VMW8 - "could not find environment browser on remote host. This is most likely caused by an unresponsive host"

[gcoleman]

Hello,

I just recently got back into VMW as version 8 supposedly supports the Auto start and hopefully Auto Shutdown of running VM's, just like the good old VMWare Server 1 and 2x, which have been abandoned.

I placed a VM into the VMShare, set it up to run at the Host Startup. I rebooted my server and noticed that the VM did not start at all. When clicking on the VM in the GUI I get this error:

"could not find environment browser on remote host. This is most likely caused by an unresponsive host."

I googled that error and found nothing. Not sure what I did, but the VM does start manually still, but I really want the Auto Startup as a service.

Thanks for any guidance!

[Felix-The-Cat]

Hello gcoleman,

Thanks for posting and sorry to hear you have a problem with WS 8.

To speed-up investigation, could you please give us more info regarding:

1. Host config -OS, CPU,RAM...

2. Are you upgraded to Workstation 8 (from ...?I) or just clean install?

3. "I placed a VM into the VMShare" - means you "Share" a VM

4. "set it up to run at the Host Startup" - means you check matching checkbox in Configure Autostart" Dialog Window.

5. Did you notice "Delay" spinbox? It set to 120 sec. by default.

-- I  rebooted my server and noticed that the VM did not start at all. When  clicking on the VM in the GUI I get this error

6. Could you please attach UI Log (Help->About->UI log file) and the vmware.log file from the VM's directory.

---------------

Cheers

[gcoleman]

Thanks for the reply.

1. AMD Phenom II x4 955

16gigs ram

Win 2008 R2 with Sp1

2. No upgrade. I have VMWare Server 2.x (highest). Uninstalled, rebooted, installed VMW8, rebooted.

3. Yes it is now in the Share section of VMW8

4. I believe that is correct. Cannot confirm as the "Share" section is broken now so I cannot add or remove the "damaged" VM. The same VM does however start fine in the regular area. Sorry about the terminology here, things are not familiar in this new version.

5. Delay as in the default 120 seconds between starting another VM?

* I also installed the vSphere 5.0 client hoping that i could connect and then alter which VM's start and in which order. That did connect but some expired licesne issue came up as I do not have a license for the vSphere client. So i just stopped using that.

6 Log file attached

[admin]

Hi gcoleman,

I am not too sure if this will help, however I just ran into that same error.  In my case, I had recently built a single ESXi 4 host and loaded it with 7 VMs.  I had recently tied this host to a vCenter environment and before I had disconnected and removed it, I placed the host into Maintenance Mode.  Then I opened up VMW8 and then tried to connect to the ESXi host. When I clicked on the first VM:

Unable to open virtual machine TEST_MACHINE01: Could not find environment browser on remote host. This is most likely caused by an unresponsive host.

So I tried clicking on the 2nd VM:

Unable to open virtual machine TEST_MACHINE02: Could not find environment browser on remote host. This is most likely caused by an unresponsive host.

Hmm..Then I realized I still had the Host in Maintenance Mode.  After exiting Maintenance Mode, all 7 VMs came racing up to their desktop, automatically no less.

Could your server perhaps be in Mainetenance Mode too?