vCenter Server database. vSphere 5.5 removes support for IBM DB2 as the vCenter Server database. VMware Tools. Beginning with vSphere 5.5, all information about how to install and configure VMware Tools in vSphere is merged with the other vSphere documentation. For information about using VMware Tools in vSphere, see the vSphere documentation. Installing and Configuring VMware Tools is not relevant to vSphere 5.5 and later. VMware Tools. Beginning with vSphere 5.5, VMware Tools do not provide ThinPrint features. vSphere Data Protection. vSphere Data Protection 5.1 is not compatible with vSphere 5.5 because of a change in the way vSphere Web Client operates. vSphere Data Protection 5.1 users who upgrade to vSphere 5.5 must also update vSphere Data Protection to continue using vSphere Data Protection. Patches Contained in this Release This release contains all bulletins for ESXi that were released earlier to the release date of this product. See the VMware Download Patches (http://support.vmw are.com/selfsupport/dow nload/) page for more information about the individual bulletins. Patch Release ESXi550-Update02 contains the following individual bulletins: ESXi550-201408201-UG: Updates ESXi 5.5 esx-base vib ESXi550-201408202-UG: Updates ESXi 5.5 tools-light vib ESXi550-201408203-UG: Updates ESXi 5.5 net-tg3 vib ESXi550-201408204-UG: Updates ESXi 5.5 sata-ahci vib ESXi550-201408205-UG: Updates ESXi 5.5 scsi-megaraid-sas vib ESXi550-201408206-UG: Updates ESXi 5.5 misc-drivers vib ESXi550-201409207-UG: Updates ESXi 5.5 sata-ata-piix vib Patch Release ESXi550-Update02 Security-only contains the following individual bulletins: ESXi550-201408101-SG: Updates ESXi 5.5 esx-base vib Patch Release ESXi550-Update02 contains the following image profiles: ESXi-5.5.0-20140802001-standard ESXi-5.5.0-20140802001-no-tools Patch Release ESXi550-Update02 Security-only contains the following image profiles: ESXi-5.5.0-20140801001s-standard ESXi-5.5.0-20140801001s-no-tools For information on patch and update classification, see KB 2014447 (http://kb.vmw are.com/kb/2014447) . Resolved Issues This section describes resolved issues in this release: CIM and API Issues (#resolvedissuescimapi) Guest Operating System Issues (#resolvedissuesgos) Miscellaneous Issues (#resolvedissuesmiscellaneous) Networking Issues (#resolvedissuesnetw orking) Security Issues (#resolvedissuessecurity) Server Configuration Issues (#resolvedissuesserverconfig) Storage Issues (#resolvedissuesstorage) vCenter Server and vSphere Web Client Issues (#resolvedissuesvcenter) Virtual Machine Management Issues (#resolvedissuesvirtualmachinemanagement) 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 5/27 vMotion and Storage vMotion Issues (#resolvedissuesvmotion) Upgrade and Installation Issues (#resolvedupgradeandinstallissues) VMware Tools Issues (#resolvedissuesvmw aretools) CIM and API Issues ESXi host might experience High I/O latency When large CIM requests are sent to the LSI SMI-S provider on an ESXi host, high I/O latency might occur on an ESXi host due to poor storage. This issue is resolved in this release. vCenter Server might display the status of the power supply information as unknown After installing an ESXi host and connecting to vCenter Server, the power supply information in the vCenter Server Hardware Status tab appears as unknown. This issue is resolved in this release. sfcbd service can not be stopped or restarted When you stop and start the hardware monitoring service (sfcbd) in a vCenter Server to monitor the hardware status of the host, the sfcbd process stops responding with an error similar to the following: sfcbd: Sending TERM signal to sfcbd sfcbd-watchdog: Sleeping for 20 seconds sfcbd: Sending TERM signal to sfcbd sfcbd-watchdog: Sleeping for 20 seconds sfcbd-watchdog: Waited for 3 20 second intervals, SIGKILL next sfcbd: Stopping sfcbd sfcbd-watchdog: Sleeping for 20 seconds sfcbd-watchdog: Providers have terminated, lets kill the sfcbd. sfcbd-watchdog: Reached max kill attemtps. watchdog is exiting This issue is resolved in this release. sfcb might respond with incorrect method provider On an ESXi host, when you register two different method providers to the same CIM class with different namespace, upon request, the sfcb will always respond with the provider nearest to the top of providerRegister. This might be an incorrect method provider. This issue is resolved in this release. Hostd might not respond when you view the health status of an ESXi host When you connect vSphere Client to an ESXi host to view the health status, the hostd might not respond. A log similar to the following is written to hostd.log: YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.344Z [5A344B90 verbose \\\'ThreadPool\\\'] usage : total=22 max=74 workrun=22 iorun=0 workQ=0 ioQ=0 maxrun=30 maxQ=125 cur=W This issue is resolved in this release. Hardware health monitoring might fail to respond Hardware health monitoring might fail to respond and error messages similar to the following might be displayed by CIM providers: 2014-02-25T02:15:34Z sfcb-CIMXML-Processor[233738]: PAM unable to dlopen(/lib/security/$ISA/pam_passwdqc.so): /lib/security/../../lib/security/pam_passwdqc.so: cannot open shared object file: Too many open files2014-02-25T02:15:34Z sfcb-CIMXML-Processor[233738]: PAM adding faulty module: /lib/security/$ISA/pam_passwdqc.so2014-02-25T02:15:34Z sfcb- CIMXML-Processor[233738]: PAM unable to dlopen(/lib/security/ The SFCB service might also stop responding. This issue is resolved in this release. WBEM queries might fail when you attempt to monitor the hardware health of an ESXi host WBEM queries might fail when you attempt to monitor the hardware health of an ESXi host. An error message similar to the following is written to syslog: Timeout error accepting SSL connection exiting. To resolve this issue, a new configuration httpSelectTimeout is added that allows you to set the timeout value. Guest Operating System Issues Editing with VideoReDo application might cause a video to appear multiple times and distorted images might also appear 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 6/27 When you attempt to edit a video using VideoReDo application, the video might be displayed multiple times. Also, you might notice distorted images while editing the video. This issue is resolved in this release. Miscellaneous Issues ESXi host might fail with purple diagnostic screen after powering on virtual machine with PCI Passthrough Device Emulex Quad Port LPE12004 ESXi host might fail with a purple diagnostic screen after powering on a virtual machine with PCI Passthrough Device Emulex Quad Port LPE12004. You see the following error: cpu20:32852)@BlueScreen: #PF Exception 14 in world 32852:helper1-1 IP 0x41803baf7319 addr 0x410800fd3fa0 PTEs:0x13f1f1023;0x208569d063;0x0; cpu20:32852)Code start: 0x41803ba00000 VMK uptime: 0:02:15:58.810 cpu20:32852)0x4123c151de50: [0x41803baf7319]BackMap_Lookup@vmkernel#nover+0x35 stack: 0xffffffff00000000 cpu20:32852)0x4123c151df00: [0x41803ba69483]IOMMUDoReportFault@vmkernel#nover+0x133 stack: 0x500000701 cpu20:32852)0x4123c151df30: [0x41803ba69667]IOMMUProcessFaults@vmkernel#nover+0x1f stack: 0x0 cpu20:32852)0x4123c151dfd0: [0x41803ba60f8a]helpFunc@vmkernel#nover+0x6b6 stack: 0x0 cpu20:32852)0x4123c151dff0: [0x41803bc53242]CpuSched_StartWorld@vmkernel#nover+0xfa stack: 0x0 cpu20:32852)base fs=0x0 gs=0x418045000000 Kgs=0x0 You see entries similar to the following in vmkernel.log: cpu0:1097177)WARNING: IOMMUIntel: 2436: DMAR Fault IOMMU Unit #1: R/W=W, Device 0000:07:00.1 Faulting addr = 0xfd3fa000 Fault Reason = 0x05 -> PTE not set to allow Write.^[[0m cpu0:1097177)WARNING: IOMMUIntel: 2493: IOMMU context entry dump for 0000:07:00.1 Ctx-Hi = 0x302 Ctx-Lo = 0x14ac52001^[[0m This issue is resolved in this release. Networking Issues ESXi host might fail with a purple screen during Uplink instability When Uplink is unstable, the ESXi host might fail with a purple screen and displays an error similar to the following: 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn: [0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]UplinkRxQueuesLoadBalance@vmkernel#nover+0xnnn stack: 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn: [0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]UplinkLB_LoadBalanceCB@vmkernel#nover+0x8e stack: 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn, 0x 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn: [0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]UplinkAsyncProcessCallsHelperCB@vmkernel#nover+0x223 stack: 0x0, 0x4 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn:[0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]helpFunc@vmkernel#nover+0x6b6 stack: 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn: [0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]CpuSched_StartWorld@vmkernel#nover+0xfa stack: 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0 If you use Qlogic UCNA driver for your NIC, the status of the Uplink Port on an ESXi 5.5 host flaps and an error is written to vmkernel.log similar to the following: vmnic3:qlcnic_issue_cmd:372:Failed card response err_code: 0xn vmnic3:qlcnic_fw_cmd_destroy_tx_ctx:827:Failed to destroy tx ctx in firmware, err_code : 8 vmnic3:qlcnic_dev_request_reset:6879:Changed the adapter dev_state to NEED_RESET. vmnic3:qlcnic_check_health:7485:Adapter not in operational state(Heartbit Failure), resetting adapter. <6>qlcnic 0000:04:00.1: vmnic3:qlcnic_check_peg_halt_status:6722:PEG_HALT_STATUS1: 0xnnnnnnnn, PEG_HALT_STATUS2: 0xnnnnnn. vmnic3:qlcnic_detach:2337:Deleted Tx and Rx loopback filters. vmnic3:qlcnic_disable_bus_master:1042:Disabled bus mastering. vmnic3:qlcnic_free_rx_irq:2008:Freed vmnic3_rx[0] irq. 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 7/27 vmnic3:qlcnic_ctx_free_tx_irq:1859:Freed vmnic3_txq[0] irq #85. This issue is resolved in this release. vApp startup time might be increased when large number of dvPort groups are connected to vCenter Server vApp startup time might increase when the number of dvPort groups connected to vCenter Server increases. This issue is resolved in this release. SLP might fail to send UDP query network packets when multiple vmkernel interfaces are configured When you configure multiple vmkernel packets, Service Location Protocol (SLP) might fail to send UDP query network packets. As a result, the firewall drops the response packages. This issue is resolved in this release. Burst of data packets sent by applications might drop due to limited queue size on a vDS or on a standard vSwitch On a vNetwork Distributed Switch (vDS) or on a standard vSwitch where the traffic shaping is enabled, burst of data packets sent by applications might drop due to limited queue size. This issue is resolved in this release. Attempts to boot ESXi host using stateless cache image might fail due to wrong payload file name You might be unable to boot ESXi host using the stateless cache image when Auto Deploy fails to boot the host. An error message similar to the following is displayed when the host attempts to boot using the cached image: file not found. Fatal error : 15 (Not found) This issue occurs when you upgrade Auto Deploy from ESXi 5.0 to ESXi 5.x and the same image is used in the new Auto Deploy environment. This issue is resolved in this release. Incorrect health check result might be reported Incorrect results might be reported while monitoring the health status for VLAN, MTU, and Teaming policies when you use the VDS health check. This issue is resolved in this release. Security Issues Update to glibc packages The ESXi glibc-2.5 package is updated to resolve security issues. