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radioalarm
Contributor
Contributor

VMware Tools event log 1000

I just upgraded from esxi 5.0 to 5.1 to get rid of constantly crashing VMtools on my 2008r2 terminal server. Well, errors are back, just in different form.

At first I got this:

[ warning] [vmusr:vmtoolsd] Failed registration of app type 2 (Signals) from plugin unity.

By following instructions in http://communities.vmware.com/message/2110430 I got rid of it. But then another error came up, it is raised after any user logs in to terminal:

- <System>
<Provider Name="VMware Tools"  />
<EventID  Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID>
<Level>3</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2013-01-15T07:03:36.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>35299</EventRecordID>
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>pantera.----------</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-21-1238592200-306474511-1734353810-1820" />
</System>
- <EventData>
<Data>[ warning] [vmusr:vmusr] Channel restart failed [1]</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>
From terminal user point of view, nothing happens, everything works fine. But I hate having a server which fails to restart something 100 times per day.
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MKguy
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Seems like the issue described here:

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2036350

This problem is supposed fixed in patch ESXi510-201212402-BG to the VMware Tools from December:

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2035778

Make sure you upgrade your VMware Tools in the Guests with this version.

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radioalarm
Contributor
Contributor

I installed ESXi510-201212001 right after the upgrade, and AFAIK it includes the patch you mentioned. Guest tools were also upgraded, but it didn't help.

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MKguy
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Well, instead of AFAIKing, can you just make sure you're running this Tools version?

Check the Tools Tray Icon or run this in a cmd:

"C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\VMwareToolboxCmd.exe" -v

With this patch you should be running version 9.0.1.18551 (build-913578).

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radioalarm
Contributor
Contributor

Yes, this is the version I have.

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Grimson
Contributor
Contributor

I did remove the unity.dll (workstation feature) from here C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\plugins\vmusr.

First kill / stop all vmware tools services and traybar indicator ...

Guess it will be back when updating the tools but by that time it should be fixed wouldn't it be? Smiley Wink

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MKguy
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

One has to question when VMware will finally notice that it's a better idea to simply not package ESXi VMware Tools with workstation/player components (no, I do not want my VMs to share files with the host, which won't work anyways).

But that's an interesting point you have there if this fixed your issue.

As suggested by the vSphere Security Hardening Guide (http://www.vmware.com/files/xls/security/HardeningGuide-vSphere50-v1.2.xlsx), there are a couple of supposedly unexposed unity features that can be explicitly disabled through VMX-parameters.

It would be interesting if can you test whether this issue is still present on a VM with these parameters set (and having been power-cycled), while keeping the original unity.dll in place:

isolation.tools.unity.disable=true
isolation.tools.unity.push.update.disable=true
isolation.tools.unity.taskbar.disable=true
isolation.tools.unity.windowContents.disable=true
isolation.tools.unityActive.disable=true
isolation.tools.unityInterlockOperation.disable=true

There may be even more undocumented parameters pertaining unity features, but these have been stated in the Hardening Guide.

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MKguy
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Anyone tried this?

I didn't experience the dramatic log spew issue but got a few Eventlog errors on every login:

http://communities.vmware.com/message/2149923#2149923

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