IP Customization of SUSE Linux virtual machines with vCenter Site Recovery Manager times out

Products

• VMware Live Recovery

Issue/Introduction

This article describes a specific issue. If you experience all of the above symptoms, consult the sections below. If you experience some, but not all of these symptoms, your issue is not related to this article. Search for your symptoms in the Knowledge Base, review The test failover/failover operation in VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager fails at the Change Network Settings step with the error: Timed Out (1031107) for similar issues, or Open a Support Request.

Symptoms:

When performing a Recovery Plan test or a Failover in VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) and using IP Customization for the SUSE Linux virtual machine, you experience these symptoms:

• SUSE Linux virtual machines in the recovery plan fail to complete the IP Customization step
• The SRM IP Customization operation times out
• Changing the SRM command timeout does not resolve this issue
• When you power on the affected virtual machines:
  
  
  • The virtual machine's Summary tab within vCenter Server still reflects the old IP addresses
  • The network interface within the SUSE Linux virtual machine still reflects the old IP addresses
    
    
• The Recovery Site SRM logs contain entries similar to:
  
  verbose 'RSVmWait-71512-Task'] Task created
info 'RSVmWait-71512'] Waiting for Ip Customization for '600' seconds.
verbose 'RSVmWait-71512-Task'] Error set to (vim.fault.Timedout) {
verbose 'RSVmWait-71512-Task'] Task destroyed

  For more information, see Location of Site Recovery Manager log files (1021802).

Environment

VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 4.0.x
VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 4.1.x

Cause

This issue occurs when an IP address within the SUSE Linux virtual machine is configured for a particular MAC address, instead of an ethernet device. IP customization specifies an IP address for an interface, which may be overridden by the more specific MAC-based configuration. This results in the old IP address remaining configured within the SUSE Linux virtual machine.

Resolution

VMware Site Recovery Manager IP Customization creates the configuration file /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-ethN where ethN identifies a particular ethernet network interface within the SUSE virtual machine. However, if a MAC-specific configuration file, such as /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth-id-00-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx exists, this configuration file takes effect because it is considered to be more specific.

For more information, see the Manual Network Configuration section of the SUSE Linux Administration Guide.

Note: The preceding link was correct as of April 4, 2011. If you find the link is broken, provide feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.

This issue is resolved in VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 4.1.2. For more information about this version, see the VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager 4.1.2 Release Notes. You can download the latest release from the VMware Download Center.

To workaround this issue when you do not want to upgrade, remove the MAC-specific network configuration within the SUSE virtual machine.

To remove the MAC-specific network configuration within the SUSE virtual machine:

1. Log in to the SUSE Linux virtual machine as the root user.
2. Run this command to determine the current IP address(es) and MAC address assigned to each network interface:
   
   # ifconfig -a

   
3. Review the MAC-specific configuration file(s) for each network interface using the command:
   
   # ls /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth-id-*
   
   
4. Rename the MAC-specific configuration file(s) /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth-id-00-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx corresponding to the customized network interface to /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-ethX.
   
   
5. Run this command to restart the networking service:
   
   # rcnetwork restart
   
   Note: For SUSE virtual machines running sensitive applications, be aware that restarting the network can be disruptive. To avoid any loss of data because of this, either stop the application for the duration of the execution of the rcnetwork restart, or plan down time for the respective virtual machine.
   
   
6. Run this command to verify if the new, customized IP address is applied:
   
   # ifconfig -a