The alarm status of the guest operating system keeps changing between yellow and green

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• 20 seconds after a heartbeat, an ESX host sends an SNMP about the virtual machine's lost heartbeat and the alarm status changes to yellow.
• 40 seconds after the heartbeat, the alarm status changes back to green.
• In the /var/log/vmware/hostd.log file, you see entries similar to:
  
  Note: hostd logs must be set to trivia level logging to see these entries. For more information, see Increasing vCenter Server and ESX logging levels (1004795).
  
  [-12-06 15:57:42.260 F639EB90 verbose 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/4ad8a6b3-002f0983-d99b-00188be5f399/VC-win2k3/VC-win2k3.vmx'] Updating current heartbeatStatus: green
  [-12-06 15:58:02.261 F63DFB90 trivia 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/4ad8a6b3-002f0983-d99b-00188be5f399/VC-win2k3/VC-win2k3.vmx'] Heartbeat: 20, 15, 0.75
  [-12-06 15:58:02.261 F63DFB90 verbose 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/4ad8a6b3-002f0983-d99b-00188be5f399/VC-win2k3/VC-win2k3.vmx'] Updating current heartbeatStatus: yellow
  [-12-06 15:58:22.270 F63DFB90 trivia 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/4ad8a6b3-002f0983-d99b-00188be5f399/VC-win2k3/VC-win2k3.vmx'] Heartbeat: 20, 15, 0.75
  [-12-06 15:58:42.270 F63DFB90 trivia 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/4ad8a6b3-002f0983-d99b-00188be5f399/VC-win2k3/VC-win2k3.vmx'] Heartbeat: 20, 30, 1.5
  [-12-06 15:58:42.270 F63DFB90 verbose 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/4ad8a6b3-002f0983-d99b-00188be5f399/VC-win2k3/VC-win2k3.vmx'] Updating current heartbeatStatus: green
  [-12-06 15:59:02.271 F635DB90 trivia 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/4ad8a6b3-002f0983-d99b-00188be5f399/VC-win2k3/VC-win2k3.vmx'] Heartbeat: 20, 15, 0.75
  [-12-06 15:59:02.271 F635DB90 verbose 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/4ad8a6b3-002f0983-d99b-00188be5f399/VC-win2k3/VC-win2k3.vmx'] Updating current heartbeatStatus: yellow
  [-12-06 15:59:22.280 F639EB90 trivia 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/4ad8a6b3-002f0983-d99b-00188be5f399/VC-win2k3/VC-win2k3.vmx'] Heartbeat: 20, 15, 0.75
  [-12-06 15:59:42.280 F639EB90 trivia 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/4ad8a6b3-002f0983-d99b-00188be5f399/VC-win2k3/VC-win2k3.vmx'] Heartbeat: 20, 30, 1.5
  
  
• The above cycle occurs every 40 seconds.

Environment

VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable

Resolution

This issue is resolved in ESX 4.0 Update 2. For more information about this version, see the ESX 4.0 Update 2 release notes. You can download the latest version of ESX from the vSphere Download Center.

Prior to ESX 4.0 Update 2, this issue occurs when the time period between the ESX host's heartbeat checks is not high enough.

To resolve this issue, increase the time that the ESX host takes in between heartbeat checks:

1. On the ESX host, navigate to/etc/vmware/hostd.
2. Open config.xml file for editing.
3. In the vmsvc section and insert the line:
   
   <heartbeatCheckInSecs> 30 </heartbeatCheckInSecs>
   
   The section must look similar to:
   
   <vmsvc>
   <enabled>true</enabled>
   <heartbeatCheckInSecs> 30 </heartbeatCheckInSecs>
   </vmsvc>
   
   
4. Restart the management agents. For more information, see Restarting the Management agents on an ESX or ESXi Server (1003490).

Additional Information

ゲスト OS のアラーム状態が黄色と緑色の間で変わり続ける