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the names CVE-2013-0242 and CVE-2013-1914 to these issues. Server Configuration Issues VMware vCenter Server performance charts display throughput.usage.average values incorrectly All throughput.usage related counter values in the vCenter Server performance charts are 1024 times larger than their actual value. The following counter values are affected: Network counters: throughput.usage throughput.usage.vm throughput.usage.vmotion throughput.usage.ft throughput.usage.iscsi throughput.usage.nfs throughput.usage.hbr Virtual Disk Counters: throughput.usage Storage Path Throughput Usage: throughput.usage Storage Adapter Counters: throughput.usage This issue is resolved in this release. ethtool might report incorrect cable type for Emulex 10Gb Ethernet 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 8/27 (10GbE)554FLR-SFP adapter ethtool might report an incorrect cable connection type for Emulex 10Gb Ethernet (10GbE)554FLR-SFP adapter. This is because ethtool might not support Direct Attached Copper (DAC) port type. This issue is resolved in this release. Guest operating customization might fail if a virtual machine is migrated because of DRS During guest operating system customization, if a virtual machine is migrated because of DRS, the customization process might fail and you might notice an error message similar to the following in the Guestcust.log file: Unable to set customization status in vmx This issue is resolved in this release. ESXi installation on iSCSI remote LUN might fail Attempts to install ESXi on an iSCSI remote LUN might fail with the following error: Expecting 2 bootbanks, found 0. This issue is resolved in this release. Virtual machines might experience slow I/O response On an ESXi host enabled with default IO scheduler, one or more virtual machines utilize the maximum I/O bandwidth of the device for a long time possibly causing an IOPS imbalance. This occurs due to a race condition identified in the ESXi default IO scheduler. This patch resolves the issue by ensuring uniformity in IOPS across VMs on an ESXi host. This issue is resolved in this release. Unable to create more than 16 TB of VMFS-5 datastores on the storage device An ESXIi host might fail when you format more than 16 TB of VMFS-5 datastore on the storage device. An error similar to the following is written to vmkernel.log: WARNING: LVM: 10032: Invalid firstPE 3758096383 WARNING: LVM: 10039: Invalid lastPE 3758096383 WARNING: LVM: 5242: Error detected for vol 526f639f-93de6438- 940e-d48cb5bc414c, dev naa.60000970000195700908533037393545:1 2013-11-05T09:50:56.997Z cpu10:34259)LVM: 7133: Device scan failed for : Invalid metadata FSS: 5051: No FS driver claimed device 'naa.60000970000195700908533037393545:1': Not supported VC: 1958: Device rescan time 24 msec (total number of devices 9) VC: 1961: Filesystem probe time 56 msec (devices probed 7 of 9) VC: 1963: Refresh open volume time 0 msec LVM: 7525: Initialized naa.60000970000195700908533037393545:1, devID 5278bf81-af41c8bd-3c21-d48cb5bc414c LVM: 7613: Zero volumeSize specified: using available space (30786340240896). LVM: 13082: One or more LVM devices have been discovered. LVM: 7689: Error "No space left on device" creating volume 5278bf81-82937d98-3734-d48cb5bc414c on device naa.60000970000195700908533037393545:1. This issue is resolved in this release. Unable to edit endpoints.conf file using VI editor in VMware vSphere WebService SDK When you attempt to edit /etc/vmware/rhttpproxy/endpoints.conf file in a VI editor, you might notice an error message similar to the following: Operation not permitted This issue is resolved in this release. Unable to add a virtual machine to a vSphere Distributed Switch 5.5 portgroup with traffic filtering rules applied When you configure traffic filtering rules on a vSphere 5.5 Distributed Switch (VDS), you experience these two issues: When you connect a virtual machine to a distributed switch portgroup with traffic filtering rules applied, you see an error in the vSphere Client or the vSphere Web Client: Cannot create DVPort portnumber of VDS switchname on the host hostname A general system error occurred. When you attempt to modify an existing traffic filtering rule on a port group, you see this 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 9/27 error: Cannot complete a vSphere Distributed Switch operation for one or more host members. vDS operation failed on host hostname, Received SOAP response fault from [ TCP:hostname:443>]: invokeHostTransactionCall Received SOAP response fault from [ ]: invokeHostTransactionCall A general system error occurred: got (vmodl.fault.SystemError) exception The hostd.log file (located at /var/log/ on the target ESXi host) contains entries similar to: YYYY-02-07T17:57:21.859Z [FF90D5B0 error 'Default' opID=577f035c-5f user=vpxuser] AdapterServer caught unexpected exception: Not a valid netmask This issue is resolved in this release. Host is unable to join the domain when it is booted from local cache During system restart, if the ESXi host is unable to reach Auto Deploy and needs to boot from the local cache, the settings might not persist and the ESXi host might be removed from Active Directory (AD) upon reboot. This issue is resolved in this release. ESXCLI commands might stop responding on Cisco UCS Blades server due to heavy storage load ESXCLI commands might stop responding on Cisco UCS Blades server due to heavy storage load. Error messages similar to the following might be written to the hostd.log file: 2013-12-13T16:24:57.402Z [3C5C9B90 verbose 'ThreadPool'] usage : total=20 max=62 workrun=18 iorun=2 workQ=78 ioQ=0 maxrun=31 maxQ=79 cur=I 2013-12-13T16:24:57.403Z [3C5C9B90 verbose 'ThreadPool'] usage : total=20 max=62 workrun=18 iorun=2 workQ=78 ioQ=0 maxrun=31 maxQ=79 cur=I 2013-12-13T16:24:57.404Z [3BEBEB90 verbose 'ThreadPool'] usage : total=21 max=62 workrun=18 iorun=3 workQ=78 ioQ=0 maxrun=31 maxQ=79 cur=I 2013-12-13T16:24:58.003Z [3BEBEB90 verbose 'ThreadPool'] usage : total=21 max=62 workrun=18 iorun=3 workQ=78 ioQ=0 maxrun=31 maxQ=79 cur=I 2013-12-13T16:24:58.282Z [3C9D4B90 verbose 'ThreadPool'] usage : total=22 max=62 workrun=18 iorun=4 workQ=78 ioQ=0 maxrun=31 maxQ=79 cur=I This issue is resolved in this release. ESXi hosts might fail with a purple screen when you perform X-vMotion ESXi hosts might fail with a purple screen with error messages similar to the following when you perform X-vMotion: #PF Exception 14 in world 301646:vpxa-worker IP 0x41801c281c03 addr 0x0 PTEs:0x1aabaa027;0x1c7a86027;0x0; 2014-01-16T09:36:52.171Z cpu0:301646)Code start: 0x41801b600000 VMK uptime: 1:03:55:02.989 2014-01-16T09:36:52.180Z cpu0:301646)0x41242939d430: [0x41801c281c03]XVMotion_FreeBlocks@esx#nover+0x1f stack: 0x41801ba34b3d 2014-01-16T09:36:52.192Z cpu0:301646)0x41242939d4a0: [0x41801c23abc2]SVMAsyncIOReadDone@svmVMware#0+0x1d2 stack: 0x412ed091a740 2014-01-16T09:36:52.204Z cpu0:301646)0x41242939d4d0: [0x41801b62d29f]AsyncPopCallbackFrameInt@vmkernel#nover+0xe7 stack: 0x412eca9d6ac0 This issue is resolved in this release. Management system of SNMP might report incorrect ESXi volume size for large file systems When you monitor ESXi using SNMP or management software that relies on SNMP, the management system of SNMP might report incorrect ESXi volume size when it retrives the volume size for large file systems. This issue is resolved in this release. sfcb service might fail to open ESXi firewall for CIM indication delivery if more than one destination listen to the indication on different ports 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 10/27 The sfcb server creates one firewall rule for each port to send CIM indication. The destination listens to the indication on this port. The sfcb service fails to open ESXi firewall for CIM indication delivery if more than one destination listen to the indication on different ports. This issue occurs when the sfcb service fails to create more than one rule for multiple ports as it uses a fixed name for the firewall rules and duplicate rule name is not allowed in a single rule set. This issue is resolved in this release by using the port number as the suffix of the rule name so that the rule names for different firewall rules do not conflict with each other. Performing a compliance check on an ESXi host might result in error message When you perform a compliance check on an ESXi host, an error message similar to the following might be displayed in the vSphere Client: Found extra CIM-XML Indication Subscription on local system for query u'select * from CIM_AlertIndication' sent to destination u'https://IP:port' This issue is resolved in this release. Permissions for an AD user or group might not persist after rebooting the ESXi host When you set permissions for an Active Directory (AD) user or group on an ESXi host with Host Profile, the permissions might not persist after you reboot the ESXi host with Auto Deploy. This issue is resolved in this release. Hardware Status tab in the vCenter Server might report memory warnings and memory alert messages If Assert or Deassert entry is logged into the IPMI System Event Log (SEL) for the Memory Presence Detected line, the Hardware Status tab in the vCenter Server might report memory warnings and memory alert messages. This issue is resolved in this release. Query of CIM instances from WSMAN Client on ESXi host might result in an XML parsing error An XML parsing error might occur when you query CIM instances from Web Server Manager (WSMAN) Client on an ESXi host with special characters in one of its properties. This issue is resolved in this release. Trend Micro Deep Security Manager fails to prepare ESXi 5.5 host When you run the Prepare ESX Server wizard in the Trend Micro Deep Security Manager interface, it fails while installing the filter