Thursday, March 7, 2013

vCenter server heartbeat 6.5 plugin manual registration error, vcenter serve heart beat 6.5 icon not visible in vsphere client. VCHB 6.5 plugin not registered in vsphere client.

My lab setup, upgraded vcenter server 5.0 U1 to vcenter server 5.0 U2 and vcenter server heatbeat version 6.5 used.

This is a virtual to virtual configuration for vcenter server high availability.
Installation was success full, configured heartbeat and every thing was working fine.
But heart beat icon is missing in vsphere client when i connected to vcenter.
checked if the vcenter server heart beat plugin is visible in plugin manager and i don't see it there.
searched and found this KB LINK about Registering vCenter Server Heartbeat plug-in manually

followed the steps in the KB
To manually register the vCenter Server Heartbeat plug-in manually:
  1. With the vCenter Server Heartbeat pair in sync, on the active server, open an elevated command prompt and navigate to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat\tomcat\apache-tomcat-6.0.32\bin.
  2. Run the command:RegExt -register vchost[:port] username password hbconf.xml PublicServiceName
    Where:
    • vchost is the name/IP of the vCenter Server to which you want to register
    • port is the https port on which vCenter Server is running
    • username is the valid username with administrator privileges on the vCenter Server
    • password is the password of the user with administrator privileges on the vCenter Server
    • PublicServiceName is the public name of the vCenter Server Heartbeat server pair
  3. Copy the hbconf.xml file created at the previous step to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat\tomcat\apache-tomcat-6.0.32\webapps\vcshb.
  4. Perform a switchover to make the Secondary server active.
  5. Repeat Steps 1-3 on the Secondary server.

Got the following error when i run the regext command, mentioned the KB

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat\tomcat\apache-tomcat-6.0.32\bin>RegExt -register LABVC01:443 vchbtev VC@123 hbconf.xml LABVC01N1
Connecting to vCenter via: https://LABVC01/sdk/vimService
inside connect, url is: https://LABVC01/sdk/vimService
session manager was non-null
connect succeeded
server type is VirtualCenter
API version is 5.0
DomainName: lab.com
Registering as LABVC01N1.lab.com with non-local vCenter at LABVC01:443
Searching for VM with host name: LABVC01N1
Searching for VM with host name:LABVC01N1.lab.com
Found 0 matching VM(s)
No VMs matching LABVC01N1 found. Unable to register the vSphere client extension
Management through the vSphere client is not available, use the Heartbeat management Client instead
No vSphere plugin registered
disconnecting from vCenter
disconnect succeeded
disconnect succeeded


Finally the issue its a KB update needed, instead of using vcenter public name labvc01, we need to use "localhost" as follows.

instead of below.
C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat\tomcat\apache-tomcat-6.0.32\bin>RegExt -register LABVC01:443 vchbtev VC@123 hbconf.xml LABVC01N1

 user the following on the active node and switch to secondary perform the same to successfull register vcenter server heart beat to vsphere client.

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat\tomcat\apache-tomcat-6.0.32\bin>RegExt.exe -register localhost:443 vchbtev VC@123 hbconf.xml
Connecting to vCenter via: https://localhost/sdk/vimService
inside connect, url is: https://localhost/sdk/vimService
session manager was non-null
connect succeeded
server type is VirtualCenter
API version is 5.0
DomainName: lab.com
Setting VC custom attribute for vSphere client
Removing existing web client extension com.vmware.hbwc
unregister extension succeeded
register web client extension succeeded
Removing existing extension com.vmware.heartbeat
unregister extension succeeded
register extension succeeded
Writing XML config file to hbconf.xml
Persisting vcConnection info
Persisting vCenter host: localhost:443
Persisting vCenter connection info
register extension succeeded
disconnecting from vCenter
disconnect succeeded
disconnect succeeded

That's it the vcenter heartbeat was started visible here.
login to vcenter via vsphere client and see if the plugin is visible as follows;


now got home -- inventor -- host and cluster.
click on vcenter server and in the right side you will see the heartbeat tab as follows.
 
I have requested for a kb to be updated as localhost instead of vchost, but still i dont see it is updated. mean time just for reference.
 
 
  1. With the vCenter Server Heartbeat pair in sync, on the active server, open an elevated command prompt and navigate to C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vCenter Server Heartbeat\tomcat\apache-tomcat-6.0.32\bin.
  2. Run the command:RegExt -register vchost[:port] username password hbconf.xml PublicServiceName
  • vchost is the name/IP of the vCenter Server to which you want to register
  • port is the https port on which vCenter Server is running
  • username is the valid username with administrator privileges on the vCenter Server
  • password is the password of the user with administrator privileges on the vCenter Server
  • PublicServiceName is the public name of the vCenter Server Heartbeat server pair



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