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senbon
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Run Workstation VM In Vcenter 5

HI,

I am trying to run a VM in workstation, that is nested in VM created in Vcenter. I try to start the VM, but get the following message:

Running VMware Workstation in a virtual machine requires the outer virtual machine to be configured for running a VMware ESX guest operating system. You may not power on a virtual machine until the outer virtual machine is reconfigured.

I know you have to configure a file, but I could not see any documents on Workstation 7 configuration details.

Any help is really appreciated. (Workstation VM is linux, Vcenter vm is windows 2003)

Regards,

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admin
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Older versions of Workstation have a conflict between the VMware Tools libraries on the guest level and VMware Tools libraries on the host level.  Ideally, you would want to run both on the outer VM, since it is both a guest of the physical machine and a host of the nested VMs.  With Workstation 7, this was not possible.

Setting the monitor_control option I suggested earlier will disable VMware Tools at the guest level for the outer VM.  However, it looks like you have them installed, which will cause problems for VMware Tools at the host level.

You should power off the VM, remove the monitor_control option, power on the VM, uninstall VMware Tools, power off the VM, add the monitor_control option, power on the VM, and reinstall Workstation.  Then, I believe things should work.

Workstation 10 does not have these problems.

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senbon
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Hi dGeorgey,

I changed the option inside workstation, but to no avail. I only had the ESX server 4 choice.

Regards,

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vmroyale
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Note: Discussion successfully moved from VMware Workstation to Nested Virtualization

Brian Atkinson | vExpert | VMTN Moderator | Author of "VCP5-DCV VMware Certified Professional-Data Center Virtualization on vSphere 5.5 Study Guide: VCP-550" | @vmroyale | http://vmroyale.com
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admin
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What versions of ESXi and Workstation are you running?

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senbon
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Hi,

Workstation: 7.1.3 build-324285

VMware vCenter server: 5.1.0

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admin
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For that vintage of Workstation, you will need to add the following configuration option to the outer VM (the Windows 2003 VM):

monitor_control.restrict_backdoor = TRUE

With this option, you will not be able to use VMware Tools in the Windows 2003 VM.

If you upgrade Workstation, that setting should not be necessary.

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senbon
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Hi,

I managed to locate and add the recommend parameter to the configuration file under: edit settings > options > advanced general > and clicking on configuration file  and added a new row.

The vm tries to boot up, but fails with the following error:

could not get vmci driver version: the parameter is incorrect. you have an incorrect version of driver "vmci.sys". try reinstalling vmware workstation. module devicepoweron power failed.

Many thanks.

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admin
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Older versions of Workstation have a conflict between the VMware Tools libraries on the guest level and VMware Tools libraries on the host level.  Ideally, you would want to run both on the outer VM, since it is both a guest of the physical machine and a host of the nested VMs.  With Workstation 7, this was not possible.

Setting the monitor_control option I suggested earlier will disable VMware Tools at the guest level for the outer VM.  However, it looks like you have them installed, which will cause problems for VMware Tools at the host level.

You should power off the VM, remove the monitor_control option, power on the VM, uninstall VMware Tools, power off the VM, add the monitor_control option, power on the VM, and reinstall Workstation.  Then, I believe things should work.

Workstation 10 does not have these problems.

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senbon
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Thanks a bunch, really helpful.

Rgds,

Smiley Happy

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