SMX provider fails when sfcbd restarts continuously

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Attempts to collect the output of the Python SMX provider scripts after you install vSphere 6.0 Update 1 (Build 3029758) on BL920s Gen8 (8 Blade partition) server displays a backtrace similar to the following:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "SMXBaseServerFT.py", line 105, in <MODULE></MODULE>
assocs = conn.Associators( computerSystem, ResultClass
'SMX_OperatingSystem', AssocClass
= 'SMX_RunningOS')
File "/build/mts/release/bora-3029758/bora/build/esx/release/vmvisor/sys/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pywbem/cim_operations.py", line 696, in Associators
File "/build/mts/release/bora-3029758/bora/build/esx/release/vmvisor/sys/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pywbem/cim_operations.py", line 173, in imethodcall
pywbem.cim_operations.CIMError: (0, "The web server returned a bad status line: ''''")

Note:

• The SMX provider queries might fail due to subsequent SFCBD service restart.
• The SFCBD service force restart persists even after SMX provider is uninstalled.
• The SFCBD service restart impacts VMware and other OEM providers as the queries to respective providers also fail during SFCBD restart.
• Restarting the SMX providers does not resolve the issue.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.0

Resolution

To resolve the issue, use one of the following options:

• If you have not upgraded to ESXi 6.0 P04 and are using an ESXi version before the ESXi 6.0 Patch 04, run the following command:
  
  /usr/lib/vmware/rp/bin/configRP setRPMemMaxSize host/vim/vmvisor/sfcb 70
  
  Note: The workaround does not persist after a reboot.
  
• If you have upgrade to ESXi 6.0 Patch 4, run the following commands:
  
  esxcfg-advcfg -A CIMOemSfcbRPMemMax --add-desc \'Maximum Memory for sfcb RP\' --add-default 70 --add-type int --add-min 30 --add-max 100
  - /etc/init.d/sfcbd-watchdog restart