Vmware Workstation Server cannot be started

[MartinF12]

I think that there is something wrong in the installation of Workstation Server component. I'm trying to start it through services in Windows, but I am unable to do so (Service cannot start) because the configuration files are really not well-formed:

This is form the hostd log:

2018-11-07T11:15:42.354+01:00 panic hostd[04896] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] error: class Vmacore::Xml::XMLParseException(not well-formed (invalid token))

If I look into the files in ProgramData\hostd\*.xml . some of them are binary, so definitely not a correct format. I tried to reinstall (Workstation 14) and also upgrade to Workstation 15.

What can I do know?

[MartinF12]

Maybe I am further now - I deleted the files proxy.xml and datastores.xml (this seemed to be newly created now and in good format).

Now if I want to connect from Workstation to Workstation Server with "Enable sharing" button in Preferences, I am getting the following error. This does not look nice (URL namespace /sdk dopes not match any server namespace).

2018-11-07T11:48:02.094+01:00 info hostd[17580] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] Win32 service running

2018-11-07T11:48:02.094+01:00 info hostd[17580] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] ServiceControlCodes handling enabled

2018-11-07T11:48:02.094+01:00 verbose hostd[17580] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] No upgrade required.

2018-11-07T11:48:02.095+01:00 verbose hostd[17580] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] Running AutoPowerOn task...

2018-11-07T11:48:02.095+01:00 verbose hostd[17580] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] AutoPowerOn skipped! Already executed after the last system start!

2018-11-07T11:48:02.095+01:00 info hostd[17580] [Originator@6876 sub=Default] BEGIN SERVICES

2018-11-07T11:48:02.095+01:00 verbose hostd[17580] [Originator@6876 sub=PropertyProvider] RecordOp ASSIGN: latestEvent, ha-eventmgr. Applied change to temp map.

2018-11-07T11:48:02.095+01:00 info hostd[17580] [Originator@6876 sub=Vimsvc.ha-eventmgr] Event 2 : VMware Host Agent started on host DESKTOP-E3PDTSL.

2018-11-07T11:48:02.095+01:00 info hostd[17580] [Originator@6876 sub=ThreadPool] Main thread queue created.

2018-11-07T11:48:02.109+01:00 verbose hostd[14304] [Originator@6876 sub=Proxy Req 00000] New proxy client <SSL(<io_obj p:0x03147ff0, h:1612, <TCP '127.0.0.1 : 443'>, <TCP '127.0.0.1 : 2022'>>)>

2018-11-07T11:48:02.110+01:00 info hostd[20416] [Originator@6876 sub=Proxy Req 00000] URL namespace /sdk/vimServiceVersions.xml does not match any server namespace

2018-11-07T11:48:02.110+01:00 info hostd[20416] [Originator@6876 sub=ThreadPool] Spawning additional worker - allocated: 10, idle: 2

2018-11-07T11:48:02.110+01:00 info hostd[20220] [Originator@6876 sub=ThreadPool] Thread enlisted

2018-11-07T11:48:02.110+01:00 info hostd[20220] [Originator@6876 sub=ThreadPool] Entering worker thread loop

2018-11-07T11:48:02.117+01:00 verbose hostd[04280] [Originator@6876 sub=Proxy Req 00001] New proxy client <SSL(<io_obj p:0x03148170, h:1604, <TCP '::1 : 443'>, <TCP '::1 : 2023'>>)>

2018-11-07T11:48:02.118+01:00 info hostd[08196] [Originator@6876 sub=Proxy Req 00001] URL namespace /sdk/vimService?wsdl does not match any server namespace

2018-11-07T11:48:02.144+01:00 verbose hostd[20416] [Originator@6876 sub=Proxy Req 00002] New proxy client <SSL(<io_obj p:0x031485f0, h:1612, <TCP '::1 : 443'>, <TCP '::1 : 2024'>>)>

2018-11-07T11:48:02.145+01:00 info hostd[20220] [Originator@6876 sub=Proxy Req 00002] URL namespace /sdk does not match any server namespace

[MartinF12]

This seemed to be due to the missing proxy.xml and its reverse proxy settings. Can somebody send me proxy.xml for a Windows environment for Workstation 14 please? This is not a nice bug 😕

[MartinF12 · Accepted solution]

So basically, Workstation Pro is screwing up the proxy.xml file with null values and then it cannot boot up.

What I did to extract proxy.xml from vmware installation file:

1) Extracting EXE to MSI (run the installation, go to temp directory)

2) Extract contents from MSI file with msiexec (check params on web)

3) copy proxy.xml to C:\ProgramData\vmware\hostd\proxy.xml

4) Change HTTP port to 80 and HTTPS port to 443

5) Set datastores in Shared VMs

6) DONE

Vmware I am sorry but this is a very strange bug, I dont have any antivirus software, so nothing is sitting between your Workstation and file system. Hopefully this helps somebody.