Performing Basic Troubleshooting on ESXi Hosts, vSphere Virtual Networks, and vSphere Storage

This chapter covers the following subjects:

• Performing Basic Troubleshooting for ESXi Hosts
• Performing Basic vSphere Network Troubleshooting
• Performing Basic vSphere Storage Troubleshooting
• Performing Basic Troubleshooting for HA/DRS Clusters and vMotion/Storage vMotion

Troubleshooting is a process of isolating the components of a system from each other to systematically determine what works. That’s right, I said “what works” and not “what doesn’t work.” If you can determine what does work in a system and how “far” it does work, then you can determine the point at which it begins to not work.

Just as with any other product or service, many things can go wrong with vSphere if they are not configured properly or if something unexpected and unaccounted for should happen. When you are a vSphere administrator, part of your job is to minimize the chance of these unexpected issues and to minimize their impact to your organization when they occur. The other part of your job is to understand how to work your way out of an issue so as to provide a solution for yourself and your servers with the least disruption possible to your users.

In this chapter, I will discuss performing basic troubleshooting on your ESXi hosts, virtual networks, and storage. In addition, I will discuss basic troubleshooting for the features that put all these resources to work in an organized manner that makes the vSphere and the virtual datacenter possible. This chapter will assist you in truly understanding more about your vSphere and not just in “having head knowledge” of its components. This understanding will help you troubleshoot your own systems and is essential to successfully navigate the troubleshooting questions on the exam.

“Do I Know This Already?” Quiz

The “Do I Know This Already?” quiz allows you to assess whether you should read this entire chapter or simply jump to the “Exam Preparation Tasks” section for review. If you are in doubt, read the entire chapter. Table 6-1 outlines the major headings in this chapter and the corresponding “Do I Know This Already?” quiz questions. You can find the answers in Appendix A, “Answers to the ‘Do I Know This Already?’ Quizzes and Chapter Review Questions.”

Table 6-1 “Do I Know This Already?” Section-to-Question Mapping

1. Which of following tools is provided by VMware as a last resort to troubleshoot issues that cannot be resolved through more normal means?

   1. vCLI
   2. vSphere Web Client
   3. ESXi Shell
   4. PowerCLI

2. Which of the following should you select in the DCUI to review the system logs?

   1. View Support Information
   2. View System Logs
   3. Troubleshooting Options
   4. System Customization

3. If you are logged directly on to a host with the vSphere Client, which of the following tabs should you select to monitor the system health status of the host?

   1. Health Status
   2. Monitor
   3. Summary
   4. Hardware Status

4. Which of the following is true about the speed of a network connection in vSphere?

   1. The speed of the connection is configurable on the settings for the vNIC.
   2. The speed of the connection is based on the underlying network and is not configurable.
   3. The speed of the connection is configurable on the settings for the vmnic.
   4. The speed of the network connection must be hard-coded and cannot be autonegotiated.

5. Which of the following is true with regard to vSS switch settings and port group settings?

   1. Conflicting port group settings will override switch settings.
   2. Conflicting switch settings will override port group settings.
   3. Port group and switch settings are different, so there is no possibility of a conflict.
   4. If settings conflict, an error will result and the administrator will have to address the issue.

6. Which of the following is not a native VMware path-selection type?

   1. Round-Robin
   2. Load based
   3. Most recently used
   4. Fixed

7. Which of the following is the maximum number of powered-on VMs per VMFS-5 datastore?

   1. 32
   2. 10,000
   3. 2,048
   4. 256

8. Which of the following is true about active-active arrays?

   1. Active-active arrays will often cause path thrashing.
   2. Active-active arrays should never be used with vSphere.
   3. Active-active arrays should always be used with vSphere.
   4. Properly configured active-active arrays do not cause path thrashing.

9. Which of the following is the minimum network speed required for vMotion?

   1. 100 Mbps
   2. 1 Gbps
   3. 10 Gbps
   4. vMotion can work at any speed.

10. Which of the following is not a requirement of HA?

    1. Hosts must be in the same cluster.
    2. Hosts must share the same CPU vendor and family.
    3. Hosts must have shared datastores.
    4. Hosts must have access to the same physical networks.