Workstation 12.5.6 requires UAC when starting VM

[ronzul]

Hi there

At present, VMware displays the UAC confirmation dialog when I start a VM. Definitely not ideal.

My host system is Windows 10 Pro.

Is this typical behaviour?

Is there any way that I can have a VMware start the VM without the need for manual intervention?

Many thanks

Ronny

[bluefirestorm]

It isn't typical behaviour.

Usually when UAC prompts come up when starting a VM, the VMware Authorization Services (in services.msc) is not running/failed to start during Windows host startup.

So check the status of the VMware Authorization Service in services.msc and try to start it.

If the VMware Authorization Service continually fail to startup, you may consider to do a repair of the VMware Workstation installation or uninstall/reinstall.

[ronzul]

Hi bluefirestorm, thanks for that.

The authorisation service is running (see attached).

And a couple of days ago I did a complete uninstall, so that I could install the latest version 12.5.6.

Any other ideas would be appreciated!

Cheers

Ronny

[bluefirestorm]

Does the start of any VM still have the UAC prompt after you have verified the VMware Authorization service is running?

If it wasn't running and an attempt was to start to the VM, VMware Workstation would attempt to start the VMware Authorization service and if successful, subsequent start of any VM shouldn't have the UAC prompt.

[HuanguoZhong]

Was the VM created by "Use a physical disk"? If that, when you launch WS UI, and power on this vm, the UAC will pop up.

[ronzul]

Hi bluefirestorm

After booting the host, I verify that the authorisation service is running.

I start the VMware GUI. When I start a VM, the UAC prompt displays.

If I shut down the VM (cleanly through the guest shutdown), but leave the VMware GUI process around, starting the VM again does not require the UAC prompt.

However, if I close the GUI process, restart it and attempt to start a VM, the UAC prompt appears again.

I wonder if there might be some clue in a VMware log file.

Any other pointers appreciated!

Cheers

Ronny

[bluefirestorm]

I used to face this similar problem, albeit inconsistently, when I was using a Windows 8.1 host. Back then, I just didn't bother to find out what was wrong as it was not consistent.

You could try to look at the vmware logs at

%TEMP%\VMware\vmware-%USERNAME%

Maybe start with the vmware-ui-nnnn.log where nnnn is a process ID number.

[ronzul]

Thanks bfs, I think this has given me a clue. From vmware-ui-nnnn.log, vmware-ui has an issue communicating with vmware-authd - so it makes sense that the vmware-ui process needs to get UAC directly.

The relevant portion of the log file is below... anyone know where the vmware-ui process is trying to read the port number from, and why it might be having trouble doing so? I did google, but didn't find anything definitive.

Thanks

2017-06-02T23:40:09.013+10:00| vthread-10| I125: VTHREAD initialize thread 10 "vthread-10" host id 1336

2017-06-02T23:40:09.013+10:00| vthread-10| I125: CnxAuthdConnect: Returning false because CnxAuthdConnectPipe failed

2017-06-02T23:40:09.013+10:00| vthread-10| I125: CnxConnectAuthd: Returning false because CnxAuthdConnect failed

2017-06-02T23:40:09.013+10:00| vthread-10| I125: Cnx_Connect: Returning false because CnxConnectAuthd failed

2017-06-02T23:40:09.013+10:00| vthread-10| I125: Cnx_Connect: Error message: Failed to read vmware-authd port number: Cannot connect to VMX: F:\VMWare\Win10B\Win10B.vmx

2017-06-02T23:40:09.013+10:00| vthread-10| I125:

2017-06-02T23:40:09.013+10:00| vthread-10| I125: Vix: [1336 foundryVMPowerOps.c:5940]: Error VIX_E_HOST_TCP_SOCKET_ERROR in FoundryVMOpenSocketToVMXThroughAuthd(): unable to contact authd: Failed to read vmware-authd port number: Cannot connect to VMX: F:\VMWare\Win10B\Win10B.vmx

2017-06-02T23:40:09.013+10:00| vthread-10| I125:

2017-06-02T23:40:09.049+10:00| vthread-7| I125: VTHREAD initialize thread 7 "vthread-7" host id 1120

2017-06-02T23:40:09.049+10:00| vthread-7| I125: CnxAuthdConnect: Returning false because CnxAuthdConnectPipe failed

2017-06-02T23:40:09.049+10:00| vthread-7| I125: CnxConnectAuthd: Returning false because CnxAuthdConnect failed

2017-06-02T23:40:09.049+10:00| vthread-7| I125: Cnx_Connect: Returning false because CnxConnectAuthd failed

2017-06-02T23:40:09.049+10:00| vthread-7| I125: Cnx_Connect: Error message: Failed to read vmware-authd port number: Cannot connect to VMX: F:\VMWare\Win10B\Win10B.vmx

2017-06-02T23:40:09.049+10:00| vthread-7| I125:

2017-06-02T23:40:09.049+10:00| vthread-7| I125: Vix: [1120 foundryVMPowerOps.c:5940]: Error VIX_E_HOST_TCP_SOCKET_ERROR in FoundryVMOpenSocketToVMXThroughAuthd(): unable to contact authd: Failed to read vmware-authd port number: Cannot connect to VMX: F:\VMWare\Win10B\Win10B.vmx

2017-06-02T23:40:09.049+10:00| vthread-7| I125:

2017-06-02T23:40:09.097+10:00| vigorCnx| I125: VTHREAD start thread 7 "vigorCnx" host id 892

2017-06-02T23:40:09.127+10:00| vmui| I125: SnapshotTree: Emitting refresh (F:\VMWare\Win10B\Win10B.vmx)

