VMware Tools Won't Upgrade after ESX 3.5 Update 4

[KWROBE]

I just updated our ESX 3.5 hosts to Update 4 and now our VMs show there is an update for VMware Tools. However, the update fails right near the end of the upgrade with a Error 1722.

Any thoughts on what could be causing this?

-Ken

[A13xxx]

have you tried removing the current tools and then installing the new ones from fresh

[KWROBE]

I did but that didn't work, it wouldn't install and now that VM server is sluggish as far as mouse movements, etc without VMware tools installed.

-Ken

[A13xxx]

I had this the other day, the first solution worked for me but on my other server i had to manually copy the installer files of the mounted drive to the local drive of the VM and install from there. That worked, have you tried copy to local and install from there?

[KWROBE]

Just tried that as well, same results.

-Ken

[A13xxx]

have you tried checking and updating the vmware tools before power on in the vm settings?

[KWROBE]

Well, you can't using the Install/Upgrade VMware Tools when the VM is shutdown.

I did set the VM to check and upgrade Tools before each power on; this under the Edit Settings, Options tab. I then did a shutdown and then restart, when the VM came back up, no sign of VMware tools being installed.

Thanks for the continuing suggestions, got any more?

-Ken

[muchacho · Accepted solution]

The solution that works for me for this error at this VM (Windows 2003 OS) was to start the following services.

• Distributed Transaction Coordinator. (usually a culprit for installation failures that i have found anyway...)

• COM+ System Application.

If these services where not started, start this services and retry the update or install.

You can stop these services (if you want) after the installer has finished

[RParker]

• * Distributed Transaction Coordinator. (usually a culprit for installation failures that i have found anyway...)

• COM+ System Application.

Neither of which affect Windows Installer service, because those services are not even running..... Windows installer errors are mostly caused by temp files from previous installations, that interfere with current installations. Cleaning out the temp in many cases, or change the temp location can fix it.

1722 is a generic error it happens on any Windows installer, not just VM Ware tools, so it's something else at the OS level, it could be memory problems, or swap / disk space free, corrupt data, lots of things. But the above services are not related.

[muchacho]

I Start those services and then and only then could I install VMware tools. Another example, you can not install SQL unless Distributed Transaction Coordinator is enabled and running...

[RParker]

I Start those services and then and only then could I install VMware tools. Another example, you can not install SQL unless Distributed Transaction Coordinator is enabled and running...

That's called 'dependencies'.. Service A needs service B which needs Service C running. Since service C isn't running, at the time service B starts, it starts. A starts, and sees that B is now running because C is now started.

But C does not depend on B or A to run, hence your scenario. It was a trigger to start a chain of events. But SQL server needs neither to run, as I said, neither of these are running, both manually started, but neither start at the time MSI runs.

What does Distributed Transaction Coordinator do?

The Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC) service coordinates transactions that update two or more transaction-protected resources, such as databases, message queues, files systems, and so on. These transaction-protected resources may be on a single computer or distributed across many networked computers.

You might need it to RUN SQL, but not install MSI installations.

[COS]

I would try to uninstall the the tools, bounce the VM gracefully then re-install.

Of course if you haven't already.

Also, make sure on every VM, you disconnect all their CD-ROM devices. Not only just by unchecking "Connected" and/or "Connect at power on" but ALSO Select "Client Device".

[KWROBE]

Thanks for the recent posts on this problem.

The fix was starting the COM + System Applications service. I noticed the reason it fixes this issue is the VMware Tools Update was trying to unregister/recreate the VMware Snapshot Provider using COM+. Once I turned it on, the upgrade went fine.

I still have a VM that I had uninstalled the tools from in trying to fix this issue but I can't get them to install again, nothing happens.

Thanks again.

-Ken

[marvinms]

When I ran into this issue, I found that if I was logged onto the VM (Windows) while I installed the Tools, it worked.

The may account for the service being started or my logon authorization allow it to run.

[KWROBE]

Fully resolved now. For the system which I had removed the tools in an attempt to reinstall, when I selected Install VMware Tools nothing happened. I went to the drive that was mounted with that selection and ran setup.exe and it did run correctly, with COM+ System Application running.

Thanks everyone for your inputs and suggestions.

-Ken