driver on an ESXi 5.5 host. You see the error: The installation transaction failed The esxupdate.log file (located at /var/log/on the ESXi host) contains entries similar to: YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: BootBankInstaller.pyc: INFO: /altbootbank/boot.cfg: bootstate changed from 3 to 3 YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: An esxupdate error exception was caught: YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: Traceback (most recent call last): YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: File "/usr/sbin/esxupdate", line 216, in main YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: cmd.Run() fckLR YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: File "/build/mts/release/bora- 1331820/bora/build/esx/release/vmvisor/sysboot/ lib/python2.6/sitepackages/ vmware/esx5update/Cmdline.py", line 144, in Run YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: File "/build/mts/release/bora- 1331820/bora/build/esx/release/vmvisor/sysboot/ lib/python2.6/sitepackages/ vmware/esximage/Transaction.py", line 245, in InstallVibsFromSources YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: File "/build/mts/release/bora- 1331820/bora/build/esx/release/vmvisor/sysboot/ lib/python2.6/sitepackages/ vmware/esximage/Transaction.py", line 347, in _installVibs 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 11/27 YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: File "/build/mts/release/bora- 1331820/bora/build/esx/release/vmvisor/sysboot/ lib/python2.6/sitepackages/ vmware/esximage/Transaction.py", line 390, in _validateAndInstallProfile YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: File "/build/mts/release/bora- 1331820/bora/build/esx/release/vmvisor/sysboot/ lib/python2.6/sitepackages/ vmware/esximage/HostImage.py", line 692, in Stage YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: File "/build/mts/release/bora- 1331820/bora/build/esx/release/vmvisor/sysboot/ lib/python2.6/sitepackages/ vmware/esximage/HostImage.py", line 478, in _download_and_stage YYYY-01-09T06:21:32Z esxupdate: esxupdate: ERROR: InstallationError: ('Trend_bootbank_dvfilter-dsa_9.0.0-2636', '[Errno 4] Socket Error: [Errno 1] _ssl.c:1332: error:0906D06C:PEM routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line') This issue is resolved in this release. ESXi hosts might be disconnected from vCenter Server after Veeam backup is performed After you perform Veeam backup, the ESXi hosts might be disconnected from the vCenter Server. This issue occurs when Veaam tries to create a snapshot of the virtual machine. Error messages similar to the following are written to the hostd.log file: --> Crash Report build=1312873 --> Signal 11 received, si_code -128, si_errno 0 --> Bad access at 735F6572 This issue is resolved in this release. Creating and deploying a host profile from an ESXi host in a vCenter Server might take a long time or might fail when the host is configured with multiple storage devices Creating and deploying a host profile from an ESXi host in a vCenter Server might take a long time or might fail when the host is configured with multiple storage devices and the host cache is SSD enabled. An error message similar to the following is displayed in the vSphere Client: Error: vcenter took too long to respond. Error Stack: Call "HostProfileManager.CreateProfile" for object "HostProfileManager" on vCenter Server "your.vcenter.server.fqdn" failed. This issue is resolved in this release. ESXi host stops responding indicating Page Fault exception An ESXi host stops responding and displays a purple diagnostic screen indicating a Page Fault (#PF) exception has occurred. You see a backtrace similar to the following: @BlueScreen: #PF Exception 14 in world 33020:reset-handle IP 0x418007961885 addr 0x14 PTEs:0xnnnnnnnnn;0xnnnnnnnnn;0xnnnnnnnnn;0x0; Code start: 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn VMK uptime: 3:23:09:37.928 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn: [0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]VFlashAbortMatchingObjectAsyncIO@com.vmware.vmkapi#v2_2_0_0+0xc1 sta 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn: [0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]vmk_VFlashIoctl@com.vmware.vmkapi#v2_2_0_0+0x83 stack: 0x417fc6e6014 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn: [0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]VFlashAbortMatchingDeviceAsyncIO@com.vmware.vmkapi#v2_2_0_0+0x248 st 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn: [0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]VFlash_Ioctl@com.vmware.vmkapi#v2_2_0_0+0x247 stack: 0x412383f1ded0 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn: [0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]DevFSFileResetCommand@vmkernel#nover+0x1b5 stack: 0x412383f1df20 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn: [0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]VSCSI_FSResetTarget@vmkernel#nover+0x3a stack: 0x0 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn: 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 12/27 [0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]VSCSIResetWorldFunc@vmkernel#nover+0x459 stack: 0x0 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn: [0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]CpuSched_StartWorld@vmkernel#nover+0xfa stack: 0x0 This issue is resolved in this release. Applying a host profile might cause a compliance check failure for hosts provisioned with stateless caching When you configure a host profile to use stateless caching by selecting Enable stateless caching to a USB disk on the host option in the System Image Cache Profile Settings drop-down menu and attempt to apply the host profile, compliance check failure might happen on the hosts. This issue occurs when local SAS devices are ignored causing the compliance failures for local devices. This issue is resolved in this release. Applying a host profile causes compliance failure in VMware ESXi 5.x When attempting to complete the host profile application, or after applying the profile, you see these compliance failures: Specification state absent from host: device 'datastore' state needs to be set to 'on' Host state doesn't match specification: device 'datastore' needs to be reset Specification state absent from host: device 'datastore' Path Selection Policy needs to be set to 'VMW_PSP_FIXED' Host state doesn't match specification: device 'datastore' Path Selection Policy needs to be set to default for claiming SATP This issue occurs when a host profile that is saved from a reference host records a SCSI-3 device as potentially a shared device. However, if the SCSI-3 is a local device, then after the host profile is applied to a host, a compliance check can fail. For example, this issue can occur if Host1 has a SAS device with GUID1 and Host2 has a different SAS device with GUID2. Examples of local-only SCSI-3 devices include certain local RAID controllers and SAS disks. This issue is resolved in this release. ESXi host might experience a purple screen during hypervisor swapping After you upgrade the ESXi host to ESXi 5.5 Update 1 on a NUMA server, which does not have memory allocated in the first NUMA node, the host might experience a purple screen (PSOD) with a backtrace similar to the following: World: wwww: PRDA 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn ss 0x0 ds 0x10b es 0x10b fs 0x0 gs 0x13b World: wwww: TR 0xnnnn GDT 0x4123814a1000 (0x402f) IDT 0x41802c0f3000 (0xfff) World: wwww: CR0 0xnnnnnnnn CR3 0x11ca3f000 CR4 0x2768 Backtrace for current CPU #11, worldID=32850, ebp=0x41238149db50 0xnnnnnnnnnnnn: [0xnnnnnnnnnnnn]MemNode_MPN2ID@vmkernel#nover+0x1a stack: 0x4124aaea7000, 0x4124aaea This issue is resolved in this release. Status change of LSI MegaRaid disk might not be indicated or might be delayed When you use LSI SMI-S provider with MegaRaid SAS device driver on an ESXi 5.x host, the status change of LSI MegaRaid disk might not be indicated or might be delayed when you run the command enum_instances LSIESG_PhysicalDrive lsi/lsimr13. The following example indicates that the value of PowerState does not change or changes after a delay when the Power Saving mode of LSI MegaRaid disk is modified: LSILSIESG_PhysicalDrive.Tag="500605B004F93CF0_252_36",CreationClassName="LSIESG_PhysicalDrive" CreationClassName = LSIESG_PhysicalDrive Tag = 500605B004F93CF0_252_36 UserDataBlockSize = 512 PiType = 0 PiEligible = 0 PiFomatted = 0 PowerState = 0 ---> No change in status Vendor = (NULL) FRUNumber = (NULL) DiskDrive_DeviceID = 252_36 This issue is resolved in this release. 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 13/27 Storage Issues High virtual disks latency and low virtual disk performance might be observed when multiple virtual machines run on the same ESXi host and use the same NFS datastore In an environment where multiple virtual machines are running on the same ESXi host and using the same NFS datastore, you might experience high virtual disks latency and low virtual disk performance if you set the IOPS limit on one virtual machine. Even if you assign different IOPS limits for different virtual machines, IOPS limit on all virtual machines is set to the lowest value assigned to a virtual machine in the NFS datastore. This issue is resolved in this release. The disk identifier name might be truncated The Host Resources MIB (RFC 2790) limits the size of the formatted string to 64. The disk identifier name or any formatted string might be truncated if it exceeds this size limit. This issue is resolved in this release by removing the redundant white spaces to contain the valid information. BusLogic parallel controllers are not supported. BusLogic adapter does not support virtual disk configuration with size equal to or greater than 2TB. Hence powering on a VM with virtual disk size of more than 2TB whose adapter type is BusLogic fails. This issue is resolved in this release. Intel's 40G CNA in an ESXi host might display the link status as down The Intel 40G Converged Network Adapter (CNA) in an ESXi host might display the network link status as down. This issue is resolved in this release. Rescan all storage adapters operation running from the vCenter Server or ESXCLI might take a long time to complete The Rescan all storage adapters operation that you run from the vCenter Server or ESXCLI might take a long time to complete if the ESXi host has a large number of VMFS data stores. This release improves performance for various storage operations such as Rescan all storage adapters and VMFS datastores and operations such as Listing VMFS Snapshots and Devices in the Create Datastore wizard. False warning message might be reported even