Troubleshooting \\"Not Responding\\" Status for a Host

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This topic describes how to troubleshoot a Not Responding status for a virtual machine host in System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM).

When the Virtual Machine Manager agent on a host fails to respond to a communication from the VMM server, the host has Not Responding status.

The following sections describe possible causes of the Not Responding status and possible resolutions.

Causes

Possible causes for a host not responding include:

  • WS-Management, also known as Windows Remote Management (WinRM), is stopped on the host.
  • The Virtual Server service is not present on the host or the service is stopped.
  • The machine account for the VMM server is not in the local Administrators group on the host computer.
  • The machine account for the VMM server is not in the Virtual Machine Manager Servers group on the host computer.
  • Windows Firewall is enabled on the host computer, and the following firewall exceptions have not been added:
    • Port exceptions—HTTP (80), HTTPS (443). These are the default port assignments for HTTP and HTTPS and may differ from the ports that are in use.
    • Program exception—VMMAgent.
  • The WinRM listener is not present or is not listening on all IP addresses on the host. When WS-Management is uninstalled and then reinstalled, the WinRM listener is removed. To restore the WinRM listener, you reinstall the Virtual Machine Manager agent on the host.
  • A proxy server is preventing communication with the host.

Resolutions

To troubleshoot Not Responding status for a host:

  1. To get more information, review details of the job that resulted in Not Responding status for the host in Jobs view of the VMM Administrator Console. For more information, see Monitoring Jobs (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=98633) in VMM Help.

  2. Ensure that you can connect to the host computer from the VMM server.

  3. Ensure that the Virtual Machine Manager Agent and the WS-Management service, formerly known as WinRM, are running on the host computer. If not, restart the services.

  4. Ensure that Virtual Server is installed on the host, and that the Virtual Server service is running.

  5. Check whether the machine account for the VMM server is in the following groups on the host:

    • Administrators
    • Virtual Machine Manager Servers

    After updating group memberships, you must uninstall and then reinstall the VMM agent on the host.

  6. If Windows Firewall is enabled on the host computer, ensure that the following firewall exceptions have been added. To view and edit firewall exceptions, in Control Panel, open Windows Firewall, and click the Exceptions tab.

    • Port exceptions—HTTP (80), BITS (443). These are the default ports, and may not be the ports that you are using.
    • Program exception—VMMAgent.

    After adding firewall exceptions, you must uninstall and then reinstall the VMM agent on the host.

  7. Check whether the WinRM listener is present on the host computer by entering the following at a command prompt:

    winrm enum winrm/config/listener

    If WinRM is present, the command returns something like this:

    Address = *
Transport = HTTP
Port = 80  (Default port used in sample.)
Hostname
Enabled = true
URLPrefix = wsman
CertificateThumbprint
ListeningOn = 127.0.0.1, 172.30.190.61 (List all IP addresses of the host.)

    To restore a missing WinRM listener, uninstall and then re-install the Virtual Machine Manager agent on the host.

If you updated any configurations in steps 5 and 6, or found that the WinRM listener was missing in step 7, you must uninstall and re-install the Virtual Machine Manager agent on the host.

To uninstall and reinstall the VMM agent on a host

  1. Remove the Virtual Machine Manager Agent from the host by using Add or Remove Programs on the host computer.
  2. Reinstall the Virtual Machine Manager agent on the host:
    • If the host is in a trusted Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) domain, from any view in the VMM Administrator Console, click Add hosts in the Actions pane, and follow the wizard instructions to add the host to VMM.
    • If the host is on a perimeter network, install the Virtual Machine Manager agent locally on the host computer, and then add the host to VMM by using the Add hosts action. For agent installation instructions, see "Installing a VMM Agent Locally" (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=98830) in the Microsoft TechNet Library.
  3. If the host is still not available, refresh the host in Virtual Machine Manager. To do this, in the VMM Administrator Console, display Hosts view, select the host, and then click Refresh in the Actions pane.

VMM Event 435

Additional Resources