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Version: Archive

Error - Vhost has timed out sending gratuitous ARP

Applies to:

  • DxEnterprise 15.0
  • WinPCAP

Summary​

During the attempted failover/rehost of a Vhost the following error is logged to the DH2i Event Log:

<vhost> has timed out: Sending gratuitous ARP for address: <vhost_ip>

An Alert is also logged and displayed in the Alert Manager:

<vhost> is unresponsive: Sending Gratuitous ARP for address: <vhost_ip>

Event Details​

Log Name:      DH2i  
Source:        DxLMonitor  
Date:          <date_time>  
Event ID:      3148  
Task Category: None  
Level:         Error  
User:          N/A  
Computer:      <node>  
Description:  
Coordinator: Operation start-node failed: <vhost> has timed out: 
Sending gratuitous ARP for address: <vhost_ip>

Additional Warning Events:

Log Name:      DH2i  
Source:        DxHost  
Date:          <date_time>  
Event ID:      4006  
Task Category: None  
Level:         Warning  
User:          N/A  
Computer:      <node>  
Description:  
[<vhost>] Action is unresponsive: Sending gratuitous ARP for address: <vhost_ip>
Log Name:      DH2i  
Source:        DxLMonitor  
Date:          <date_time>  
Event ID:      3003  
Task Category: None  
Level:         Warning  
User:          N/A  
Computer:      <node>  
Description:  
Start/stop action alert for VHS:<vhost>: <vhost> is unresponsive: 
Sending gratuitous ARP for address: <vhost_ip>

Resolution​

There have been some reports of the NPF service (the WinPCAP driver) exhibiting issues in some cases with products other than ours, which prevents the Gratuitous ARP from completing in our use of the service. One example is Wireshark on Windows. We’d suggest the following course of action:

  1. Set the WinPCAP driver to on-demand start rather than automatic. To do so, you can open a CMD prompt as Administrator and run the following:

    SC CONFIG NPF START= DEMAND

    This will allow the driver to start on-demand, but not automatically on system startup. It will take the new behavior on next boot. Note the space after the equal sign.

  2. If further issues are experienced, you can avoid sending gratuitous ARPs from within DxEnterprise 15.0. Open Tools > Cluster Settings and find the key Gratuitous ARP. You can set it to False. This setting takes place immediately. Disabling gratuitous ARP will prevent DxEnterprise from attempting to send GARP packets and will fall back to Windows ARP cache expiration/refresh.