when valid scratch partition is configured in the system If the configured scratch location is not in the root of the datastore (/vmfs/volumes/ /), a false warning message similar to the following might be reported due to incorrect identification of the scratch configuration: No scratch partition has been configured. This issue is resolved in this release. Upgrade and Installation Issues Installing or upgrading ESXi might fail to create 2.5 GiB core dump partition on supported 4 GiB and 6 GiB USB flash drivers When you install or upgrade ESXi hosts, 2.5 GiB core dump partition might not be created on supported 4 GiB and 6 GiB USB drivers. This issue is resolved in this release. Installing an ESXi host to ESXi 5.5 might result in error messages been written to syslog.log files After you install an ESXi host and SNMP monitoring server monitors the host, error messages similar to the following might be written to the syslog.log file: snmpd: fetch_fixed_disk_status: fetch VSI_NODE_storage_scsifw_devices_smart_healthStatus(naa.6090a048e059642f5ac6d489e7faed03) failed Not supported, reporting unknown status This issue only occurs on hosts with disks that do not support Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART). This issue is resolved in this release. OSPs might display error messages during the installation of RHEL virtual machines using the kickstart file When you attempt to install RHEL virtual machines using the kickstart file, the operating system specific packages (OSPs) might display error message simmilar to the following: Could not load modules.dep 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 14/27 This issue is resolved in this release. Adding ESXi host to vCenter Server might fail when you attempt to upgrade from ESX 4.1 to ESXi 5.5 When you attempt to upgrade from ESX 4.1 to ESXi 5.5, the nsswitch.conf file of the host might not be migrated properly and as a result you might be unable to add the host to vCenter Server. This issue is resolved in this release. vCenter Server and vSphere Web Client Issues ESXi host might be disconnected from the vCenter Server after hostd service fails ESXi host might be disconnected from the vCenter Server when the virtual machine is unregistered and the hostd service fails. ESXi host can connect to the vCenter only after you restart the VPXA service. This issue is resolved in this release. Performance chart might display incorrect Throughput Usage values for vCenter Server inventory objects The performance chart displays incorrect Throughput Usage values for the following vCenter Server inventory objects: Virtual Machine > Virtual Disk Host > Disk Host > Storage Path Host > Storage Adapter For more information see KB 2064464 (http://kb.vmw are.com/kb/2064464) . This issue is resolved in this release. Average CPU usage values might be greater than the frequency of the processors multiplied by the number of processors The average CPU usage values displayed by Power CLI might be greater than the frequency of the processors multiplied by the number of processors. This issue is resolved in this release by setting the maximum limit of the average CPU usage values correctly. Snapshot quiescing and hot cloning of a Linux virtual machine might fail Snapshot quiescing and hot cloning of a Linux virtual machine might fail and error messages similar to the following might be written to vmware.log file: 2013-12-12T00:09:59.446Z| vcpu-1| I120: [msg.snapshot.quiesce.vmerr] The guest OS has reported an error during quiescing. 2013-12-12T00:09:59.446Z| vcpu-1| I120+ The error code was: 3 2013-12-12T00:09:59.446Z| vcpu-1| I120+ The error message was: Error when enabling the sync provider. 2013-12-12T00:09:59.446Z| vcpu-1| I120: ---------------------- ------------------ 2013-12-12T00:09:59.449Z| vcpu-1| I120: ToolsBackup: changing quiesce state: STARTED -> ERROR_WAIT 2013-12-12T00:10:00.450Z| vcpu-1| I120: ToolsBackup: changing quiesce state: ERROR_WAIT -> IDLE 2013-12-12T00:10:00.450Z| vcpu-1| I120: ToolsBackup: changing quiesce state: IDLE -> DONE 2013-12-12T00:10:00.450Z| vcpu-1| I120: SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotComplete: Done with snapshot 'clonetemp- 1386910714682919': 0 2013-12-12T00:10:00.450Z| vcpu-1| I120: SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotComplete: Snapshot 0 failed: Failed to quiesce the virtual machine (40). This issue is resolved in this release. Virtual Machine Management Issues Unable to create a quiesced snapshot of a Windows 7 or Windows 2008 virtual machine. Virtual machine might fail when you create a quiesced snapshot of a Windows 7 or Windows 2008 virtual machine. In the vmware.log file of the affected virtual machine, you see entries similar to the following: XXXX-03-08T04:10:09.790Z| vmx| SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotComplete done with snapshot 'test4': 0 XXXX-03-08T04:10:09.790Z| vmx| SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotComplete: Snapshot 0 failed: Failed to quiesce the virtual machine. (40). XXXX-07-01T15:30:43.244Z| vmx| ToolsBackup: not enough empty nodes (needed 9, found 6) 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 15/27 This issue is resolved in this release. ESXi host might fail with a purple screen when you run custom scripts using the AdvStats parameter ESXi host might fail with a purple screen when you run custom scripts using the AdvStats parameter to check the disk usage. An error message similar to the following might be written to vmkernel.log file: VSCSI: 231: Creating advStats for handle 8192, vscsi0:0 The host reports a backtrace similar to: Histogram_XXX VSCSIPostIOCompletion AsyncPopCallbackFrameInt This issue is resolved in this release. vMotion and Storage vMotion Issues Performing vMotion from ESXi 5.1 to ESXi 5.5 might cause the ESXi hosts to stop responding ESXi hosts might stop responding when you perform vMotion from ESXi 5.1 to ESXi 5.5. Error messages simlar to the following might be written to the hostd.log file on the destination ESXi host: 2013-12-18T15:21:52.455Z [FFBEFB70 verbose 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/50d2f92b-bc57ec6f-f5c0- 001c23d7ba27/migtest3/migtest3.vmx'] Get shared vigor fields message: CPUID register value () is invalid. --> CPUID register value () is invalid. --> CPUID register value () is invalid. --> CPUID register value () is invalid. --> CPUID register value () is invalid. --> CPUID register value () is invalid. --> CPUID register value () is invalid. --> CPUID register value () is invalid. --> 2013-12-18T15:21:52.455Z [FFBEFB70 info 'Vmsvc.vm:/vmfs/volumes/50d2f92b-bc57ec6f-f5c0- 001c23d7ba27/migtest3/migtest3.vmx'] Error encountered while retrieving configuration. Marking configuration as invalid: vim.fault.GenericVmConfigFault This issue is resolved in this release. Performing vMotion might result in VMware Tools auto-upgrade and virtual machines might reboot VMware Tools might auto-upgrade and the virtual machines might reboot when you enable upgrading of VMware Tools on power cycle and perform vMotion from an ESXi host with no-tools image profile to another ESXi host with VMware Tools ISO image. This issue is resolved in this release. VMware Tools Issues Snapshot quiescing and hot cloning of a Linux virtual machine might fail Snapshot quiescing and hot cloning of a Linux virtual machine might fail and error messages similar to the following might be written to vmware.log file: 2013-12-12T00:09:59.446Z| vcpu-1| I120: [msg.snapshot.quiesce.vmerr] The guest OS has reported an error during quiescing. 2013-12-12T00:09:59.446Z| vcpu-1| I120+ The error code was: 3 2013-12-12T00:09:59.446Z| vcpu-1| I120+ The error message was: Error when enabling the sync provider. 2013-12-12T00:09:59.446Z| vcpu-1| I120: --------------------- ------------------- 2013-12-12T00:09:59.449Z| vcpu-1| I120: ToolsBackup: changing quiesce state: STARTED -> ERROR_WAIT 2013-12-12T00:10:00.450Z| vcpu-1| I120: ToolsBackup: changing quiesce state: ERROR_WAIT -> IDLE 2013-12-12T00:10:00.450Z| vcpu-1| I120: ToolsBackup: changing quiesce state: IDLE -> DONE 2013-12-12T00:10:00.450Z| vcpu-1| I120: SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotComplete: Done with snapshot 'clonetemp- 1386910714682919': 0 2013-12-12T00:10:00.450Z| vcpu-1| I120: SnapshotVMXTakeSnapshotComplete: Snapshot 0 failed: Failed to quiesce the virtual machine (40). 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 16/27 This issue is resolved in this release. Virtual machine might appear to become unresponsive with a black screen Virtual machines running MOVE Agentless 3.0 on ESXi host might appear to become unresponsive with a black screen during login for 40 seconds or more. This issue is resolved in this release. Installing VMware Tools 5.1 on a Windows virtual machine reports Unity warnings in Windows Event logs After installing VMware Tools 5.1 on a Windows virtual machine, the Windows Application Event log of the guest operating system reports warnings similar to the following: [ warning] [vmusr:vmusr] vmware::tools::UnityPBRPCServer::Start: Failed to register with the host! [ warning] [vmusr:vmtoolsd] Failed registration of app type 2 (Signals) from plugin unity. [ warning] [vmusr:vmusr] Error in the RPC receive loop: RpcIn: Unable to send. [ warning] [vmusr:vmusr] socket count not create new socket, error 10047: An address incompatible with the requested protocol was used [ warning] [vmusr:vmusr] Channel restart failed [1] This issue is resolved in this release. MOB for GuestInfo.ipAddress data object might not be populated correctly when more than four NICs are connected The Managed Object Browser (MOB) for GuestInfo.ipAddress data object might not be populated correctly and the value of GuestInfo.ipAddress data object might be displayed as unset when more than four NICs are connected. This issue occurs when VMware Tools fails to determine a valid GOS IP address. This issue is resolved in this release. File disappears after VMware Tools upgrade deployPkg.dll file which is present in C:\Program Files\Vmware\Vmware Tools\ might not be found after upgrading VMware Tools. This issue is resolved in this release. Known Issues Known issues not previously documented are marked with the * symbol. The known issues are grouped as follows: Installation Issues (#installissues) Upgrade Issues (#upgradeissues) vCenter Single Sign-On Issues (#sso_issues) Networking Issues (#netw orkingissues) Server Configuration Issues (#serverissues) Storage Issues (#storageissues) Virtual SAN Issues (#VirtualSANissues) vCenter Server and vSphere Web Client Issues (#clientissues) Virtual Machine Management Issues (#vmissues) VMware HA and Fault Tolerance Issues (#vmw arehaissues) Supported Hardware Issues (#hardw areissues) VMware