“Cannot Initialize Property” Error Installing SolarWinds VMA

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Virtualization installing solarwinds vma

Normally, installing a virtual machine appliance is easy. Just download, deploy, answer a few basic questions, and the VMA is running. But, not today.

Today, I went to install the newest SolarWinds VMA for Virtualization Management and promptly received the error “Cannot initialize property. ‘vamp.DNS0.SolarWindows_Virtualization_Manager’, since network has no associated IP pool configuration.” The first time is happened I thought, “perhaps I clicked something mistakenly”. So, I proceed to delete the virtual machine, and re-install, paying close attention to the directions. Same exact error when I attempted to start the freshly installed VMA!

If you are in this situation, this is how I got the SolarWinds VMA installation to actually work. Of course, you begin by deleting the VMA that is giving you the error.

  1. Delete the erred VMA:
    • Highlight the VMA that won’t start within the vSphere client.
    • Right-click and select Delete.
    • Confirm the validation prompts.
  2. Begin deploying the VMA again:
    • Within the vSphere client, from the File menu | select the “Deploy OVF” menu item
    • Browse to the downloaded VMA file and click the Next button
    • Click the Next button
    • Enter a name for your new virtual machine
    • Highlight the inventory location you want to use (any one will probably do)
      and click the Next button
    • Highlight the cluster or host you want to use and click the Next button
    • Highlight a storage location and click the Next button
    • Keep the default of “Thin Provision” and click the Next button
    • Highlight a network on your LAN and click the Next button
  3. Use DHCP, even if you have a designated static IP address:
    • Select the DHCP radio button and click the Next button
    • Click the Finish button
  4. Deployment completes:
    • The machine will deploy after you click the Finish button
    • Click the close button to confirm the deployment is complete
    • Start the new VMA by right-clicking | Power menu | Start menu item

So, as you can guess, the problem happens whenever you use the deployment wizard to select a static IP address. You must always deploy using DHCP, and then edit the resulting virtual machine to assign the static IP, if you want a static IP.

Here are the final steps:

  1. Respond to the first boot up sequence:
    • Click the virtual machine you just created in iSphere client, and select the
      “Use Console” menu item
    • If you don’t have DHCP on that network, the machine will say “No Networking
      Detected…” in red bold letters
    • Use your cursor to select the “Configure Network” menu item on the bottom left
      of your screen
    • Enter a valid static IPv4 address, such as 10.10.10.100
    • Enter your gateway on that network, such as 10.10.10.1
    • Enter your first DNS server, such as 10.10.10.20
    • Enter you second DNS server, such as 10.10.10.21
    • Enter you local hostname (I made it the same as the name within iSphere, no
      embedded spaces)
    • If there is no proxy server to reach the internet, enter “N” for no.
    • Validate that all entries are correct, and enter “Y” for yes.
  2. Test your new VMA:
    • You should set the time zone, if its incorrect
    • Then, close the console window
    • Open an Internet browser
    • Enter https://10.10.10.100 (or whatever you assigned as the static IP address)

The result should be a SolarWinds webpage. Of course, you can add your new VMA name as a DNS entry, and then get a prettier URL. SolarWinds is already aware of this networking problem, and has documented the work around in their knowledge base here: http://knowledgebase.solarwinds.com/kb/questions/3556/.