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Paulv45
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VMware Fusion has encountered an error and has shut down Windows.

Summary:

I started encountering this problem in November and have been beating on it ever since including using VMware support and Apple support.

Full message in virtual machine window:

==== VMware Fusion has encountered an error and has shut down

==== down Windows.

====

==== Click Restart Windows to start Windows again.  Click Report to

==== collect and to request support from VMware.

====

==== <Ignore>    <Report...>   <Restart Windows>

Clicking <Report...> generates the the report

Clicking <Restart Windows> hangs system.

Various VMware Fusion, Virtual Machine commands do nothing.

Only way I have found to get going again is to Apple, Force Quit of VMware Fusion.

Two systems involved, iMac and MacBook.

Sound familiar to anyone else?

Gory Details: =====

Both systems were fine working well over multiple years.

Start point status was.

- iMacs and MacBook running VMware with no problems for multiple years.

- This includes multiple upgrades of MacOS and VMware Fusion.

- OS X 10.9.5 on both systems with latest upgrades.

- VMware Fusion 6 on all systems with latest upgrades.

- Virtual Machines on both systems nearly identical -- Windows 7, all derivatives of one base VM.


Problem started occurring only on iMac.


Over the weeks, with encouragement of VMware and Apple support have updated to Yosemite, installed VMware Fusion 7, and built Windows 8.1 machines from scratch.


Now problem happening on both systems with MacBook staying alive for about 15 minutes and iMac perhaps several hours.

Any insight appreciated.

Thanks.

Paul

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Paulv45
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In summary...

This problem was originally encountered on iMac and MacBook:

Mavericks

Fusion 6.x

Windows 7

Ultimate resolution iMac and MacBook:

Yosemite

Fusion 7.1.1

Windows 8.1

The details of the path picking up from when Fusion 7.1.0 was in place to ultimate resolution are in the discussion posts.

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dariusd
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Hi Paul,

Could you please provide your VMware Support Request (SR) number?  I'll see if there are any hints in the information you've already provided there.

Thanks,

--

Darius

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Paulv45
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Hi Darius,

Information in the current request just summited is basically the same as posting, but here you go.

Current Support Request Confirmation Number:15590080601

From back in November VMWare Support Request: 14569432812

One additional piece of emerging data.

On MacBook repeatable.

I start the machine and fire up Windows Task Manager, Performance to can track up time.

Between 11 and 12 minutes of up time CPU pins at 100% and after 20 seconds machine freezes.

Then after another 30 sec get the dreaded message.

In hope of further pinning down what's going on I change memory setting from 2048 to 4096

Same result.

Then set processors from 1 to 2 (ignoring the VMware warning)

Same result except the CPU was not pinned at 100%.

Thanks for looking at this.

Paul

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dariusd
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Interesting.  Unfortunately (as you suggested) the SR does not have much more useful information than you've already posted here, although the Disk Utility problems you encountered on your iMac suggest strongly that either the iMac is having hardware problems or the OS disk was severely corrupted at some point.  Even though the symptoms you now see on your MacBook Pro are similar, I would be careful to avoid the assumption that the problem you were encountering earlier is the same as the one you are now encountering on both your Macs... It's possible that it is somehow the same cause, but there's not enough information to conclude that right now.

Immediately after the virtual machine crashes, and before powering it on again, go into the virtual machine's bundle (instructions for accessing the bundle), find the file named vmware.log, and upload it here as an attachment if you'd like me to take a look.  To attach the file, use the Browse... button above the Post Message button when composing a reply, and pick the vmware.log file from there (or drag the file from a Finder window into the dialog that pops up to attach the file).

Cheers,

--

Darius

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Paulv45
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Thanks, Darius. Of course while failing consistently at up time of 11 - 13 minutes, this time is still chugging at 45 min. Will take a shot at vmware.log on next fail. Thanks. Paul

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dariusd
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Heh... I seem to have an incredible ability to make problems go away by mere power of observation. :smileycool:

If you haven't powered off or suspended the VM too many times since the last crash, there might be an earlier vmware-1.log or vmware-2.log (or similar) inside the VM bundle which shows the problem.  Feel free to just attach all the vmware.log and vmware-<n>.log files for the VM if you'd like me to look through them anyway.

