Tools upgrade causes host DRS failure

[Oakland]

When upgrading the VMWARE tools on a virtual machine the operation times out. And the host which it resides on recieves error "Unable to apply DRS resource settings on host '....' in ... (Reason: A general system error occured.) I then cannot reset the virtual machine and have to reset the host with the virtual machine running in order to reconnect. I can recreate this problem again and again. Any suggestions? I am running VC 2.5 and ESX 3.5. Also if anyone can answer what is upgraded with the new tools that would be helpful as well.

Thanks.

[dmorgan]

What OS is this machine running, and have you tried the non-automatic install where you can see on the console what is happening?

Don

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[Oakland]

W2003 Enterprise SP2. Yes the non-automatic install yields the same result.

[Oakland]

The problems seems to occur when installing the network adaptor "vmxnet" when using the interactive install it hangs. Leaving it openand rebooting the tools were now "OK".

[dmorgan]

Was this an import, template, or fresh install of windows? I had an instance once where I downloaded the Windows 2003 SP2 30-day trial pre-built applicance from the VMWare web site and set it up. Whenever I installed the Tools, the mouse ceased to work. I had to install the tools, reboot, remove the VMWare mouse drive and install the normal mouse driver, and reboot for it to work. This only occurred when i used this appliance, however, fresh installs and imports all worked flawlessly.

-Don

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[Oakland]

It was a template. I could make a new template but this doesn't help my machines with the old tools already installed.

[dmorgan]

OK, may be on to something here. Just as a test, see if you make a new VM from scratch, not a template, and then install the tools. If it works, then the template is the problem. I know that doesn't solve the existing systems, but at least you know where the source of the problem lies. Then go from there. Otherwise, you now the template is good, and something else is th culprit.

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[Gene_H]

dpmorgan,

I just had the same "no mouse" problem with a Windows 2003 SP2 30-trial pre-built Microsoft virtual server guest that I used vm converter on to import it into a vm guest. When vmtools installed, the mouse disappeared from the guest console. Using your advice, I went into the control panel, mouse, advanced, drivers and uninstalled the vmware mouse driver. The guest rebooted and the mouse is back. I have to use CTRL ALT to free the mouse from the console window, but hey, at least I have a mouse now!

Thanks again!

[dmorgan]

Good to hear. It's not as good as using the VMWare mouse driver, it can be a tad jerky, but as you said, at least it works. It's a 30-day trial anyways, so who really cares. The only problem I would see is if you decide to purchase a license for that VM and change it from a trial to a full version. I would do a fresh install in that case rather than permanently activating the trial. It is really weird though, it took me ages to figure out the mouse issues.

-D-

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[mchoma]

Hi,

I was similar problem. My suggest and resolved problem was upgrading all of virtual machines on whole farm esx servers. Following steps to upgrade from version esx 3.0.x and virtual center 2.0.2 to esx 3.5.0 and virtual center 2.5:

1. Upgrade SQL 2005 to SQL with service pack 2

2. Upgrade Virtual Center 2.0.2 to version 2.5

3. All of ESX in whole farm should have the same patches wtih last patches

4. If you haven't got "service window" you should enter host to maintenance mode with moving all of virtual machines on it to the other hosts in farm (site)

5. After this you can upgrade esx to version 3.5.0 and after esxupdate -n update reboot host

6. You should repeat this steps to a rest hosts

7. MOST IMPORTANT all of virual machines must have status VMTOOLS OK. If still exist status ouf of date, you have problem with DRS

BestRegards

MC