Product Announcements

Update to vSphere vCenter Server, version 5.1.0A released

A new version of the vSphere vCenter Server has been released to address some of the issues encountered with various scenarios of deploying and operating the 5.1.0 version. This release is a full version and you can upgrade from 4.0-5.1GA to 5.1.0A

I’ve listed some information specific to the issues resolved however do check out the full release notes for install instructions and a list of known issues with workarounds.

Full Release Notes

VMware vCenter Server 5.1.0a Release Notes

vCenter Server™ 5.1.0a | 25 Oct 2012 | Build 880471

vCenter Server™ Appliance 5.1.0a | 25 Oct 2012 | Build 880472

Last updated: 25 Oct 2012

Check for additions and updates to these release notes

What’s New

This release of VMware vCenter Server 5.1.0a includes a number of bug fixes that have been documented in theResolved Issues section.

Upgrades for This Release

For instructions about upgrading vCenter Server and ESX/ESXi hosts, see the vSphere Upgrade documentation.

  • Upgrade and Installation

    • vCenter Server Services fail on startup after upgrade to vCenter Server 5.1
      After you upgrade to vCenter Server 5.1, the vCenter Server services fail to start up and generate vpxd dumps. This issue occurs if old certificates are removed during upgrade of vCenter Server or if you attempt to perform a fresh install of vCenter Server with an already upgraded vCenter Server 5.1 database.

      This issue is resolved in this release. If you have encountered this issue in the past, upgrading to vCenter Server 5.1.0a will resolve the issue.

    • Users unable to log in to vCenter Server after upgrading to vCenter Server 5.1
      After upgrading to vCenter Server 5.1, you might be unable to log in with the user or group administrator privileges provided by the vCenter Server installer during the upgrade process. This issue can occur if vCenter Server finds a vCenter Server Administrator user or group that can be authenticated against vCenter Single Sign On while searching the vCenter Server database.

      This issue is resolved in this release.

    • Invalid solution certificate. Certificate already expired. error message occurs when upgrading to vCenter Server 5.1 and registering the vCenter Server instance to vCenter Single Sign On 
      The vCenter Server installer does not allow upgrade if the certificate is invalid or already expired. To regenerate expired SSL certificates, see KB 1009092: Regenerating expired SSL certificates.

      This issue is resolved in this release.

    • vCenter Server takes an unusually long time to start and the vSphere Client might time out
      When a large number of permissions are assigned to objects in the vCenter Server inventory, the vCenter Server service does not start as quickly as expected as vCenter Server verifies that the users and groups exist in the identity source. Also, the connection to the vSphere Client might time out when you log in with Windows session credentials.

      The following messages appear in the vCenter Server logs while the service is starting:

      [SSO] [SsoAdminFacadeImpl] [FindGroup]
      [UserDirectorySso] GetUserInfo (DOMAIN *USER OR GROUP*, true) res: DOMAIN *USER OR GROUP*
      [UserDirectorySso] NormalizeUserName (DOMAIN *USER OR GROUP*, false) re: DOMAIN *USER OR GROUP*

      This issue is resolved in this release.

    • Upgrading to vCenter Server 5.1 might fail with error 29107 even though the service or solution user is already registered
      Attempts to upgrade vCenter Server 5.1 might fail with the following error message:

      Error 29107. The service or solution user is already registered. Check VM_ssoreg.log in system, temporary folder for details.

      This issue is resolved in this release.

    • Installing or upgrading vCenter Server 5.1 fails with the error: Could not contact Lookup Service
      vCenter Simple Install might fail with the following error if the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) contains the string port during the installation:

      Error 29102 . Could not contact Lookup Service. Please check VM_ssoreg.log in system temporary folder for details.

      This issue is resolved in this release.

    • Installing vCenter Single Sign On fails with the error: Unable to create database users: Password validation failed
      When you attempt to install vCenter Single Sign On using an existing database or the bundled SQL Express database, the installation fails with the following error:

      Error 29114. Cannot connect to DB

      This issue is resolved in this release.

    vCenter Server and vSphere Client

    • Unable to log in to the vSphere Web Client due to incorrect proxy settings
      Slow network speeds caused by incorrect proxy settings might result in delay during the interaction between the vSphere Web Client, domain controller, and external vCenter Single Sign On. You might encounter the following issues due to this delay:

      • Attempts to log into the vSphere Web Client fail with the following error:The vSphere Web Client cannot connect to the vCenter Single Sign On server.
      • A delay in excess of 20 minutes to list all domain users
      • A delay in excess of 20 minutes to load the whole vCenter Server inventory after domain use login

      This issue is resolved with this release.

    vMotion and Storage vMotion

    • Unable to access the cross-host Storage vMotion feature from the vSphere Web Client with an Essentials Plus license
      If you start the migration wizard for a powered on virtual machine with an Essentials Plus license, the Change both host and datastore option in the migration wizard is disabled, and the following error message is displayed:

      Storage vMotion is not licensed on this host.
      To perform this migration without a license, power off the virtual machine.

      This issue is resolved in this release.