Hardware health status of a group shows blank or unknown status

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

In the VI Client or vSphere Client connected directly to an ESX/ESXi host, the hardware health status of an object that encompasses a group of sensors is blank or appears as unknown.

Environment

VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESX Server 3.5.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware VirtualCenter 2.5.x
VMware VirtualCenter 2.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable

Resolution

The status of an item that represents agroup of sensors, is the combined status of all the sensors in the group. If one sensors in the group shows an error or unknown state, a corresponding status message appears as the group's status. That is, the sensor's state is 'rolled-up' the hierarchy to the group level.

This list describes the various group statuses. This list is in order of priority for a roll-up status. For example, if a sensor is in Unknown status and all other sensors are in OK, then the group status is Unknown, to correspond to the higher priority status.

• Blank - (VirtualCenter only) A sensor with a blank health state means the health state cannot be determine for that component. This happens in these scenarios:
  • A sensor in the group does not have a health associated with it.
    
    A blank sensor means there is no health for that sensor. If all the sensors do not have a health status in the group, then a blank status is rolled up to represent the group status. If there are any sensors that have a non-blank status, that non-blank status is rolled up to represent the group status.
    
    
  • There are insufficient sensors on the server to perform a health check.
  • None of the sensors in the group make their health status available to VirtualCenter.
    
    
• OK - All items in the group are OK.
  
  
• Unknown – The status of at least one item in the group is unknown. This indicates the possibility of an error.
  • Some sensors, depending upon their design, might always be unknown. Refer to your manufacturer documentation to identify what is the typical or expected state or status of the hardware sensors in your servers and associated resources.
    
  • If an unknown state appears where things are typically listed as OK, then there might be a problem and it requires some investigation.
    
    
• Yellow – Something is wrong, but it should not involve loss of data. Corrective action should be taken as soon as possible to ensure virtual machines continue to operate correctly and that no data is lost.
  
  
• Red - Something is wrong and it might involve loss of data, or some other major issues that affects the ability for the system to continue to operate.