KB: The System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager console terminates unexpectedly with NullReferenceException

[System-Center-Team]

First published on TECHNET on May 23, 2012

Here’s a new Knowledge Base article we published. This one talks about an issue where the SCVMM 2012 console terminates with NullReferenceException after adding an ESX 4.1 host.

=====

Symptoms

After adding an ESX 4.1 host to System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) fabric, the VMM console may terminate unexpectedly.
In reviewing the application log you find the following event:

Log Name: Application
Source: Windows Error Reporting
Event ID: 1001
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Description:
Fault bucket , type 0
Event Name: VMM20
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:
P1: vmmservice
P2: 3.0.6019.0
P3: E.Adhc.Operations
P4: 3.0.6019.0
P5: M.V.E.A.VMWareESXHostDataProperties.GetHostManagementPorts
P6: System.NullReferenceException
P7: 6b59
P8:
P9:
P10:

or

Log Name: Application
Source: Windows Error Reporting
Event ID: 1001
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Description:
Fault bucket , type 0
Event Name: VMM20
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:
P1: vmmservice
P2: 3.0.6019.0
P3: VMWareImplementation
P4: 3.0.6005.0
P5: M.C.V.VmwVMService.PopulateDistributedNetworkingData
P6: System.NullReferenceException
P7: 3b81
P8:
P9:
P10:

NOTE To ensure you are encountering the issue discussed here, verify that the values shown in the Windows Error report log have the same values for P5 and P6 as seen in one of the above examples

Cause

This is a known issue in System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager. The issue is related to the absence of a standard VMware virtual switch (vSwitch) on the VMware hosts. The VMM refresher fails to handle such a configuration.

Resolution

To verify the problem host perform the following steps:

Open vSphere Client
- Open Hosts and Clusters
- Select Host, Go to Configuration tab
- Select Networking, you should see no vSphere Standard Switches.

To workaround this issue, create a vSwitch on each failing host using the VMware management tools such as vSphere client.

=====

For the most current version of this article please see the following:

2709961 - The System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager console terminates unexpectedly with N...

J.C. Hornbeck | System Center & Security Knowledge Engineer

Get the latest System Center news on Facebook and Twitter :

App-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/appv/
ConfigMgr Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/configurationmgr/
DPM Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/dpm/
MED-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/medv/
Orchestrator Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/orchestrator/
Operations Manager Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/momteam/
SCVMM Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/scvmm
Server App-V Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/serverappv
Service Manager Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/servicemanager
System Center Essentials Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/systemcenteressentials
WSUS Support Team blog: http://blogs.technet.com/sus/

The Forefront Server Protection blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/fss/
The Forefront Endpoint Security blog : http://blogs.technet.com/b/clientsecurity/
The Forefront Identity Manager blog : http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ms-identity-support/
The Forefront TMG blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/isablog/
The Forefront UAG blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/edgeaccessblog/