Tools Issues (#vmw aretoolsissues) Installation Issues Simple Install fails on Windows Server 2012 Simple Install fails on Windows Server 2012 if the operating system is configured to use a DHCP IP address Workaround: Configure the Windows 2012 Server to use a static IP address. If you use preserve VMFS with Auto Deploy Stateless Caching or Auto Deploy Stateful Installs, no core dump partition is created When you use Auto Deploy for Stateless Caching or Stateful Install on a blank disk, an MSDOS partition table is created. However, no core dump partition is created. Workaround: When you enable the Stateless Caching or Stateful Install host profile option, 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 17/27 select Overwrite VMFS, even when you install on a blank disk. When you do so, a 2.5GB coredump partition is created. During scripted installation, ESXi is installed on an SSD even though the -- ignoressd option is used with the installorupgrade command In ESXi 5.5, the --ignoressd option is not supported with the installorupgrade command. If you use the --ignoressd option with the installorupgrade command, the installer displays a warning that this is an invalid combination. The installer continues to install ESXi on the SSD instead of stopping the installation and displaying an error message. Workaround: To use the --ignoressd option in a scripted installation of ESXi, use the install command instead of the installorupgrade command. Delay in Auto Deploy cache purging might apply a host profile that has been deleted After you delete a host profile, it is not immediately purged from the Auto Deploy. As long as the host profile is persisted in the cache, Auto Deploy continues to apply the host profile. Any rules that apply the profile fail only after the profile is purged from the cache. Workaround: You can determine whether any rules use deleted host profiles by using the Get-DeployRuleSet PowerCLI cmdlet. The cmdlet shows the string deleted in the rule's itemlist. You can then run the Remove-DeployRule cmdlet to remove the rule. Applying host profile that is set up to use Auto Deploy with stateless caching fails if ESX is installed on the selected disk You use host profiles to set up Auto Deploy with stateless caching enabled. In the host profile, you select a disk on which a version of ESX (not ESXi) is installed. When you apply the host profile, an error that includes the following text appears. Expecting 2 bootbanks, found 0 Workaround: Select a different disk to use for stateless caching, or remove the ESX software from the disk. If you remove the ESX software, it becomes unavailable. Installing or booting ESXi version 5.5.0 fails on servers from Oracle America (Sun) vendors When you perform a fresh ESXi version 5.5.0 installation or boot an existing ESXi version 5.5.0 installation on servers from Oracle America (Sun) vendors, the server console displays a blank screen during the installation process or when the existing ESXi 5.5.0 build boots. This happens because servers from Oracle America (Sun) vendors have a HEADLESS flag set in the ACPI FADT table, even though they are not headless platforms. Workaround: When you install or boot ESXi 5.5.0, pass the boot option ignoreHeadless="TRUE". Upgrade Issues If you use ESXCLI commands to upgrade an ESXi host with less than 4GB physical RAM, the upgrade succeeds, but some ESXi operations fail upon reboot ESXi 5.5 requires a minimum of 4GB of physical RAM. The ESXCLI command-line interface does not perform a pre-upgrade check for the required 4GB of memory. You successfully upgrade a host with insufficient memory with ESXCLI, but when you boot the upgraded ESXi 5.5 host with less than 4GB RAM, some operations might fail. Workaround: None. Verify that the ESXi host has more than 4GB of physical RAM before the upgrade to version 5.5. After upgrade from vCenter Server Appliance 5.0.x to 5.5, vCenter Server fails to start if an external vCenter Single Sign-On is used If the user chooses to use an external vCenter Single Sign-On instance while upgrading the vCenter Server Appliance from 5.0.x to 5.5, the vCenter Server fails to start after the upgrade. In the appliance management interface, the vCenter Single Sign-On is listed as not configured. Workaround: Perform the following steps: 1. In a Web browser, open the vCenter Server Appliance management interface (https://appliance-address:5480). 2. On the vCenter Server/Summary page, click the Stop Server button. 3. On the vCenter Server/SSO page, complete the form with the appropriate settings, and click Save Settings. 4. Return to the Summary page and click Start Server. When you use ESXCLI to upgrade an ESXi 4.x or 5.0.x host to version 5.1 or 5.5, the vMotion and Fault Tolerance Logging (FT Logging) settings of any VMKernel port group are lost after the upgrade If you use the command esxcli software profile update to upgrade an ESXi 4.x or 5.0.x host to version 5.1 or 5.5, the upgrade succeeds, but the vMotion and FT Logging settings of any VMkernel port group are lost. As a result, vMotion and FT Logging are restored to the default setting (disabled). Workaround: Perform an interactive or scripted upgrade, or use vSphere Update Manager to upgrade hosts. If you use the esxcli command, apply vMotion and FT Logging settings manually to the affected VMkernel port group after the upgrade. When you upgrade vSphere 5.0.x or earlier to version 5.5, system resource 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 18/27 allocation values that were set manually are reset to the default value In vSphere 5.0.x and earlier, you modify settings in the system resource allocation user interface as a temporary workaround. You cannot reset the value for these settings to the default without completely reinstalling ESXi. In vSphere 5.1 and later, the system behavior changes, so that preserving custom system resource allocation settings might result in values that are not safe to use. The upgrade resets all such values. Workaround: None. IPv6 settings of virtual NIC vmk0 are not retained after upgrade from ESX 4.x to ESXi 5.5 When you upgrade an ESX 4.x host with IPv6 enabled to ESXi 5.5 by using the -- forcemigrate option, the IPv6 address of virtual NIC vmk0 is not retained after the upgrade. Workaround: None. vCenter Single Sign-On Issues Error 29107 appears during vSphere Web Client upgrade from 5.1Update 1a to 5.5 During an upgrade of a vSphere Web Client from version 5.1 Update U1a to version 5.5, Error 29107 appears if the vCenter Single Sign-On service that was in use before the upgrade is configured as High Availability Single Sign-On. Workaround: Perform the upgrade again. You can run the installer and select Custom Install to upgrade only the vSphere Web Client. Cannot change the password of administrator@vsphere.local from the vSphere Web Client pulldown menu When you log in to the vCenter Single Sign-On server from the vSphere Web Client, you can perform a password change from the pulldown menu. When you log in as administrator@vsphere.local the Change Password option is grayed out. Workaround: 1. Select the Manage tab, and select vCenter Single Sign-On > Users and Groups. 2. Right-click the administrator user and click Edit User. 3. Change the password. Networking Issues Static routes associated with vmknic interfaces and dynamic IP addresses might fail to appear after reboot After you reboot the host, static routes that are associated with VMkernel network interface (vmknic) and dynamic IP address might fail to appear. This issue occurs due to a race condition between DHCP client and restore routes command. The DHCP client might not finish acquiring an IP address for vmknics when the host attempts to restore custom routes during the reboot process. As a result, the gateway might not be set up and the routes are not restored. Workaround: Run the esxcfg-route –r command to restore the routes manually. An ESXi host stops responding after being added to vCenter Server by its IPv6 address When you add an ESXi host to vCenter Server by IPv6 link-local address of the form fe80::/64, within a short time the host name becomes dimmed and the host stops responding to vCenter Server. Workaround: Use a valid IPv6 address that is not a link-local address. The vSphere Web Client lets you configure more virtual functions than are supported by the physical NIC and does not display an error message In the SR-IOV settings of a physical adapter, you can configure more virtual functions than are supported by the adapter. For example, you can configure 100 virtual functions on a NIC that supports only 23, and no error message appears. A message prompts you to reboot the host so that the SR-IOV settings are applied. After the host reboots, the NIC is configured with as many virtual functions as the adapter supports, or 23 in this example. The message that prompts you to reboot the host persists when it should not appear. Workaround: None On an SR-IOV enabled ESXi host, virtual machines associated with virtual functions might not start When SR-IOV is enabled on an ESXi host 5.1 or later with Intel ixgbe NICs, if several virtual functions are enabled in the environment, some virtual machines might fail to start. The vmware.log file contains messages similar to the following: 2013-02-28T07:06:31.863Z| vcpu-1| I120: Msg_Post: Error 2013-02-28T07:06:31.863Z| vcpu-1| I120: [msg.log.error.unrecoverable] VMware ESX unrecoverable error: (vcpu-1) 2013-02-28T07:06:31.863Z| vcpu-1| I120+ PCIPassthruChangeIntrSettings: 0a:17.3 failed to register interrupt (error code 195887110) 2013-02-28T07:06:31.863Z| vcpu-1| I120: [msg.panic.haveLog] A log file is available in "/vmfs/volumes/5122262e-ab950f8e 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 19/27 cd4f-b8ac6f917d68/VMLibRoot/VMLib-RHEL6.2-64-HW7-default-3-2- 1361954882/vmwar 2013-02-28T07:06:31.863Z| vcpu-1| I120: [msg.panic.requestSupport.withoutLog] You can request support. 2013-02-28T07:06:31.863Z| vcpu-1| I120: [msg.panic.requestSupport.vmSupport.vmx86] 2013-02-28T07:06:31.863Z| vcpu-1| I120+ To collect data to submit to VMware technical support, run "vm-support". 