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silverbios
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Shared VM gone in workstation 16!

After installing version 16, I realized that the Shared-VM feature was removed and there is no "hostd" service on Linux but in windows "hostd" exist but there is not any section for configuration in GUI or CLI!

this a bug or completely removed!?

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real_skydiver
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Good decision 🙂

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Midnite630
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How can I get my shared machines back to normal? If I try to open the VM I get a message "Locally open shared VM "Server.vmx" is not allowed."

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real_skydiver
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Switch back to v15!

dejanrodiger
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VMWare Workstation 15.5.7 is released with a fix for Shared VMs problem on V15.5. It is not added back to V16 🙂

It took them only ~5 months

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Workstation-Pro/15.5/rn/VMware-Workstation-1557-Pro-Release-Notes....

 

  • Not able to power on the virtual machine that is running on the old version of VMware Workstation or VMware ESXi Server by connecting to the server

    When connecting to old version of VMware Workstation or VMware ESXi Servers to power on a remoting virtual machine, the following error displays:

    Unable to connect to the MKS: vim.fault.GenericVmConfigFault.

    This issue is resolved.

  • The VMware Workstation shared virtual machine cannot work on the Ubuntu20.04 host

    The VMware Workstation UI crashed on the Ubuntu20.04 host when receiving remoting connection request to access the shared virtual machine.

    This issue is resolved

 

-- Dejan
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munrobasher
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Yeah just had the prompt to install the latest v15.x version. Anyone know when v15 is EOL?

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wila
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Munrobasher,

One more month (2020/12/19)
See: https://lifecycle.vmware.com/#/

 

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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munrobasher
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Ohh well, it's been good whilst it lasted. History is littered with companies who appeared to commit commercial suicide. Doubt this one will bring them down but it leaves a sour taste when you come to renewal time.

Mikero
Community Manager
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FYI, we brought the feature back in Workstation 16.1 which shipped last night.

Not sure why the other PM didn't blog about it, but the UI for it is back (for Windows at least).

-
Michael Roy - Product Marketing Engineer: VCF
Nukeischia
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Not really... You can only managed already exist VMs, and not create a new shared VM in the new VMware Workstation 16.10.0

What is the alternative?

- I buy ESXi-Licence and create a ESXi-Server over my VMware Workstatation 16 and than migrate my exist Shared-VMs in my ESXi? The Peformance from a virtualization in a virtualization is horrible.

- I switch to Hyper-V.

- I buy a Bare-Metal Server.

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silverbios
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good news for a limited time, Share VM back in 16.1 version!
thanks, WS team for listening to our feedback.

WS.png

KrisLinux
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Hi Michael,

I've been planning the spending on mass VM Workstation lic. upgrades for my team to version 16.x, but we've just discovered that the feature of SharedVMs is still missing in the Linux edition.

Please advise with the solid date on when you will restore this crucial feature of Shared VMs into Linux edition of Vmware Workstation 16.x line in order to help us with proper planning around this activity.

Cheers, K.

wila
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Hi,

Just as a FYI, vimarun has now been released.


If you are still searching for an alternative to automatically run and suspend VM's on a Windows host, then vimarun might be able to help you out.

As it was released today and as we're in holiday season, there's a 30% discount until the end of this month.

More details are available over at: https://www.vimarun.com

cheers!
--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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KrisLinux
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Thank you, but I think it was clearly stated that care only about Linux in this case and missing Shared VMs on Linux editions is blocking our upgrades to version 16.x., so please spare the MsWin workarounds while being out of scope and please someone to comit the date when the SharedVMs/remotelly available&manageable VMs crucial feature is coming back to Vmware Workstation on Linux.

If there is no Shared VMs on Linux ever back, then we stay with current VMW versions on our Linux powered notebooks fleet and simply start planning the migration to ProxmoxVE/CE for next year in order to have them running accordingly to our business needs instead of having such strange Vmware surprises.

ElCoyote_
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I just downloaded VMware 16.1 trial and 'Shared VMs' does not seem to exist, nor does 'hostd'.

This is a huge turndown, will have to migrate the rest of my VMs from VMW to KVM.

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ElCoyote_
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Could we get the feature back in Linux as well? Please.

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KrisLinux
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!!! Removed and Missing Shared VMs on Linux !!!

- anyone willing to fix it and share this feature solid restoration date or we are done with Workstation 16+ for good?

Please reply or we go with KVM/Proxmoxes starting next year, which is just in 1 month.

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wila
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KrisLinux,

Note that I do not work for VMware, but I do not think "or else" statements work in a public forum. It "might" work while working directly with your VMware sales engineer, but only if there's like millions of revenue directly connected.

VMware normally does not make any statements about future features, that has been company policy since forever.
It is rarely broken (it happens, just not often).

