Why do my VM's (x 2) power off?

[Skynet007]

This is really starting to get to me.  My VM's are powering off (crashing off) regularly.

VM HOST: Windows Server 2008 R2 64 bit SP1 (New server), running Vmware Workstation 9

VM GUESTS :

- Windows 2003 Server 32-bit Sp2 (3year old server, recently P2V for occassional archival access)

- Windows 7 Pro 64 bit Sp1 (Application testing)

ISSUE

VM's boot and run fine, then later both are shutdown.  The vm guest logs show that both VM's are shut off at the same time, so this must be caused by the VM host server.

ATTEMPTED FIXES:

Browse the net for loooong hrs...

Remove WS 9 and install WS8

Remove all unused hardware from VMs.

Combed all the Event Viewer logs on the host server for clues, but these are clean.

The essential errors that appear in both VM logs near the time they go offline is:

2013-04-26T14:36:56.058+08:00| vmx| I120: Hostinfo_OpenProcessBits: OpenProcess access bits are 1000.
2013-04-26T14:36:56.839+08:00| vmx| I120: VmdbPipeStreamsOvlError Couldn't read: (109) The pipe has been ended.
2013-04-26T14:36:56.839+08:00| vmx| I120: VmdbCnxDisconnect: Disconnect: closed pipe for pub cnx '/db/connection/#1/' (-32)
2013-04-26T14:36:56.845+08:00| vmx| I120: VmdbDbRemoveCnx: Removing Cnx from Db for '/db/connection/#1/'
2013-04-26T14:36:56.855+08:00| mks| I120: MKS-SWB: Number of MKSWindows changed: 0 rendering MKSWindow(s) of total 1.
2013-04-26T14:36:56.855+08:00| mks| I120: MKS: Base polling period is 1000000us
2013-04-26T14:36:56.855+08:00| mks| I120: MKS-SWB: Number of MKSWindows changed: 0 rendering MKSWindow(s) of total 0.
2013-04-26T14:36:57.097+08:00| vmx| I120: SOCKET 1 (648) recv error 10054: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host
2013-04-26T14:36:57.097+08:00| vmx| I120: Vix: [25980 mainDispatch.c:2967]: VMAutomation: Connection Error (1) on connection 0.

After starting the VM's I usually close Vmware Workstation and run the VM's in the back ground, then log off my Windows session.  Could this be the problem?  I am going to test this by leaving Workstation running along with my Windows login session.

I have attached the log files for the most recent VM crashes.

If anyone has any suggestions on troubleshooting further, feel free to post 😄

[a_p_ · Accepted solution]

... then log off my Windows session.

VMware Workstation and the VMs by default run in the user context, so logging off will close VMware Workstation and the VMs. With VMware Workstation 8, VMware introduced "Shared Virtual Machines" which may be what you need. These shared VM's run in the system context and are independent of a logged on user.

André

[Skynet007]

Thanks!  You beat me to it...I read some further posts and found this out.  After using so much daemon like software over the years, I completely overlooked that these VM's are not running as a service! :smileyblush: