VMW8 and 9 Destroys/Corrupts Win7 VM in Shared Mode

[gcoleman]

Hello,

I moved from VMW7 to VMW8 (Eventually to 9 today) and have a very odd problem. I have a Windows 7 x64 Ultimate VM that I created and it works just fine as long as the VM is in the Unshared folder area. All my VM's work fine here. When I move this one Win 7 VM to the Shared Folder to make it run as a Server/Service the VM starts, never gets to any bios or windows splash screen, and never starts. I have to force power off the VM. Moving the VM back to the UNShared folder will start the VM but winodws will go into Safe Mode and claim the OS needs to inact a Restore Point, doing this results in nothing, the VM is destroyed.

Any ideas? I created a new Windows 7 VM and it runs fine in Shared or Unshared mode on VMW8 or 9, but I really would like to save this corrupted WIN7 unit for two reasons:

1. If it happens to a more serious VM I am worried about using this product.

2. This Win7 VM took a while to build with all its apps.

Thanks

[stiger]

Hello,

1. What is the host OS?

2. Could you provde log files, please

3. Instead of sharing the orginal VM, could you try to clone it first.

[gcoleman]

Host OS is Windows 2008 R2 SP1

Where do I find the log files to submit?

When the VM is offlline I will try to clone and share it as you suggested.

Thanks for the reply.

[stiger]

I have couple more questions:

1. How the VM was shared: moved or cloned?

2. What is the hardware version of the shared VM?

[stiger]

Please finde the logs at the following locations:

UI log – ‘Disk:\Users\’User name’\AppData\Local\Temp\vmware-‘user name’

VMX log – ‘Disk’:\’Shared VM folder’\’VM name’\vmware

Hostd log – ‘Disk’:\ProgramData\VMware\hostd

[gcoleman]

Created clone of VM

Powered on VM

VM hangs at about the 90-95% range, prior to VM Bios or OS

VM Corrupted

Should I provide those logs for that VM in that state? After corruption?

Please finde the logs at the following locations:

UI log – ‘Disk:\Users\’User name’\AppData\Local\Temp\vmware-‘user name’ EMPTY but folder found

VMX log – ‘Disk’:\’Shared VM folder’\’VM name’\vmware - Should I provide the log here after or before corruption of VM?

Hostd log – ‘Disk’:\ProgramData\VMware\hostd - No file exists except "hostd-gos-vmsg-esx-build"

Thanks!

[Felix-The-Cat]

Should I provide those logs for that VM in that state? After corruption?

Yes, please, replicate ALL steps and save log after FINAL results, but before closing WS UI.

UI log – ‘Disk:\Users\’User name’\AppData\Local\Temp\vmware-‘user name’ EMPTY but folder found

Easy way to find and Save UI Log:

- Open WS UI

- Copy: Menu Help->About WS-> UI Log file path

- Start->Run-> Paste and open

Hostd log – ‘Disk’:\ProgramData\VMware\hostd - No file exists except "hostd-gos-vmsg-esx-build"

File name should be like "hostd-#.log" or "hostd-#.gz"

****************

Cheers,

FTC

[gcoleman]

Thanks for that info about the logs, was able to find the UI logs (attached).

Still no luck on the HOSTD logs, searched the entire system.

***Update - Created a brand new, from scratch, WIndows 7 VM from the MS ISO, this is their Win7 disk with SP1 appled.

Created the VM as normal.

Ran fine, all updates within Win7 OS

Cloned it

Shared it

Started VM, same issue.

The odd thing is this is my only AMD server that I have, all the rest are Intels

The AMD machine/server is using VMW 9 now, still the same issue.

[continuum]

2012-08-26T12:13:44.170-07:00| vthread-6| I120: SNAPSHOT: Snapshot_Consolidate failed: The specified virtual disk needs repair (5)

did you try to move a VM with a hot snapshot from Intel to AMD host ?

or did you move/copy the VM from Intel to AMD while it was suspended ?

[gcoleman]

I think those errors were from a Win7 machine I was testing an app on. When I did a live snapshot it was that way for hours so I forced killed VMW9 service.

The original problematic VM came from the same AMD system, I think it was from VMW7.

Plus, the new VM I created today is exhibiting the same issues. Works fine unshared, dies if shared, and this was a completely fresh install of WIn7 straight from the DVD ISO image.

[continuum]

I can confirm the problem - sharing  a VM that was created in earlier versions can destroy the VM. -

Reproduce like this:

1. open an existing VM
2. share it by moving it from another disk to shared location
3. start VM  - that was enough - I got first "virtual disk needs repair" errors

next I unshared it again by moving it inside the same disk - started it again and the "disk needs repair" errors disappeared again
shared it again by moving inside the same disk and this time the VM crashed with

VMware Workstation unrecoverable error: (mks)

Exception 0xc000008e  has occurred.

Attached something to work with

[gcoleman]

Would you by chance have the time to create a brand new Windows 7 VM, then test Unshared to see if it works? If so, then move to Shared and see if it corrupts?

I can get this to happen 100% of the time, but I have a couple Linux/Unix VM's (Opsview, PFSense) that do NOT corrupt if moved to the Shared area. Also I have not tried a Win 2008 server as of late nor a Windows XP system.

Wondering if this is a particular problem with certain operating system VM's.

[gcoleman]

So has this been abandoned and only happening to 2 of us? I am still having this problem but not sure if it is the VM itself or something else. I have tried creating a new Win 7 VM and it does not seem to exhibit the same problem.