2013-02-28T07:06:31.863Z| vcpu-1| I120: [msg.panic.response] We will respond on the basis of your support entitlement. Workaround: Reduce the number of virtual functions associated with the affected virtual machine before starting it. On an Emulex BladeEngine 3 physical network adapter, a virtual machine network adapter backed by a virtual function cannot reach a VMkernel adapter that uses the physical function as an uplink Traffic does not flow between a virtual function and its physical function. For example, on a switch backed by the physical function, a virtual machine that uses a virtual function on the same port cannot contact a VMkernel adapter on the same switch. This is a known issue of the Emulex BladeEngine 3 physical adapters. For information, contact Emulex. Workaround: Disable the native driver for Emulex BladeEngine 3 devices on the host. For more information, see VMware KB 2044993 (http://kb.vmw are.com/kb/2044993) . The ESXi Dump Collector fails to send the ESXi core file to the remote server The ESXi Dump Collector fails to send the ESXi core file if the VMkernel adapter that handles the traffic of the dump collector is configured to a distributed port group that has a link aggregation group (LAG) set as the active uplink. An LACP port channel is configured on the physical switch. Workaround: Perform one of the following workarounds: Use a vSphere Standard Switch to configure the VMkernel adapter that handles the traffic for the ESXi Dump Collector with the remote server. Use standalone uplinks to handle the traffic for the distributed port group where the VMkernel adapter is configured. If you change the number of ports that a vSphere Standard Switch or vSphere Distributed Switch has on a host by using the vSphere Client, the change is not saved, even after a reboot If you change the number of ports that a vSphere Standard Switch or vSphere Distributed Switch has on an ESXi 5.5 host by using the vSphere Client, the number of ports does not change even after you reboot the host. When a host that runs ESXi 5.5 is rebooted, it dynamically scales up or down the ports of virtual switches. The number of ports is based on the number of virtual machines that the host can run. You do not have to configure the number of switch ports on such hosts. Workaround: None in the vSphere Client. Server Configuration Issues Menu navigation problem is experienced When Direct Control User Interface is accessed from a serial console When Direct Control User Interface is accessed from a serial console, the Up and Down arrow keys do not work while navigating to the menu and the user is forcefully logged out of the DCUI configuration screen. Workaround: Stop the DCUI process. The DCUI process will be restarted automatically. Host profiles might incorrectly appear as compliant after ESXi hosts are upgrade to 5.5 Update 2 followed by changes in host configuration If an ESXi host that is compliant with an host profile is updated to ESXi 5.5 Update 2 followed by some changes in host configuration and you re-check the compliance of the host with the host profile, the profile is incorrectly reported to be compliant. Workaround: In vSPhere Client, navigate to the host profile that has the issue and run Update profile From Reference Host. In vSPhere Web Client, navigate to host Profile that has the issue, click Copy settings from host, select the host from which you want to copy the configuration settings and click OK. Host Profile remediation fails with vSphere Distributed Switch Remediation errors might occur when applying a Host Profile with a vSphere Distributed Switch and a virtual machine with Fault Tolerance is in a powered off state on a host that uses the distributed switch in that Host Profile. Workaround: Move the powered off virtual machines to another host in order for the Host Profile to succeed. Noncompliance messages appear after using Auto Deploy for stateless caching or 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 20/27 stateful installs to USB After a host profile is edited to enable stateless caching to the USB disk on the host, the host profile receives compliance errors when attempting to remidiate. The host is rebooted and caching finishes. After checking compliance, the following compliance error is received: Host state does not match specification Workaround: No workaround is required. The message is incorrect. Host profile receives firewall settings compliance errors when you apply ESX 4.0 or ESX 4.1 profile to ESXi 5.5.x host If you extract a host profile from an ESX 4.0 or ESX 4.1 host and attempt to apply it to an ESXi 5.5.x host, the profile remediation succeeds. The compliance check receives firewall settings errors that include the following: Ruleset LDAP not found Ruleset LDAPS not found Ruleset TSM not found Ruleset VCB not found Ruleset activeDirectorKerberos not found Workaround: No workaround is required. This is expected because the firewall settings for an ESX 4.0 or ESX 4.1 host are different from those for an ESXi 5.5.x host. Changing BIOS device settings for an ESXi host might result in invalid device names Changing a BIOS device setting on an ESXi host might result in invalid device names if the change causes a shift in the values assigned to devices. For example, enabling a previously-disabled integrated NIC might shift the values assigned to other PCI devices, causing ESXi to change the names assigned to these NICs. Unlike previous versions of ESXi, ESXi 5.5 attempts to preserve devices names through changes if the host BIOS provides specific device location information. Due to a bug in this feature, invalid names such as vmhba1 and vmnic32 are sometimes generated. Workaround: Rebooting the ESXi host once or twice might clear the invalid device names and restore the original names. Do not run an ESXi host with invalid device names in production. Storage Issues Attempts to perform live storage vMotion of virtual machines with RDM disks might fail Storage vMotion of virtual machines with RDM disks might fail and virtual machines might be seen in powered off state. Attempts to power on the virtual machine fails with the following error: Failed to lock the file Workaround: None. Renamed tags appear as missing in the Edit VM Storage Policy wizard A virtual machine storage policy can include rules based on datastore tags. If you rename a tag, the storage policy that references this tag does not automatically update the tag and shows it as missing. Workaround: Remove the tag marked as missing from the virtual machine storage policy and then add the renamed tag. Reapply the storage policy to all out-of-date entities. A virtual machine cannot be powered on when the Flash Read Cache block size is set to 16KB, 256KB, 512KB, or 1024KB A virtual machine configured with Flash Read Cache and a block size of 16KB, 256KB, 512KB, or 1024KB cannot be powered on. Flash Read Cache supports a minimum cache size of 4MB and maximum of 200GB, and a minimum block size of 4KB and maximum block size of 1MB. When you power on a virtual machine, the operation fails and the following messages appear: An error was received from the ESX host while powering on VM. Failed to start the virtual machine. Module DiskEarly power on failed. Failed to configure disk scsi0:0. The virtual machine cannot be powered on with an unconfigured disk. vFlash cache cannot be attached: msg.vflashcache.error.VFC_FAILURE Workaround: Configure virtual machine Flash Read Cache size and block size. 1. Right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings. 2. On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Hard disk to view the disk options. 3. Click Advanced next to the Virtual Flash Read Cache field. 4. Increase the cache size reservation or decrease the block size. 5. Click OK to save your changes. 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 21/27 A custom extension of a saved resource pool tree file cannot be loaded in the vSphere Web Client A DRS error message appears on host summary page. When you disable DRS in the vSphere Web Client, you are prompted to save the resource pool structure so that it can be reloaded in the future. The default extension of this file is .snapshot, but you can select a different extension for this file. If the file has a custom extension, it appears as disabled when you try to load it. This behavior is observed only on OS X. Workaround: Change the extension to .snapshot to load it in the vSphere Web Client on OS X. DRS error message appears on the host summary page The following DRS error message appears on the host summary page: Unable to apply DRS resource settings on host. The operation is not allowed in the current state. This can significantly reduce the effectiveness of DRS. In some configurations a race condition might result in the creation of an error message in the log that is not meaningful or actionable. This error might occur if a virtual machine is unregistered at the same time that DRS resource settings are applied. Workaround: Ignore this error message. Configuring virtual Flash Read Cache for VMDKs larger than 16TB results in an error Virtual Flash Read Cache does not support virtual machine disks larger than 16TB. Attempts to configure such disks will fail. Workaround: None Virtual machines might power off when the cache size is reconfigured If you incorrectly reconfigure the virtual Flash Read Cache on a virtual machine, for example by assigning an invalid value, the virtual machine might power off. Workaround: Follow the recommended cache size guidelines in the vSphere Storage documentation. Reconfiguring a virtual machine with virtual Flash Read Cache enabled might fail with the Operation timed out error Reconfiguration operations require a significant amount of I/O bandwidth. When you run a heavy load, such operations might time out before they finish. You might also see this behavior if the host has LUNs that are in an all paths down (APD) state. Workaround: Fix all host APD states and retry the operation with a smaller I/O load on the LUN and host. DRS does not vMotion virtual machines with virtual Flash Read Cache for load balancing purpose DRS does not vMotion virtual machines with virtual Flash Read Cache for load balancing purposes. Workaround: DRS does not recommend these virtual machines for vMotion except for the following reasons: To evacuate a host that the user has requested to enter maintenance or standby mode. To fix DRS rule violations. Host resource usage is in red state. One or most hosts is over utilized and virtual machine demand is not being met. Note: You can optionally set DRS to ignore this reason. Hosts are put in standby when the active memory of virtual machines is low but consumed memory is high ESXi 5.5 introduces a change in the default behavior of DPM designed to make the feature less aggressive, which can help prevent performance degradation for virtual machines when active memory is low but consumed memory is high. The DPM metric is X%*IdleConsumedMemory + active memory. The X% variable is adjustable and is set to 25% by default. Workaround: You can revert to the aggressive DPM behavior found in earlier releases of ESXi by setting PercentIdleMBInMemDemand=0 in the advanced options. vMotion initiated by DRS might fail When DRS recommends vMotion for virtual machines with a virtual Flash Read Cache reservation, vMotion might fail because the memory (RAM) available on the target host is insufficient to manage the Flash Read Cache reservation of the virtual machines. Workaround: Follow the Flash Read Cache configuration recommendations documented in vSphere Storage. If vMotion fails, perform the following steps: 1. Reconfigure the block sizes of the virtual machines on the target host and the incoming virtual machines to reduce the overall target usage of the VMkernel memory on the target host. 2. Use vMotion to manually migrate the virtual machine to the target host to ensure the condition is resolved. 