2017-06-02T23:40:09.148+10:00| vmui| I125: FILE: FileCreateDirectoryRetry: Non-retriable error encountered (C:\ProgramData\VMware): Cannot create a file when that file already exists (183)

2017-06-02T23:40:09.157+10:00| vmui| I125: Setting power state poweredOff

2017-06-02T23:40:09.475+10:00| vigorCnx| I125: VigorOfflineGetToolsVersion: updated tools version to 2826

2017-06-02T23:40:09.522+10:00| vmui| I125: cui::VMMKS::OnVMStateChanged: alive = 0

2017-06-02T23:40:09.524+10:00| vmui| I125: wui::ipc::CUnityHelper::Connect: Creating connection-ready notification event, name: {4E38F789-D310-437E-B9E7-2371727ABF8E}

2017-06-02T23:40:09.524+10:00| vmui| I125: wui::ipc::CUnityHelper::LaunchDaemon: Running cmd line: "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Workstation\vmware-unity-helper.exe" -d -e:{4E38F789-D310-437E-B9E7-2371727ABF8E}

2017-06-02T23:40:09.640+10:00| vmui| I125: cui::VMBindingUnityMgr::OnGuestCanRunUnityChanged: The guest is a supported version of Windows, checking Tools status. Version status: 5, running status: 3

2017-06-02T23:40:09.640+10:00| vmui| I125: cui::VMBindingUnityMgr::OnGuestCanRunUnityChanged: Tools status is not INSTALLED

2017-06-02T23:40:09.661+10:00| vmui| I125: VMMgr: Finished opening VM at /vm/#201625e0e6c7cbea/ from F:\VMWare\Win10B\Win10B.vmx

2017-06-02T23:40:09.686+10:00| vmui| I125: CVMUIApp::OpenTabInt: opened F:\VMWare\Win10B\Win10B.vmx

2017-06-02T23:40:09.686+10:00| vmui| I125: Switched to tab: F:\VMWare\Win10B\Win10B.vmx

2017-06-02T23:40:09.691+10:00| vmui| I125: SnapshotTree: Populating (F:\VMWare\Win10B\Win10B.vmx)

2017-06-02T23:40:09.761+10:00| vmui| I125: wui::control::MKSPanel::UpdateMKSLayout: MKS view is not initialized or not rendering.

2017-06-02T23:40:09.761+10:00| vmui| I125: wui::control::MKSPanel::UpdateMKSLayout: MKS view is not initialized or not rendering.

2017-06-02T23:40:09.761+10:00| vmui| I125: wui::control::MKSPanel::UpdateMKSLayout: MKS view is not initialized or not rendering.

2017-06-02T23:40:09.794+10:00| vmui| I125: CVMUIFrame::OnGuestTopologyChanged: Passing main UI rect: 0x0 @ 0,0

2017-06-02T23:40:09.794+10:00| vmui| I125: cui::MKSScreenWindowCoordinator::HandleGuestTopologyChange: main UI rect: 0x0 @ 0,0

2017-06-02T23:40:09.794+10:00| vmui| I125: cui::MKSScreenWindowCoordinator::HandleGuestTopologyChange: Found 0 present screens

2017-06-02T23:40:09.794+10:00| vmui| I125: cui::MKSScreenWindowCoordinator::HandleGuestTopologyChange: Windows for extra guest monitors will not be shown

2017-06-02T23:40:09.794+10:00| vmui| I125: cui::MKSScreenWindowCoordinator::HandleGuestTopologyChange: setting main view to all displays

2017-06-02T23:40:09.876+10:00| vmui| I125: VMHSGetDataFileKey: Could not get the dataFileKey from VMDB

2017-06-02T23:40:09.878+10:00| vmui| I125: VMHSGetDataFileKey: Could not get the dataFileKey from VMDB

2017-06-02T23:40:09.910+10:00| vmui| I125: VMHSGetDataFileKey: Could not get the dataFileKey from VMDB

2017-06-02T23:41:44.179+10:00| vmui| I125: VMHSVMCbPower: F:\VMWare\Win10B\Win10B.vmx, Setting state of VM to powerOn with option soft

[bluefirestorm]

Unfortunately, those error lines might just be a red herring as I see those, too.

Even if I deliberately stop the VMware Authorization Services before starting the UI and powering on a VM, it looks like there isn't anything obvious from the vmware-ui-nnnn.log. This is what I see, I took a pause before clicking on the UAC prompt after clicking on "Power On" but nothing in between the ui log entries to suggest anything.

2017-06-04T11:12:53.439+08:00| vmui| I125: CVMUIApp::MenuButtonClicked: 10420 D:\ESXi\ESXi65\VMware ESXi 6.5.vmx

2017-06-04T11:13:02.598+08:00| vmui| I125: VMHSVMCbPower: D:\ESXi\ESXi65\VMware ESXi 6.5.vmx, Setting state of VM to powerOn with option soft

You may have to check the Application and System Event logs if there is anything wrong with the startup of the VMware Authorization Service.

[admin]

Could you answer whether your VM is configured to use a physical disk and whether this happens with every VM you try to power on?

[ronzul]

Thanks guys!

jameslin, great question regarding the physical disk, and I have been using one as a data drive. As an experiment, I removed the physical drive from the VM configuration, rebooted the host and the UAC prompt did not appear! I tried a few times alternating with the physical drive included and excluded, and it was consistent.

With the (and only with the) physical drive included, did the UAC prompt appear.

I couldn't work out why this issue only started happening weeks ago, and now it makes sense. It must have started happening when I added the physical drive to the configuration.

And bfs, I think you're right. The errors appear in the log file even during the experiment, with the physical drive not in the configuration.

Okay, feels like there is a bit of momentum now! Any other ideas or tips would be most appreciated.

Cheers

Ronny