Disabling an ESXi CIM provider when it fails or is unstable

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides steps to disable an individual ESXi CIM provider, when management provider software from VMware or a third party vendor fails or becomes unstable.

• An ESXi CIM provider fails.
• An ESXi CIM provider becomes unresponsive or unstable.
• The syslog.log file (located at /var/log/) contains entries similar to:
  
  
  T14:24:11Z prop_of_instances: CIM: child still alive (possibly hung?) with a status of 0
  T14:24:11Z sfcbd-watchdog: failed query: /bin/prop_of_instances root/cimv2 vendor_name_HostConnectionManager Status
   
  T14:28:14Z sfcb-CIMXML-Processor[82310]: SFCB restart requested.
  T14:29:11Z sfcbd-watchdog: sfcb restart due to restart request
   
  T14:29:11Z sfcbd: Sending TERM signal to sfcbd
  T14:29:12Z sfcbd: Sending TERM signal to sfcbd
  T14:29:32Z sfcbd: Sending TERM signal to sfcbd

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x

Resolution

To resolve this issue, disable all CIM providers or an individual CIM provider on your host.

 

To disable all CIM providers on your host, see How to disable or enable the SFCB service (CIM Server) on ESXi host.

To disable an individual CIM provider that fails or becomes unstable, perform these steps:

To see the CIM providers installed on your ESXi host:

1. Log in to the ESXi host as the root user.
2. Run the command:
   
   esxcli system settings advanced list | grep CIM
   
   
3. You see output similar to:
   
   Path: /UserVars/CIMEnabled
   Description: Enable or disable the CIM service
   Path: /UserVars/CIMLogLevel
   Description: Set the log level of the CIM Service
   Path: /UserVars/CIMWatchdogInterval
   Description: Set the watchdog polling interval for the CIM Service
   Path: /UserVars/CIMvmw_sfcbrInteropProviderEnabled
   Description: Enable or disable the CIM vmw_sfcbrInterop provider
   Path: /UserVars/CIMvmw_hdrProviderEnabled
   Description: Enable or disable the CIM vmw_hdr provider
   Path: /UserVars/CIMvmw_kmoduleProviderEnabled
   Description: Enable or disable the CIM vmw_kmodule provider
   Path: /UserVars/CIMvmw_viProviderEnabled
   Description: Enable or disable the CIM vmw_vi provider
   Path: /UserVars/CIMvmw_iodmProviderProviderEnabled
   Description: Enable or disable the CIM vmw_iodmProvider provider
   Path: /UserVars/CIMvmw_hhrcwrapperProviderEnabled
   Description: Enable or disable the CIM vmw_hhrcwrapper provider
   Path: /UserVars/CIMvmw_pciProviderEnabled
   Description: Enable or disable the CIM vmw_pci provider
   Path: /UserVars/CIMvmw_swmgtProviderEnabled
   Description: Enable or disable the CIM vmw_swmgt provider
   
   
4. Disable a CIM provider by running the command:
   
   esxcli system settings advanced set -o /UserVars/CIMProviderName -i 0
   
   Note: To re-enable the CIM provider, run the command:
   
   esxcli system settings advanced set -o /UserVars/CIMProviderName -i 1
   
5. To allow the changes to take effect, restart the SFCBD agent by running the command:
   
   /etc/init.d/sfcbd-watchdog restart

Additional Information

For more information, see the VMware Compatibility Guide for CIM Providers.

 

How to disable or enable the SFCB service (CIM Server) on ESXi host