Troubleshooting Host Cluster Issues in VMM

  • Article

Applies To: Virtual Machine Manager 2008, Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2, Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 SP1

This topic provides guidance for troubleshooting issues with configuring and managing host clusters to support highly available virtual machines (HAVMs) in Microsoft® System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 (VMM) and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2.

Unsupported Cluster Configuration status for a virtual machine

Possible causes

To view the reason why a highly available virtual machine has Unsupported Cluster Configuration status, display the Hardware Configuration tab of the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box in the VMM Administrator Console. Then, in the Advanced settings, click Availability. If the virtual machine has Unsupported Cluster Configuration status, the Details area displays the error that placed the virtual machine in that state.

The most common causes of Unsupported Cluster Configuration status for an HAVM are:

  • The HAVM is on a non-Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) LUN that contains more than one virtual machine.

  • The virtual machine is using non-clustered storage.

  • One or more virtual network adapters on the HAVM are not connected to a common virtual network. Virtual networks that have identical settings are referred to as common virtual networks. If the virtual networks on all hosts in the host cluster do not have identical settings, a highly available virtual machine connected to such virtual network might lose connectivity when it is migrated or fails over to another cluster node.

  • The resource group for a Hyper-V virtual machine in a failover cluster that was created in Windows Server 2008 contains resources in addition to the Virtual Machine, Virtual Machine Configuration, and Physical Disk resources. These additional resources typically are third-party resources that provide functionality such as replicating storage within a multi-site cluster. For Hyper-V virtual machines managed by VMM, the virtual machine resource group in a Windows Server 2008 failover cluster can only contain Virtual Machine, Virtual Machine Configuration, and Physical Disk resources.

  • In VMM 2008, an ISO image is attached to the HAVM. Often, the ISO image will be c:\windows\system32\vmguest.iso. This issue was resolved in VMM 2008 R2.

  • A VMware HAVM is connected to a port group that does not exist on all nodes of the host cluster. On host clusters that VMM is managing, each port group must be configured on all VMware ESX Server hosts in the cluster.

Solutions

The following are solutions to the most common issues that cause an Unsupported Cluster Configuration status for an HAVM:

  • If you have configured highly available virtual machines in Hyper-V to share the same LUN, and the LUN is not on a Cluster Shared Volume (CSV), you must update the virtual machine configurations in Failover Cluster Manager (previously known, in Windows Server 2008, as Failover Cluster Management) and Hyper-V so that each virtual machine resides on its own unshared LUN.

  • If the HAVM is stored on system drive C: or any disk that is not clustered, ensure that all files and pass-through disks belonging to the virtual machine reside on clustered disks.

  • Ensure that all virtual network adapters on the virtual machine are connected to common virtual networks. Virtual networks that have identical settings are referred to as common virtual networks. To find the common virtual networks for a host cluster, in the VMM Administrator Console, view the Networks tab in the host cluster properties. To configure virtual networks on the hosts, use the Networking tab in host properties. For more information about configuring virtual networks, see How to Add or Modify Virtual Networks on a Host (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=163453).

    For a virtual network to be considered common by VMM and available to highly available virtual machines on a host cluster, each virtual network in the host cluster must meet the following requirements:

    • The virtual network name must be identical on each host in the cluster. In VMM 2008, virtual networks are recognized as common virtual networks only if the cases of all letters in the network names match. This restriction was removed in VMV 2008 R2. When it identifies common virtual networks, VMM 2008 R2 does not evaluate the case of the letters in the network names.

    • The host network adapters to which the virtual network is attached on each host in the cluster must have the same location.

    • The virtual network must have the same tag on each host in the cluster.

    After you update the virtual network configurations on all nodes, refresh the cluster to ensure that each virtual network is detected as common. Then check the Networks tab in the host cluster properties to verify that the networks have been added to it.

  • If the unsupported cluster configuration is caused by a resource group for a Hyper-V virtual machine in a Windows Server 2008 failover cluster that includes resources other than the Virtual Machine, Virtual Machine Configuration, and Physical Disk resources, install the System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 Update (KB961983) (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=182647) to resolve the issue. For a description of the updates, see KB article 961983, Description of the hotfix rollup package for System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008: April 14th, 2009 (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=182648).

  • If you are using VMM 2008, check whether the highly available virtual machine has an ISO image attached (for example, c:\windows\system32\vmguest.iso). If an image is attached, remove the image by using Hyper-V Manager. Then, in Virtual Machines view of the VMM Administrator Console, refresh the virtual machine by using the Repair action. Right-click the virtual machine, click Repair, and then click Ignore.

  • For a VMware HAVM, ensure that the port group to which the virtual machine is connected exists on all nodes of the host cluster.

See Also

Tasks

Frequently Asked Questions: Clustering and High Availability in VMM

Concepts

Troubleshooting VMM
VMM 2008 Error Codes

Other Resources

Configuring Host Clusters in VMM to Support Highly Available Virtual Machines
Creating and Managing Highly Available Virtual Machines in VMM
Resources for Top Areas of Support for Windows Server 2008 R2