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Extend the default timeout periods for vCenter Server, ESX/ESXi hosts, and vCenter Update Manager (1017253)

Details

The default timeout value for tasks performed and managed by VirtualCenter / vCenter Server is 15 minutes. If you run an Update Manager host task, such as scanning or remediation of an ESX/ESXi host, the task might time out or fail if it takes more than 15 minutes to complete.
 
Any of the following factors can cause such a timeout or failure.
  • The task takes more than 15 minutes to complete.
  • A slow connection between the vCenter Server and the ESX/ESXi Server host.
  • A network environment with low bandwidth, high latency, or in which packets are lost.
  • Conditions that prevent the task to complete within the default 15 minute time frame.

Solution

To resolve this issue, you can increase the the vCenter Server and ESX/ESXi host timeout values. Three hours (10800 seconds) is generally sufficient, but in some environments, you might need to increase the timeout values to a longer period.

Increasing the vCenter Server timeout value

To increase the vCenter Server timeout value:
  1. Log in to your vCenter Server with administrator privileges.
  2. Open the vpxd.cfg file in a text editor.

    • The default location is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\vpxd.cfg .
    • For Windows 2008, the default location is C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter\vpxd.cfg.

  3. Paste these lines before the </config> tag:
     
    Caution: Do not make other changes to the configuration file. Backup the file before editing it.
     
    <task>
    <timeout>10800</timeout>
    </task>
    <vmomi>
    <soapStubAdapter>
    <blockingTimeoutSeconds>10800</blockingTimeoutSeconds>
    </soapStubAdapter>
    </vmomi>
     
  4. Restart the VMware VirtualCenter Server service. For more information, see Stopping, starting, or restarting vCenter services (1003895).

Increase the ESX/ESXi timeout value

To increase the ESX/ESXi timeout value:
  1. Log in to your ESX/ESXi host with root privileges using the console or an SSH session. For more information, see:

  2. Open vpxa.cfg in a text editor. The default path is /etc/opt/vmware/vpxa/. For ESXi 5.0, the path is /etc/vmware/vpxa/vpxa.cfg.
  3. Paste this line in between the <tasks> and </tasks> tags:
     
    Caution: Do not make other changes to the configuration file. Backup the file before editing it.

    <timeout>10800</timeout>

  4. Paste the following lines in between the <vmomi> and </vmomi> tags.

    <soapStubAdapter>
    <blockingTimeoutSeconds>10800</blockingTimeoutSeconds>
    </soapStubAdapter>
     
     
  5. Restart the management services on your ESX/ESXi host. For more information, see Restarting the Management agents on an ESX or ESXi Server (1003490).

Increase the timeout value in Update Manager 4.0 Update 2

In Update Manager 4.0 Update 2 and later the default timeout period is 40 hours. You can change the default 40-hour timeout period by using the <PatchTaskTimeoutSeconds> tag in the vci-integrity.xml file. The <PatchTaskTimeoutSeconds> tag is not present in earlier versions of Update Manager.
  1. Log in to the machine on which Update Manager server is installed with administrator privileges.
  2. Open the vci-integrity.xml file in a text editor.
    • The default location in 32-bit Windows is C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Update Manager.
    • The default location in 64-bit Windows is C:\Program Files(x86)\VMware\Infrastructure\Update Manager.

  3. Set the timeout time in the <PatchTaskTimeoutSeconds> tag:

    <PatchTaskTimeoutSeconds>timeout_value_in_seconds</PatchTaskTimeoutSeconds>

    Caution    : Do not make other changes to the configuration file. Backup the file before editing it.

  4. Restart the Update Manager service.
    1. In Windows, click Start > Run.
    2. Type services.msc, and press Enter.
    3. Right-click VMware Update Manager Services and select Restart.
    4. Wait for the service to restart.
For more information about the time required for host operations, see Update Manager host task might fail in slow networks (1021050).

Update History

04/15/2010 - Added path to vpxd.cfg on Windows 2008. 02/08/2013 - Added path for ESXi 5.0 03/29/2013 - Added ESXi 5.1 and vCenter Server 5.1 to Products

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