Proxmox/KVM works great (I run it myself), but it's not exactly the same thing as VMware Workstation, it is more closely akin to vSphere than Workstation. Note that vSphere - even the free Hypervisor version - does offer features similar to shared VMs.

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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Paolo_Fabio_Zai
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This is a big turndown on VMWare, will have to migrate everything to KVM now. 

Can someone explain please why Workstation Pro on Linux has no more shared VMs? That was THE Pro feature on WS...

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dejanrodiger
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Rollback to 15.5.7. The only Workstation Pro that has Shared VM that works. And than plan migration.

-- Dejan
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BH321
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This has turned into a fairly large issue in our environment running linux. Reading this thread I was under the impression Workstation Server was re-enabled for 16.1x and future 16 baseline releases. However, this seems true on windows based releases but not linux.

Please see below component listing from the command line in linux. You'll notice "vmware-workstation VMware Workstation" is only present in the 15.5x release.

If I got all this right, marking this thread as solved is misleading as the solutions do not apply to the entire officially supported product line.

Are there any plans to release a linux version of Workstation Pro 16 with Workstation Server?

 

# vmware-installer -l
Product Name Product Version
==================== ====================
vmware-workstation 16.1.0.17198959
# vmware-installer -t
Component Name Component Long Name Component Version
============================== ================================================= ====================
vmware-installer VMware Installer 3.0.0.17198959
vmware-player-setup VMware Player Setup 16.1.0.17198959
vmware-usbarbitrator VMware USB Arbitrator 19.9.0.17198959
vmware-network-editor VMware Network Editor 16.1.0.17198959
vmware-vmx VMware VMX 16.1.0.17198959
vmware-virtual-printer VMware Virtual Printer 1.0.17198959
vmware-tools-linuxPreGlibc25 VMware Tools for legacy Linux 11.1.5.17198959
vmware-tools-linux VMware Tools for Linux 11.1.5.17198959
vmware-tools-netware VMware Tools for NetWare 11.1.5.17198959
vmware-tools-solaris VMware Tools for Solaris 11.1.5.17198959
vmware-tools-winPre2k VMware Tools for Windows 95, 98, Me and NT 11.1.5.17198959
vmware-tools-winPreVista VMware Tools for Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 11.1.5.17198959
vmware-tools-windows VMware Tools for Windows Vista or later 11.1.5.17198959
vmware-player-app VMware Player Application 16.1.0.17198959
vmware-ovftool VMware OVF Tool component for Linux 4.4.1.17198959
vmware-network-editor-ui VMware Network Editor User Interface 16.1.0.17198959
vmware-vix-core VMware VIX Core Library 1.17.0.17198959
vmware-vix-lib-Workstation1600 VMware VIX Workstation-16.0.0 Library 1.17.0.17198959
vmware-vprobe VMware VProbes component for Linux 16.1.0.17198959
vmware-workstation VMware Workstation 16.1.0.17198959

==[EDIT: uninstalled 16.1, installed 15.5]==

# vmware-installer -l
Product Name Product Version
==================== ====================
vmware-workstation 15.5.7.17171714
# vmware-installer -t
Component Name Component Long Name Component Version
============================== ================================================= ====================
vmware-installer VMware Installer 3.0.0.17171714
vmware-player-setup VMware Player Setup 15.5.7.17171714
vmware-usbarbitrator VMware USB Arbitrator 19.5.0.17171714
vmware-network-editor VMware Network Editor 15.5.7.17171714
vmware-vmx VMware VMX 15.5.7.17171714
vmware-virtual-printer VMware Virtual Printer 1.0.17171714
vmware-tools-linuxPreGlibc25 VMware Tools for legacy Linux 11.0.6.17171714
vmware-tools-linux VMware Tools for Linux 11.0.6.17171714
vmware-tools-netware VMware Tools for NetWare 11.0.6.17171714
vmware-tools-solaris VMware Tools for Solaris 11.0.6.17171714
vmware-tools-winPre2k VMware Tools for Windows 95, 98, Me and NT 11.0.6.17171714
vmware-tools-winPreVista VMware Tools for Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003 11.0.6.17171714
vmware-tools-windows VMware Tools for Windows Vista or later 11.0.6.17171714
vmware-player-app VMware Player Application 15.5.7.17171714
vmware-ovftool VMware OVF Tool component for Linux 4.4.0.17171714
vmware-network-editor-ui VMware Network Editor User Interface 15.5.7.17171714
vmware-workstation-server VMware Workstation Server 15.5.7.17171714
vmware-vix-core VMware VIX Core Library 1.17.0.17171714
vmware-vix-lib-Workstation1500 VMware VIX Workstation-15.0.0 Library 1.17.0.17171714
vmware-vprobe VMware VProbes component for Linux 15.5.7.17171714
vmware-workstation VMware Workstation 15.5.7.17171714
#