Running ESXi 5.x on HP hardware? Take care of the used HP-AMS version!

There is a known issue affecting ESXi 5.x running on HP hardware with one of the following HP-AMS (HP Agentless Management Service) versions:

  • hp-ams 500.9.6.0-12.434156
  • hp-ams-550.9.6.0-12.1198610
  • hp-ams 500.10.0.0-18.434156
  • hp-ams-550.10.0.0-18.1198610

If you run into this bug, you may notice various symptoms (one or more) like:

  • it is not possible to perform a vMotion to and from the ESXi host
  • error “VMK_NO_MEMORY” when you try to power on a VM
  • error “A general system error occurred: command /bin/sh failed”
  • error message “can’t fork” when using the console
  • message: “WARNING: Heap: 2677: Heap globalCartel-1 already at its maximum size. Cannot expand.”
  • ESXi host disconnects from vCenter
  • ESXi host unmanageable

As written above, this is a known issue. To resolve, just upgrade your hp-ams to version 10.0.1 using the latest HP Agentless Management Offline Bundle:

ESXi 5.0 and 5.1:
HP Agentless Management Service Offline Bundle for VMware ESXi 5.0 and vSphere 5.1
ESXi 5.5:
HP Agentless Management Service Offline Bundle for VMware vSphere 5.5

If you already have the problem and your host is unmanageable or you cannot perform a vMotion, you will have to power down all VMs on the host.

Then reboot the host and upgrade to the latest version immediately.

You want to read more about this issue – check this out:

VMware KB:
ESXi host cannot initiate vMotion or enable services and reports the error: Heap globalCartel-1 already at its maximum size.Cannot expand (2085618)

HP Article:
Advisory: (Revision) HP ProLiant Servers – HP Agentless Management Service (hp-ams) Version 9.6 or 10.0 Cannot Initiate VMotion or Enable Services and May Report a HEAP Global Error When Attempting to Acquire Memory

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