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DaedalusK71
Contributor
Contributor

vSphere client black screen

OK I installed vSphere Client 4.1.0 build 345043 and I am experiencing an issue where within the client, on the console tab, I have a black screen.  The VM is powered on and booted normally.  If I RDP into the VM it works like it should.  My issue is that I need to reinstall my OS which I cannot do through the RDP.

I have attached a screen capture of the client.  Any assistance or insight would be most appreciated.

10 Replies
CRad14
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I know a lot of people don't use the Console "tab" for a variety of reasons. One being that it doesn't close the session when you switch to other tabs.

The first thing I would try is to right click on the VM, then click Open Console, and see if there is any difference there.

Next I might try rebooting the VM and/or reinstalling VMware Tools...

Let me know if this helps....or doesn't

Conrad www.vnoob.com | @vNoob | If I or anyone else is helpful to you make sure you mark their posts as such! 🙂
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MauroBonder
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Check if DNS of hosts, and virtual machine it´s ok with FQDN.

other option is try restart services into of host vmware

See how restart services - http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1003490


Please, don't forget the awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers.

Mauro Bonder - Moderator

*Please, don't forget the awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers. *Por favor, não esqueça de atribuir os pontos se a resposta foi útil ou resolveu o problema.* Thank you/Obrigado
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DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

Try editing the VM settings and increase Video memory. Depending on OS you might want to increase it to 32MB.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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a_p_
Leadership
Leadership

A black console screen is most likely caused by one of the two following issues:

Either the video memory is not set appropriately (usually with WDDM display drivers) as mentioned by DSTAVERT (see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1016770) or by firewall issues (blocking ports 902/903) as explained at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/749640

André

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14th
Contributor
Contributor

You use a proxy to access the Internet?

Proxy settings (in environment variables) can be used by vmvare-vrmc.exe.

Example.

environment variables for wget util:

"http_proxy" or "https_proxy".

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OscarDavey
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

This issue can occur if you logged into the VirtualCenter or the ESX host using VMware Infrastructure (VI) Client and do not have Console Interactions permissions.


To solve this issue :

Grant all users logged into the VirtualCenter or the ESX host using VI Client require Console Interaction permissions.

To grant Console Interaction permissions:

  1. Login to VirtualCenter or the host using VI Client.
  2. Select the host (if logged in to the host) or the datacenter (if logged in to the VirtualCenter)
  3. Click the Permission tab.
  4. Right-click in the blank space and choose Add Permissions.
  5. Under Users and Groups, click Add.
  6. Select the user experiencing the issue.
  7. Click Add.
  8. Click OK.
  9. Under Assigned Role, click on the plus sign next to All Privileges.
  10. Click on the plus sign next to Virtual Machine.
  11. Click on the plus sign next to Interaction.
  12. Select Console Interaction.
  13. Select Propagate to Child Objects.

Hope this will help ...

Best regards

Your Oscar

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SatyS
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Hi DaedalusK71,

The black screen can be caused due to the following reasons

1. Issue related to DNS/FQDN of host/guest

Verify the DNS/FQDN of both ESXi host and guest

2. ESXi host may need to restart management agent services (kb1003490)

Check the other VM hosted by the same ESX/ESXi host.If they don’t have issue this may not be the root cause

3. Video memory of VM is too small for WDDM video driver

  (C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\Drivers\wddm_video\)

VMware suggest video RAM increase from default 4MB to minimum 8MB when use WDDM driver, or somewhere between 4-32 MB (kb1016770)

4. Firewall blocking ports 902/903 (kb749640)

To enable port on proxy, do this

   Log in to ESXi, open /etc/vmware/config

   add line -

    vmauthd.server.alwaysProxy = "TRUE"

   service xinetd restart

Just check if these are causing the issue.

Hope this helps!!

Regards,

SatyS

If you find this useful,mark the answer as correct/helpful

If you find this useful,please mark the answer as correct/helpful

Regards,
SatyS
http://myvirtuallearning.wordpress.com/

TommyFreddy
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

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yuspino
Contributor
Contributor

Hello.

In my case, were problems with DNS.

I used the IP to connect to my vCenter and all correct!!!

You can try with the Ip, not with hostname. It works for me.

A test I did, does it work if you launch a RDP against Vcenter and then from there use the Vshepere client? In my opinion, an issue with DNS. Perhaps,two IPs for one hostname.

In my real case, it worked fine when I picked up the good IP. Smiley Wink

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Grezzo
Contributor
Contributor

In my case, I was connecting to 10.0.xxx instead of 10.0.0.xxx. Everything in the vSphere Client appeared to work correctly, except the console. Connecting with a valid IP address (10.0.0.xxx instead of 10.0.xxx) fixed it.

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