Cheers,

--

Darius

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Paulv45
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Completely understand about problems go away when I watch -- wife claims I have that power on her system.

Indeed have located log files -- there are 0, 1, 2, and current, from "get info"

0- created 1/22 10:09 PM Modified 10:21 PM

1- created 1/22 5:29 PM Modified 10:02 PM

2- created 1/22 5:13 PM Modified 5:27 PM

current: created 1/22 10:41 PM Modified 1/23 6:32 AM (i.e now)

0, 1, 2 consistent with crash timing.

Again, thanks for helping out.

Paul

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dariusd
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Ah, thanks muchly for the logfiles.  The critical part in your log is:

2015-01-22T22:21:02.841-05:00| vcpu-0| I120: SyncWaitQPanicOnFdLimit: The system limit on the total number of open files has been reached.

We've seen that error starting with the most recent Yosemite updates, and we have an internal bug report to track it.  If your setup permits, it might help to switch your network connection from NAT to Bridged until we have a fix available.  (You might not be able to use Bridged if you are connecting to some wireless access points or some secured corporate wired networks, for instance.)

Cheers,

--

Darius

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Paulv45
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Thanks for input, Darius. Interestingly both iMac and MacBook apparently are behaving today.

The files uploaded previously were all from MacBook.

The two attached here are from iMac.

- 0 - get info indicating that it ran from 1/15 to 1/21 which would be consistent with my notes of crash on 1/21.

- Current has been running since then.

Question is, does the "0" file indicate the same issue or a different one.

Just a bit more history.

Both iMac and MacBook had been running smoothly until Novemberish when iMac became unusable, MacBook having no problems.

Working with VMware and Apple I concluded that the the path most likely to succeed would be getting as close to a flattened disk rebuild as possible.

While had been running Mavericks/VMware 6/Windows 7 decided that most support was likely if I went to Yosemite/VMware 7/Windows 8.1.

Rebuild consisted of Yosemite installed followed by VMware 6 manual uninstall/VMware 7 manual install and then build Windows 8.1 from scratch.

This resulted in the system that was started on 1/15 and appeared very stable.

Buoyed by that apparent success, because I like to keep both systems as identical as possible, on 1/21 I started to repeat this process on the MacBook.

In the midst of the MacBook 1/21 rebuild, the iMac crashed as noted in log file 0 above, symptom at user level same as what was happening in November.

Because the iMac had been pretty stable, I decided to complete the MacBook rebuild anyway. For this rebuild I copied the Windows 8.1 virtual machine from the iMac to the MacBook.

Alas on 1/22 when I fired up the MacBook it failed almost immediately getting a series of fails with 10 minutes or so of uptime -- the fails reported in the earlier uploads.

Not knowing what to do at that point I made the initial post here 1/22 and simultaneously submitted service request 15590080601.

So...

I can make the NAT to Bridged change on both systems and will do so.

Crazy thing is both systems seem stable at this instant -- go figure.

Thanks for beating on this with me.

Paul

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dariusd
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The vmware-0.log from your iMac shows the exact same issue:

2015-01-20T14:30:09.128-05:00| vmx| I120: SyncWaitQPanicOnFdLimit: The system limit on the total number of open files has been reached.

So it is the same issue on your iMac as your MacBook Pro, which is a different issue from what you were experiencing at the start of the whole saga, before you decided to upgrade to Yosemite.

We've only seen this latest issue with OS X 10.10.1 (it didn't seem to happen at all with OS X 10.10.0), and we're still investigating it.  We still don't understand what is triggering it and why we can't reproduce the problem here.  Smiley Sad

Thanks for your patience... Hopefully switching to Bridged networking will get you going again.

Cheers,

--

Darius

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Paulv45
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Thanks for that info, Darius. Good to know it's one problem not two.

With the switch to Bridged things seemed be pretty stable -- no crash since that switch a few days ago.

At the same time I did that, I changed power settings on the Windows machines on both systems to:

Turn off the display: Never

Put the computer to sleep: Never

Before iMac was:

Turn off the display: 15 Minutes

Put the computer to sleep: Never

and MacBook:

Turn off the display Battery: 2 minutes Plugged in 5 minutes

Put the computer to sleep: Battery 10 Minutes Plugged in 15 minutes

(changed only the plugged in settings on MacBook)

This power stuff is probably nonsense, but thought I'd at least let you know since it was a change.

