VM’s DNS registration deleted when VMware tools is updated

[julezatmortonbu]

vCenter Server 5.1.0 Build 1123961

ESXi 5.1.0 Build 1483097

VM Hardware version 9

vmxnet3 driver

We are seeing an issue where when we update VMware Tools the A-record on our DNS server is removed for that VM.  The only way to resolve the issue is to "ipconfig /registerdns" which I feel is find for a band-aid, but not a good solution.
It seems as though others have had this same issue in the past without any real VMware resolution.

VM’s DNS registration deleted when upgrade VMtools

[DavoudTeimouri]

Hi,

Do you use static IP address for the VM?

[zXi_Gamer]

Can you confirm if the value "isolation.tools.setinfo.disable" is present in the vmx file of the VM?

[julezatmortonbu]

Yes DavoudTeimouri we use static IPs for the VM and have set the Primary and Secondary DNS servers manually.

[julezatmortonbu]

Unfortunately zXi_Gamer I can't view the ones we know we had problems with since this was in a production environment that this occurred and the machines are currently active, plus those have already been updated.  I'm working on recovering a storage snapshot of that volume so I can look at that vmx file.  I've looked at all inactive VMs on the same cluster and I don't even see that value in the vmx file.

[homerzzz]

You can download the vmx file from the datastore and view it while the VM is on and active. It will not affect the vm.

[julezatmortonbu]

It would not let me download the vmx file while the VM was running.  I get File operation failed every time I try.  I'm still not sure if the current files would be overly helpful anyway.

I did get the old storage snapshot of that volume prior to the VMware Tools update.  I pulled the vmx file for 3 separate servers that we had the issue for, 2 of them were on VM Hardware version 9 one was on 7.

None of which have the "isolation.tools.setinfo.disable" value.

[julezatmortonbu]

Also another update to this, we did another set of servers yesterday evening and did not see this occur.

Something I left out initially was the strangest part I believe.

We have two linked vcenter instances which both manage a separate cluster, one is at our HQ location one is at our Colo facility.  The two locations are routed over a layer 2 private 200mb pipe so they can communicate with each other.

All hosts/vcenter versions are the same.  We have 2 DCs at our HQ and 2 DCs at our Colo.  All DCs are 2008 R2.  The only physical DC we have is 1 at our HQ the rest are virtual.

The VMs that we saw this occur on are in our colo facility with the primary and secondary DNS servers being the 2 DCs at the colo.  All these VMs are static IPs with manual DNS servers and send DNS updates of course, nothing fancy.

Since we saw the DNS problem on the first two servers we tried, we decided to watch the DNS entries as we did the rest.

The A-records that disappeared first were the ones at the HQ location, not the ones at our colo, which makes this even stranger.

[cwriordan]

this issue also occurs after the VMware tools upgrade after ESXi is upgraded from version 5.5 to 6.0u1

[Roman76]

Did anyone find a solution?

Same here, DNS entries got deleted after upgrading VMware Tools (latest 5.5 U3)

Thanks

Roman

[memaad]

Hello Folks,

Has anyone found root cause of this issue, we are seeing similar issue in our Environment ?

VMware Support pointing to this MS patch is does not seems to be related to our problem, however I would like to share it with you all. As we dont make any changes to DNS server settings or assignment !!

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2520155

Any suggestion or thoughts ?

Regards

Mohammed Emaad Damudi

[CrashDodson]

Seeing this issue on esxi 6 update 3 build 6921384 as well.  Anyone find a solution for this?

[andrew_uk]

Hello,

Did any ever get an answer about this issue? 

[andrew_uk]

Hello,

Did anyone ever get an answer about this?

[mhzhou]

Earlier, this issue happened during tools upgrade because old vmxnet3 driver was removed first before new vmxnet3 driver was installed in issue cases. We have made some code consolidation in 10.3.10 tools and have not seen any issue reported from field again since.

[andrew_uk]

Hello, we are seeing this often whilst upgrading from 11.2.6 to 11.3.5

[mhzhou]

Could you please file an SR to VMware with tools upgrade logs? we also need C:\Windows\INF\setupapi.dev.log. Thanks!

[fvops]

this issue still occurs on esxi 7 -- just today, we ran into it when upgrading from vmtools 12320 to 12325. has there been any progress on a fix? i'm going to submit an SR, but also wanted to keep the thread alive for the benefit of other vmware users.