Yes, that periodic job currently logs in as an admin, retrieves the VM events since the last time it checked, processes them, and logs out. Possibly, this can be changed in the future to remain logged in for a longer period of time which would reduce the amount of logging, or the job interval can be configured to be longer. ... View more

Is the SMVI domain account also the same user's credentials that are registered at https://VSC_SERVER:8143/Register.html? If so, the 15s interval is likely caused by Optimization and Migration polling for virtual machine events. Unfortunately, this is not currently easily configurable. If you aren't using Optimization and Migration, you can disable Optimization and Migration by moving VSC_INSTALL_DIR\subplugins\deploy\caster.war outside of the subplugins\deploy directory or renaming it so that it does not end with ".war". ... View more

That is currently expected behavior. Optimization and Migration polls every 15 seconds for virtual machine events. Other than the excessive logging, is this causing an issue in your environment? ... View more

Try this: 1. Delete VSC_INSTALL_DIR/etc/vsphere-credentials, 2. Restart the VSC service, 3. Re-register at https://localhost:8143/Register.html with credentials for the user that is a vSphere Administrator (has all vSphere privileges). ... View more

Just so I understand, the user now has all privileges (i.e. a vSphere Administrator) the VSC plugin has been re-registered the VSC service has then been restarted (since the roles are only automatically updated when the VSC service starts). What do you see in VSC_INSTALL_DIR\log\nvpf.log on VSC service restart? ... View more

Could you add back the permission that was removed to that account and retry restarting VSC? ... View more

What role does the user have whose credentials are registered at https://VSC_HOST:8143/Register.html? Those credentials should belong to a user with the Administrator role (not just "VSC Administrator"). ... View more

The new roles should be created/updated on VSC service startup. Verify that the file VSC_INSTALL_DIR\etc\roleDefinitions.xml was installed, and restart the "Virtual Storage Console for VMware vSphere" service. Do you see any related log entries in nvpf.log during startup? ... View more

VMware vSphere 5.5 support will be coming very soon in VSC 4.2.1. ... View more

It's not actually a network discovery that is run in the background. ESX hosts and storage systems are discovered. The VMware vCenter Server provides the list of hosts, and storage systems are discovered from those hosts via SCSI VPD page 0x85 if LUNs are mounted to obtain a management network address. Storage system discovery involves invoking a number of APIs directly on the storage systems to collect information such as Vservers, vFilers, volumes, luns, aggregates, LIFs, adapters, etc.  This discovery is run automatically overnight (time is configurable) and is also executed when manually invoked as you described. There is no network discovery such as what tools like nmap provide. ... View more

This is briefly described on page 105 of the Virtual Storage Console for VMware vSphere Installation and Administration Guide. Martin is correct that VSC invokes a vSphere snapshot which is required for powered-on virtual machines on VMFS datastores. This is also why powered-on virtual machines with independent persistent disks on VMFS can't be scanned. (vSphere snapshots can't be created.) vSphere snapshots are also created for VMs on NFS datastores if backed by non-NetApp storage or if the NetApp storage system has not yet been added or discovered under Monitoring and Host Configuration. ... View more

Another change that you may want to make is to increase the wrapper heap memory size described at https://kb.netapp.com/support/index?page=content&id=1014037. If this had been modified previously, you'll either need to make that change in the new environment, or copy VSC_INSTALL_DIR\wrapper\wrapper.conf. ... View more

To answer your other questions: Q1:  Can we register multiple instances of VSC with vCenter with no issues? A: This is not recommended. Some VSC operations require object locking which is only enforced across one VSC instance. Q2:   How would one go about migrating existing VSC Backup Job defniitions to a new server? A: The steps in my post above will copy these. They are located in VSC_INSTALL_DIR\smvi\server\repository. Q3:  Is there an easier way to move VSC to a new server? A: Hopefully, the steps in my post above simplifies the work for you to move VSC to a new server. ... View more

One way to do this is: 1. Stop the Virtual Storage Console service on the old machine 2. Install VSC on the new machine 3. Copy these directories from the old machine to the new machine: VSC_INSTALL_DIR\etc VSC_INSTALL_DIR\smvi\server\etc VSC_INSTALL_DIR\smvi\server\repository 4. On the new machine, generate a new SSL certificate by opening a command prompt and running: cd "c:\Program Files\NetApp\Virtual Storage Console" bin\vsc ssl setup 5. Restart the Virtual Storage Console service on the new machine 6. Register at https://NEW_VSC_SERVER:8143/Register.html ... View more

Do the VMs have independent disks or dynamic disks? Page 101 of the VSC Installation and Administration Guide covers various reasons why a VM would be placed in the "Other" folder. ... View more

When registering Virtual Storage Console with the vCenter Server at https://VSC_HOST:8143/Register.html, are you using vSphere administrator credentials? ... View more

If you have storage controllers running Data ONTAP 8.1.1 or later, you can get a PVR to enable the NFS optimization functionality. Even in future releases, NFS optimization will only be available on storage controllers running Data ONTAP 8.1.1 or later. If a VM is already "actually aligned", you should be able to migrate it to an existing or new NFS datastore even without "NFS optimization" enabled since that wouldn't require and functional alignment configuration on the storage controller. ... View more

I don't think this is necessary the root cause of the issue you are seeing, but unless you have a PVR, "NFS optimization" (migrating to an NFS datastore to functionally align a VM) isn't enabled. Since you're NFS only, there wouldn't be any VMFS datastores available. It seems like controller discovery used by Optimization and Migration could be filtering out controllers. Try this to get more logging information: 1. In VSC_INSTALL_DIR\etc\caster\log4j.properties, modify these properties log4j.appender.casterConsole.Threshold=DEBUG log4j.appender.casterLog.Threshold=DEBUG log4j.logger.com.netapp.caster=DEBUG, casterLog, casterConsole log4j.logger.com.netapp.kamino=DEBUG, casterLog, casterConsole 2. Restart the Virtual Storage Console 3. Retry the migration. You should get the same error message, but VSC_INSTALL_DIR\log\caster.log should provide more information about why the storage controllers are being filtered. ... View more

Here are a couple of things to try: Under Monitoring and Host Configuration, try clicking "Update" and then retry the migration in Optimization and Migration. If that doesn't work, delete the following files and restart the Virtual Storage Console service: VSC_INSTALL_DIR\info.x VSC_INSTALL_DIR\info.xout VSC_INSTALL_DIR\etc\controllerConfigurations.dat ... View more

Will you please attach the logs? From your description, an error is occurring during scan, but it's not clear what it might be. Are these VMFS or NFS datastores? ... View more