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 22/27 You are unable to view problems that occur during virtual flash configuration of individual SSD devices The configuration of virtual flash resources is a task that operates on a list of SSD devices. When the task finishes for all objects, the vSphere Web Client reports it as successful, and you might not be notified of problems with the configuration of individual SSD devices. Workaround: Perform one of the following tasks. In the Recent Tasks panel, double-click the completed task. Any configuration failures appear in the Related events section of the Task Details dialog box. Alternatively, follow these steps: 1. Select the host in the inventory. 2. Click the Monitor tab, and click Events. Unable to obtain SMART information for Micron PCIe SSDs on the ESXi host Your attempts to use the esxcli storage core device smart get -d command to display statistics for the Micron PCIe SSD device fail. You get the following error message: Error getting Smart Parameters: CANNOT open device Workaround: None. In this release, the esxcli storage core device smart command does not support Micron PCIe SSDs. ESXi does not apply the bandwidth limit that is configured for a SCSI virtual disk in the configuration file of a virtual machine You configure the bandwidth and throughput limits of a SCSI virtual disk by using a set of parameters in the virtual machine configuration file (.vmx). For example, the configuration file might contain the following limits for a scsi0:0 virtual disk: sched.scsi0:0.throughputCap = "80IOPS" sched.scsi0:0.bandwidthCap = "10MBps" sched.scsi0:0.shares = "normal" ESXi does not apply the sched.scsi0:0.bandwidthCap limit to the scsi0:0 virtual disk. Workaround: Revert to an earlier version of the disk I/O scheduler by using the vSphere Web Client or the esxcli system settings advanced set command. In the vSphere Web Client, edit the Disk.SchedulerWithReservation parameter in the Advanced System Settings list for the host. 1. Navigate to the host. 2. On the Manage tab, select Settings and select Advanced System Settings. 3. Locate the Disk.SchedulerWithReservation parameter, for example, by using the Filter or Find text boxes. 4. Click Edit and set the parameter to 0. 5. Click OK. In the ESXi Shell to the host, run the following console command: esxcli system settings advanced set -o /Disk/SchedulerWithReservation -i=0 A virtual machine configured with Flash Read Cache cannot be migrated off a host if there is an error in the cache A virtual machine with Flash Read Cache configured might have a migration error if the cache is in an error state and is unusable. This error causes migration of the virtual machine to fail. Workaround: 1. Reconfigure the virtual machine and disable the cache. 2. Perform the migration. 3. Re-enable the cache after the virtual machine is migrated. Alternatively, the virtual machine must be powered off and then powered on to correct the error with the cache. You cannot delete the VFFS volume after a host is upgraded from ESXi 5.5 Beta You cannot delete the VFFS volume after a host is upgraded from ESXi 5.5 Beta. Workaround: This occurs only when you upgrade from ESXi 5.5 Beta to ESXi 5.5. To avoid this problem, install ESXi 5.5 instead of upgrading. If a you upgrade from ESXi 5.5 Beta, delete the VFFS volume before you upgrade. Expected latency runtime improvements are not seen when virtual Flash Read Cache is enabled on virtual machines with older Windows and Linux guest operating systems Virtual Flash Read Cache provides optimal performance when the cache is sized to match the target working set, and when the guest file systems are aligned to at least a 4KB boundary. The Flash Read Cache filters out misaligned blocks to avoid caching partial blocks within the cache. This behavior is typically seen when virtual Flash Read Cache is configured for VMDKs of virtual machines with Windows XP and Linux distributions earlier than 2.6. In such cases, a low cache hit rate with a low cache occupancy is observed, which 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 23/27 implies a waste of cache reservation for such VMDKs. This behavior is not seen with virtual machines running Windows 7, Windows 2008, and Linux 2.6 and later distributions, which align their file systems to a 4KB boundary to ensure optimal performance. Workaround: To improve the cache hit rate and optimal use of the cache reservation for each VMDK, ensure that the guest operating file system installed on the VMDK is aligned to at least a 4KB boundary. Virtual SAN VM directories contain duplicate swap (.vswp) files This might occur if virtual machines running on Virtual SAN are not cleanly shutdown, and if you perform a fresh installation of ESXi and vCenter Server without erasing data from Virtual SAN disks. As a result, old swap files (.vswp) are found in the directories for virtual machines that are shut down uncleanly. Workaround: None Attempts to add more than seven magnetic disks to a Virtual SAN disk group might fail with incorrect error message Virtual SAN disk group supports maximum of one SSD and seven magnetic disks (HDD). Attempts to add an additional magnetic disk might fail with an incorrect error message similar to the following: The number of disks is not sufficient. Workaround: None Re-scan failure experienced while adding a Virtual SAN disk When you add a Virtual SAN disk, re-scan fails due to probe failure for a non-Virtual SAN volume, which causes the operation to fail. Workaround: Ignore the error as all the disks are registered correctly. A hard disk drive (HDD) that is removed after its associated solid state drive (SSD) is removed might still be listed as a storage disk claimed by Virtual SAN If an SSD and then its associated HDD is removed from a Virtual SAN datastore and you run the esxcli vsan storage list command, the removed HDD is still listed as a storage disk claimed by Virtual SAN. If the HDD is inserted back in a different host, the disk might appear to be part of two different hosts. Workaround: For example, if SSD and HDD is removed from ESXi x and inserted into ESXi y, perform the following steps to prevent the HDD from appearing to be a part of both ESXi x and ESXi y: 1. Insert the SSD and HDD removed from the ESXi x, into ESXi y. 2. Decommission the SSD from ESXi x. 3. Run the command esxcfg-rescan -A. The HDD and SSD will no longer be listed on ESXi x. The Working with Virtual SAN (http://pubs.vmw are.com/vsphere-55/topic/com.vmw are.vsphere.storage.doc/GUID- 18F531E9-FF08-49F5-9879-8E46583D4C70.html) section of the vSphere Storage (http://pubs.vmw are.com/vsphere- 55/topic/com.vmw are.vsphere.storage.doc/GUID-8AE88758-20C1-4873-99C7-181EF9ACFA70.html) documentation indicates that the maximum number of HDD disks per a disk group is six. However, the maximum allowed number of HDDs is seven. After a failure in a Virtual SAN cluster, vSphere HA might report multiple events, some misleading, before restarting a virtual machine The vSphere HA master agent makes multiple attempts to restart a virtual machine running on Virtual SAN after it has appeared to have failed. If the virtual machine cannot be immediately restarted, the master agent monitors the cluster state, and makes another attempt when conditions indicate that a restart might be successful. For virtual machines running on Virtual SAN, the vSphere HA master has special application logic to detect when the accessibility of a virtual machine's objects might have changed, and attempts a restart whenever an accessibility change is likely. The master agent makes an attempt after each possible accessibility change, and if it did not successfully power on the virtual machine before giving up and waiting for the next possible accessibility change. After each failed attempt, vSphere HA reports an event indicating that the failover was not successful, and after five failed attempts, reports that vSphere HA stopped trying to restart the virtual machine because the maximum number of failover attempts was reached. Even after reporting that the vSphere HA master agent has stopped trying, however, it does try the next time a possible accessibility change occurs. Workaround: None. Powering off a Virtual SAN host causes the Storage Providers view in the vSphere Web Client to refresh longer than expected If you power off a Virtual San host, the Storage Providers view might appear empty. The Refresh button continues to spin even though no information is shown. Workaround: Wait at least 15 minutes for the Storage Providers view to be populated again. The view also refreshes after you power on the host. 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 24/27 Virtual SAN reports a failed task as completed Virtual SAN might report certain tasks as completed even though they failed internally. The following are conditions and corresponding reasons for errors: Condition: Users attempt to create a new disk group or add a new disk to already existing disk group when the Virtual SAN license has expired. Error stack: A general system error occurred: Cannot add disk: VSAN is not licensed on this host. Condition: Users attempt to create a disk group with the number of disk higher than the supported number. Or they try to add new disks to already existing disk group so that the total number exceeds the supported number of disks per disk group. Error stack: A general system error occurred: Too many disks. Condition: Users attempt to add a disk to the disk group that has errors. Error stack: A general system error occurred: Unable to create partition table. Workaround: After identifying the reason for a failure, correct the reason and perform the task again. Virtual SAN datastores cannot store host local and system swap files Typically, you can place the system swap or host local swap file on a datastore. However, the Virtual SAN datastore does not support system swap and host local swap files. As a result, the UI option that allows you to select the Virtual SAN datastore as the file location for system swap or host local swap is not available. Workaround: In Virtual SAN environment, use other supported options to place the system swap and host local swap files. A Virtual SAN virtual machine in a vSphere HA cluster is reported as vSphere HA protected although it has been powered off This might happen when you power off a virtual machine with its home object residing on a Virtual SAN datastore, and the home object is not accessible. This problem is seen if a HA master agent election occurs after the object becomes inaccessible. Workaround: 1. Make sure that the home object is accessible again by checking the compliance of the object with the specified storage policy. 