So I set out to install this update. Pretty straight forward. The install went smoothly – Database was upgraded – Update manager the whole works.

Then came the Performance overview plug-in. Instructions were pretty simple.

All seems to go ok – but then I ran into the problem which this KB article solved for me.

So now I have the plug-in working correctly – or at least I thought I did.

I was not getting some “chart cannot be displayed” errors on some of my hosts. (see below)

Working	Not Working

Some clusters would work – others would not. Some hosts in a cluster would work and others would not.

Now after some debugging of the issue I found:

• The issue was consistent on the same hosts all the time.
• No matter what I did (and tried all the relevant KB’s – and even re-installing vCenter from scratch – using the same DB) would not help.
• In the stats.log from the vCenter server I was seeing:

   

  When querying (via GUI) a working host the stats.log returns:

  ----

  [30 Mar 09, 15:35:31] [INFO] com.vmware.vim.stats.webui.action.ViClientRequestAction : Request: :8086/statsreport/vicr.do">:8086/statsreport/vicr.do">http://<IPADDR>:8086/statsreport/vicr.do ? &moref=HostSystem:host-11041&sessionId=9A123CFD8AA-058F-4068-AC7C-66C66C2BDC7F&locale=en_US&serviceUrl=https://<hostname>/sdk

  [30 Mar 09, 15:35:31] [INFO] com.vmware.vim.stats.webui.action.ViClientRequestAction : User (vmware_soap_session="AFCEC24C-1B37-414D-92E0-3523AC1BDED3F8") successfully authorized...

  [30 Mar 09, 15:35:31] [INFO] com.vmware.vim.stats.webui.action.ViClientRequestAction : Redirect to corresponig MO Action (HostSystem)...

  [30 Mar 09, 15:35:31] [WARN] com.vmware.vim.stats.webui.util.JspHelper : The following metrics does not exist ini the VC: (swapinRate,average,3)

  [30 Mar 09, 15:35:31] [WARN] com.vmware.vim.stats.webui.util.JspHelper : The following report will no be displayed because one of its metric s is not present in the VC:hostMemRatesReport [30 Mar 09, 15:35:31] [WARN] com.vmware.vim.stats.webui.util.JspHelper : The following metrics does not exist ini the VC: (maxTotalLatency,latest,3)

  [30 Mar 09, 15:35:31] [WARN] com.vmware.vim.stats.webui.util.JspHelper : The following report will no be displayed because one of its metric s is not present in the VC:hostDiskTotalLatencyReport

   

  When querying a non working host (via GUI) we get this is in the log

  ----

  [30 Mar 09, 15:34:44] [INFO] com.vmware.vim.stats.webui.action.ViClientRequestAction : Request: :8086/statsreport/vicr.do">:8086/statsreport/vicr.do">http://<ipaddr>:8086/statsreport/vicr.do ? locale=en_US&timeRange=daily&startDate=-1&pageIndex=0&moref=HostSystem%3Ahost-3589&mode=home&sessionId=9ACFD8A2A-058F-4068-AC7C-66C626C2BDC7F&endDate=-1&pageSize=2&serviceUrl=https%3A%2F%2F<HOSTNAME>%2Fsdk

  [30 Mar 09, 15:34:44] [INFO] com.vmware.vim.stats.webui.action.ViClientRequestAction : User (vmware_soap_session="AFCEC24C-1B37-414D-92E0-35AC1BDED3F8") successfully authorized...

  [30 Mar 09, 15:34:44] [INFO] com.vmware.vim.stats.webui.action.ViClientRequestAction : Redirect to corresponig MO Action (HostSystem)...

  [30 Mar 09, 15:34:44] [WARN] com.vmware.vim.stats.webui.util.JspHelper : The following metrics does not exist ini the VC: (swapinRate,average,3)

  [30 Mar 09, 15:34:44] [WARN] com.vmware.vim.stats.webui.util.JspHelper : The following report will no be displayed because one of its metric s is not present in the VC:hostMemRatesReport [30 Mar 09, 15:34:44] [WARN] com.vmware.vim.stats.webui.util.JspHelper : The following metrics does not exist ini the VC: (maxTotalLatency,latest,3)

  [30 Mar 09, 15:34:44] [WARN] com.vmware.vim.stats.webui.util.JspHelper : The following report will no be displayed because one of its metric s is not present in the VC:hostDiskTotalLatencyReport [30 Mar 09, 15:34:44] [ERROR] com.vmware.vim.stats.webui.chart.StatsChartServlet : Unable to generate performance chart image. Details: null

  java.lang.NullPointerException

When running a profiler on the SQL server side – I was able to catch the query (which is actually a very nice SQL query that will  give you the info that should be presented in the tab – but that is a different post..) When running the query against the SQL Database itself it was returning the data perfectly for all hosts – those that would present properly in the tab and those that would not present at all. When the tab would not display correctly on a host – then the query would not even be presented to the SQL database – which leads me to think that something screwy is going on with the JAVA or in the SQL tables here.

SR was opened with support.

The workaround that I was provided from support was to completely remove the host from the cluster and add it in again. Now this made me think – of course this would solve my problem. Because there is something not working correctly in one of the tables – and when you remove a host from the VC and add it in again, it receives a new ID – so of course this would solve the problem. New tables – new data – makes a lot of sense. But… What happens to all the historical data on the host once you remove it? You guessed right – GONE! – Forever!!!

So for me that workaround is not acceptable.

The problem is a known bug (or as the Support technician put it “Boog”) that currently does not have a solution and that will be fixed in the next release of vCenter (which I suppose will be the GA of vSphere).

Now something that worried me actually – and I still have not had the time to check it out thoroughly – was when I saw the release of vCenter Mobile Access, the charts that are displayed – seem to be very similar to what is displayed on the Performance Overview tab – so I am wondering if I will get the same problems when I get to install that. Will have to wait and see.

Life ain’t easy!!