Things smooth for the moment -- stay tuned.

Again, thanks.

Paul

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Paulv45
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Quick update -- since the changes in last post, have not experienced problems on iMac or MacBook.

Since workaround involved network parameter change, not clear that issue is really resolved.

Paul

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dariusd
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Thanks for your patience with this, Paul!

We've been busy exploring this problem here, and you'll be glad to know that we've found the root cause, and a fix for it is queued up for a future release.  It specifically affects the NAT network on OS X 10.10 Yosemite hosts.

I can't say precisely when the fix will be released, but I hope it is soon.  :smileycool:

Until then, please keep using the Bridged networking configuration.  (I don't think the power management changes you made will have any overall effect on the situation.)

Cheers,

--

Darius

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dariusd
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Hi again Paul,

Fusion 7.1.1 has been released just now, and it should resolve the problem you were encountering on your Yosemite hosts.

After installing Fusion 7.1.1, it should be safe to switch your VMs back to Share with my Mac.

Let us know if that fixes the problem for you!

Cheers,

--

Darius

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Paulv45
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Darius,

Thanks for the info and helping to drive this.

I installed the update on iMac and reverted the network and power option settings. Things seems stable there for now.

If this continues will repeat on MacBook early next week.

The route to get all in place was interesting.

More detail than you want to know.

First note that I am running the iMac remotely via GoToMyPC which could impact things.

- Updated Fusion to 7.1.1.

- Things seemed normal.

- Made the network and power changes.

- Can move cursor on screen, right-mouse sort of works, left mouse does not work at all.

- Complete uninstall of Fusion.

- Install Fusion 7.1.0

- Still in can move cursor but no left-mouse selection situation.

- Discovered: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&externalId=2...
- Modified the Virtual Machine per article.

- Cursor now works.

- Updated Fusion to 7.1.1

- System seems fine.

- Made the network and power changes.

- System seems fine.

Bottom line I think we are in good shape.  Will report back again with MacBook results.

Thanks for your perseverance.

Paul

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Paulv45
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Darius,

Reporting in on MacBook results.

Everything went smoothly.

Upgraded to 7.1.1.

Reset network to NAT.

Restored power settings.

Looks like all is well.

Again thanks for your help.

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dariusd
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Glad to hear that things are going well there now!

Thanks for reporting back with your good news, and for being so patient as we worked through the problem.

Cheers,

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Darius

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Paulv45
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In summary...

This problem was originally encountered on iMac and MacBook:

Mavericks

Fusion 6.x

Windows 7

Ultimate resolution iMac and MacBook:

Yosemite

Fusion 7.1.1

Windows 8.1

The details of the path picking up from when Fusion 7.1.0 was in place to ultimate resolution are in the discussion posts.

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VIR2AL3X
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Paulv45 dariusd - I wouldn't necessarily say that this is the answer to this problem.  I also have an iMac running Yosemite 10.10.3, and I have been running the latest version of VMware Fusion 7.1.1 and I encounter this issue pretty much on a daily basis with only 1 VM which is running Windows 10 TechPreview.  Not sure why this is happening but I am happy to provide any additional information to help get this resolved for me.  I clicked on the "Report" button after it crashed last time on me and it placed a .zip file on my desktop.  I can upload here if that will help.

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dariusd
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Hi lopezal1,

There are many (many many many many) possible causes of the message "VMware Fusion has encountered an error and has shut down Windows"...  The one Paulv45 mentioned has most definitely been addressed in the VMware Fusion 7.1.1 update.

If you are running the very latest Tech Preview of Windows, you might well be encountering the same problem as over in this thread: VMware VMX Crash Running Win 10 x64 Build 10074

The error message is very different on Fusion, but what you're seeing is what Fusion would show for the same failure.

Feel free to start a new thread if you are unsure, and upload the .zip file -- or probably just the vmware.log from inside the virtual machine's bundle (see VMware KB: Locating the virtual machine bundle in VMware Fusion) would be enough to figure out what's happening.

Thanks,

--

Darius

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