2. Power on the virtual machine then power it off again. The status should change to unprotected. Virtual machine object remains in Out of Date status even after Reapply action is triggered and completed successfully If you edit an existing virtual machine profile due to the new storage requirements, the associated virtual machine objects, home or disk, might go in Out of Date status.This occurs when your current environment cannot support reconfiguration of virtual machine objects. Using Reapply action does not change the status. Workaround: Add additional resources, hosts or disks, to the Virtual SAN cluster and invoke Reapply action again. Automatic disk claiming for Virtual SAN does not work as expected if you license Virtual SAN after enabling it If you enable Virtual SAN in automatic mode and then assign a license, Virtual SAN fails to claim disks. Workaround: Change the mode to Manual, and then switch back to Automatic. Virtual SAN will properly claim the disks. vSphere High Availability (HA) fails to restart a virtual machine when Virtual SAN network is partitioned This occurs when Virtual SAN uses VMkernel adapters for internode communication, which are on the same subnet as other VMkernel adapters in a cluster. Such configuration could cause network failure and disrupt Virtual SAN internode communication, while vSphere HA internode communication remains unaffected. In this situation, the HA master agent might detect the failure in a virtual machine, but is unable to restart it. For example, this could occur when the host on which the master agent is running does not have access to the virtual machine's objects. Workaround: Make sure that the VMkernel adapters used by Virtual SAN do not share a subnet with the VMkernel adapters used for other purposes. VM directories contain duplicate swap (.vswp) files This might occur if virtual machines running on Virtual SAN are not cleanly shutdown, and if you perform a fresh installation of ESXi and vCenter Server without erasing data from Virtual SAN disks. As a result, old swap files (.vswp) are found in the directories for virtual machines that are shut down uncleanly. Workaround: None VMs might become inaccessible due to high network latency In a Virtual SAN cluster setup, if the network latency is high, some VMs might become inaccessible on vCenter Server and you will not be able to power on or access the VM. 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 25/27 Workaround: Run the vsan.check_state -e -r RVC command. VM operations might timeout due to high network latency When storage controller with low queue depths are used, high network latency might cause VM operations to time out. Workaround: Re-attempt the operations when the network load is lower. VMs might get renamed to a truncated version of their vmx file path If the vmx file of a virtual machines is temporarily inaccessible, the VM gets renamed to a truncated version of the vmx file path. For example, the virtual machine might get renamed to /vmfs/volumes/vsan:52f1686bdcb477cd- 8e97188e35b99d2e/236d5552-ad93. The truncation might delete half the UUID of the VM home directory making it difficult to map the renamed VM with the original VM, from just the VM name. Workaround: Run the vsan.fix_renamed_vms RVC command. vCenter Server and vSphere Web Client Unable to add ESXi host to Active Directory domain You might observe that Active Directory domain name is not displayed in Domain dropdown list under Select Users and Groups option when you attempt to assign permissions. Also, the Authentication Services Settings option might not display any trusted domain controller even when the active directory has trusted domains. Workaround: 1. Restart netlogond, lwiod, and then lsassd daemons. 2. Login to ESXi host using vSphere Client. 3. In the Configuration tab and click Authentication Services Settings. 4. Refresh to view the trusted domains. Virtual Machine Management Issues Unable to perform cold migration and storage vMotion of a virtual machhine if the VMDK file name begins with "core"* Attempts to perform cold migration and storage vMotion of a virtual machine might fail if the VMDK file name begins with "core" with error message similar to the following: A general system error occurred: Error naming or renaming a VM file. Error messages similar to the following might be displayed in the vpxd.log file: mem> 2014-01-01T11:08:33.150-08:00 [13512 info 'commonvpxLro' opID=8BA11741-0000095D-86-97] [VpxLRO] -- FINISH taskinternal- 2471 -- -- VmprovWorkflow -- mem> 2014-01-01T11:08:33.150-08:00 [13512 info 'Default' opID=8BA11741-0000095D-86-97] [VpxLRO] -- ERROR task-internal- 2471 -- -- VmprovWorkflow: vmodl.fault.SystemError: mem> --> Result: mem> --> (vmodl.fault.SystemError){ mem> --> dynamicType = , mem> --> faultCause = (vmodl.MethodFault) null, mem> --> reason = "Error naming or renaming a VM file.", mem> --> msg = "", mem> --> } This issue occurs when the ESXi host incorrectly classifies VMDK files with a name beginning with "core" as a core file instead of the expected disk type. Workaround: Ensure that the VMDK file name of the virtual machine does not begin with "core". Also, use the vmkfstools utility to rename the VMDK file to ensure that the file name do not begin with the word "core". Virtual machines with Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit guest operating systems in the French locale experience problems during clone operations If you have a cloned Windows 7 Enterprise 64-bit virtual machine that is running in the French locale, the virtual machine disconnects from the network and the customization specification is not applied. This issue appears when the virtual machine is running on an ESXi 5.1 host and you clone it to ESXi 5.5 and upgrade the VMware Tools version to the latest version available with the 5.5 host. Workaround: Upgrade the virtual machine compatibility to ESXi 5.5 and later before you upgrade to the latest available version of VMware Tools. Attempts to increase the size of a virtual disk on a running virtual machine fail with an error If you increase the size of a virtual disk when the virtual machine is running, the operation might fail with the following error: This operation is not supported for this device type. 8/22/2014 VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 2 RC Release Notes http://wwwcontentdev.vmware.com:9980/support/vsphere5/doc/vsphere-esxi-55u2-release-notes.html 26/27 The failure might occur if you are extending the disk to the size of 2TB or larger. The hotextend operation supports increasing the disk size to only 2TB or less. SATA virtual disks do not support the hot-extend operation no matter what their size is. Workaround: Power off the virtual machine to extend the virtual disk to 2TB or larger. VMware HA and Fault Tolerance Issues If you select an ESX/ESXi 4.0 or 4.1 host in a vSphere HA cluster to fail over a virtual machine, the virtual machine might not restart as expected When vSphere HA restarts a virtual machine on an ESX/ESXi 4.0 or 4.1 host that is different from the original host the virtual machine was running on, a query is issued that is not answered. The virtual machine is not powered on on the new host until you answer the query manually from the vSphere Client. Workaround: Answer the query from the vSphere Client. Alternatively, you can wait for a timeout (15 minutes by default), and vSphere HA attempts to restart the virtual machine on a different host. If the host is running ESX/ESXi 5.0 or later, the virtual machine is restarted. If a vMotion operation without shared storage fails in a vSphere HA cluster, the destination virtual machine might be registered to an unexpected host A vMotion migration involving no shared storage might fail because the destination virtual machine does not receive a handshake message that coordinates the transfer of control between the two virtual machines. The vMotion protocol powers off both the source and destination virtual machines. If the source and destination hosts are in the same cluster and if vSphere HA has been enabled, the destination virtual machine might be registered by vSphere HA on another host than the one chosen as the target for the vMotion migration. Workaround: If you want to retain the destination virtual machine and you want it to be registered to a specific host, relocate the destination virtual machine to the destination host. This relocation is best done before powering on the virtual machine. Supported Hardware Issues Sensor values for Fan, Power Supply, Voltage, and Current sensors appear under the Other group of the vCenter Server Hardware Status Tab Some sensor values are listed in the Other group instead of the respective categorized group. Workaround: None. I/O memory management unit (IOMMU) faults might appear when the debug direct memory access (DMA) mapper is enabled The debug mapper places devices in IOMMU domains to help catch device memory accesses to addresses that have not been explicitly mapped. On some HP systems with old firmware, IOMMU faults might appear. Workaround: Download firmware upgrades from the HP Web site and apply them. Upgrade the firmware of the HP iLO2 controller. Version 2.07, released in August 2011, resolves the problem. Upgrade the firmware of the HP Smart Array. For the HP Smart Array P410, version 5.14, released in January 2012, resolves the problem. VMware Tools Issues File disappears after VMware Tools upgrade deployPkg.dll file which is present in C:\Program Files\Vmware\Vmware Tools\ is not found after upgrading VMware Tools. This is observed when it is upgraded from version 5.1 Update 2 to 5.5 Update 1 or later and version 5.5 to 5.5 Update 1 or later. Workaround: None User is forcefully logged out while installing or uninstalling VMware Tools by OSP While installing or uninstalling VMware Tools packages in a RHEL (Red Hat Linux Enterprise) and CentOS virtual machines that were installed using operating system specific packages (OSP), the current user is forcefully logged out. This issue occurs in RHEL 6.5 64-bit, RHEL 6.5 32-bit, CentOS 6.5 64-bit and CentOS 6.5 32-bit virtual machines. 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