Note: For more information on resolving the symptoms described above, see
Restarting the Management agents on an ESXi or ESX host (1003490). If your problem is re-occurring, and you must determine which task the ESXi/ESX host is taking a long time to process.
To isolate the task, follow these steps for the appropriate host:
ESX hosts
To collect information about tasks for ESX hosts:
- Log into the ESX host at the console or via SSH. For more information, see Unable to connect to an ESX host using Secure Shell (SSH) (1003807).
- To get a list of tasks on the host, run the command:
vim-cmd vimsvc/task_list
The output is similar to:
(ManagedObjectReference) [
'vim.Task:haTask-112-vim.VirtualMachine.createSnapshot-3887',
'vim.Task:haTask-pool21-vim.ResourcePool.updateConfig-33252',
'vim.Task:haTask-pool22-vim.ResourcePool.updateConfig-33253',
'vim.Task:haTask-pool3-vim.ResourcePool.updateConfig-33254',
'vim.Task:haTask-pool5-vim.ResourcePool.updateConfig-33255',
'vim.Task:haTask-pool6-vim.ResourcePool.updateConfig-33256',
'vim.Task:haTask-pool7-vim.ResourcePool.updateConfig-33257',
'vim.Task:haTask-pool8-vim.ResourcePool.updateConfig-33258',
'vim.Task:haTask-pool10-vim.ResourcePool.updateConfig-33260'
]
- To get a list of tasks associated to specific virtual machines, you must first get the
Vmid
of the virtual machine. Run the command:
vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms
The output is similar to:
Vmid Name File Guest OS Version Annotation
112 VM-1 [Datastore] VM-3/VM-3.vmx winLonghornGuest vmx-04
128 VM-2 [Datastore] VM-3/VM-3.vmx winXPProGuest vmx-04
144 VM-3 [Datastore] VM-3/VM-3.vmx winNetStandardGuest vmx-04
- Make note of the values under the Vmid column as they are referenced in later steps.
- When you have the
Vmid
, you can then get a list of tasks associated with a specific virtual machine. Run the command:
vim-cmd vmsvc/get.tasklist VMID
Where VMIDis the number identified in step 4.
The output is similar to:
(ManagedObjectReference) [
'vim.Task:haTask-112-vim.VirtualMachine.createSnapshot-3887'
]
- Make note of the task identifier. In the example above, the task identifier is:
haTask-112-vim.VirtualMachine.createSnapshot-3887
- To get information about the status of a particular task, run the command:
vim-cmd vimsvc/task_info task_identifier
Where task_identifier
is the string recorded in step 6.
The output is similar to:
(vim.TaskInfo) {
dynamicType = <unset>,
key = "haTask-112-vim.VirtualMachine.createSnapshot-3887",
task = 'vim.Task:haTask-112-vim.VirtualMachine.createSnapshot-3887',
description = (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) null,
name = "vim.VirtualMachine.createSnapshot",
descriptionId = "VirtualMachine.createSnapshot",
entity = 'vim.VirtualMachine:112',
entityName = "deploy-test",
state = "running",
cancelled = false,
cancelable = false,
error = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
result = <unset>,
progress = 15,
reason = (vim.TaskReasonUser) {
dynamicType = <unset>,
userName = "root",
},
queueTime = "2012-11-28T01:29:35.233835Z",
startTime = "2012-11-28T01:29:35.234891Z",
completeTime = <unset>,
eventChainId = 2936866,
changeTag = <unset>,
parentTaskKey = <unset>,
rootTaskKey = <unset>,
}
ESXi hosts
To collect information about tasks for ESXi hosts:
- Log into the ESXi host at the console. For more information, see Tech Support Mode for Emergency Support (1003677).
- To get a list of tasks on the host, run the command:
vim-cmd vimsvc/task_list
The output is similar to:
(ManagedObjectReference) [
'vim.Task:haTask-112-vim.VirtualMachine.createSnapshot-3887',
'vim.Task:haTask-pool21-vim.ResourcePool.updateConfig-33252',
'vim.Task:haTask-pool22-vim.ResourcePool.updateConfig-33253',
'vim.Task:haTask-pool3-vim.ResourcePool.updateConfig-33254',
'vim.Task:haTask-pool5-vim.ResourcePool.updateConfig-33255',
'vim.Task:haTask-pool6-vim.ResourcePool.updateConfig-33256',
'vim.Task:haTask-pool7-vim.ResourcePool.updateConfig-33257',
'vim.Task:haTask-pool8-vim.ResourcePool.updateConfig-33258',
'vim.Task:haTask-pool10-vim.ResourcePool.updateConfig-33260'
]
- To get a list of tasks associated to specific virtual machines, you must first get the
Vmid
of the virtual machine. Run the command:
vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms
The output is similar to:
Vmid Name File Guest OS Version Annotation
112 VM-1 [Datastore] VM-3/VM-3.vmx winLonghornGuest vmx-04
128 VM-2 [Datastore] VM-3/VM-3.vmx winXPProGuest vmx-04
144 VM-3 [Datastore] VM-3/VM-3.vmx winNetStandardGuest vmx-04
- Make note of the values under the Vmid column as they are referenced in later steps.
- When you have the
Vmid
, you can then get a list of tasks associated with a specific virtual machine by running the command:
vim-cmd vmsvc/get.tasklist VMID
Where VMID is the number identified in step 4.
The output is similar to:
(ManagedObjectReference) [
'vim.Task:haTask-112-vim.VirtualMachine.createSnapshot-3887'
]
- Make note of the task identifier. In the example above, the task identifier is:
haTask-112-vim.VirtualMachine.createSnapshot-3887
- To get information about the status of a particular task, run the command:
vim-cmd vimsvc/task_info task_identifier
Where task_identifier
is the string recorded in step 6.
The output is similar to:
(vim.TaskInfo) {
dynamicType = <unset>,
key = "haTask-112-vim.VirtualMachine.createSnapshot-3887",
task = 'vim.Task:haTask-112-vim.VirtualMachine.createSnapshot-3887',
description = (vmodl.LocalizableMessage) null,
name = "vim.VirtualMachine.createSnapshot",
descriptionId = "VirtualMachine.createSnapshot",
entity = 'vim.VirtualMachine:112',
entityName = "deploy-test",
state = "running",
cancelled = false,
cancelable = false,
error = (vmodl.MethodFault) null,
result = <unset>,
progress = 15,
reason = (vim.TaskReasonUser) {
dynamicType = <unset>,
userName = "root",
},
queueTime = "2012-11-28T01:29:35.233835Z",
startTime = "2012-11-28T01:29:35.234891Z",
completeTime = <unset>,
eventChainId = 2936866,
changeTag = <unset>,
parentTaskKey = <unset>,
rootTaskKey = <unset>,
}