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71rellimcm39
Contributor
Contributor

VMWare Tools won't install correctly on RHEL6 x86_64 system for a new kernel, did something change?

Has something changed with how VMWare Tools is installed for RHEL6 x86_64?

For some reason now, if I have to re-install VMWare Tools for a new kernel install, the install is no longer working.

In the past, if I had to install a new kernel, once that new kernel was installed correctly and verified, I would remove vmware tools (vmware-uninstall-tools.pl) and then I would right click on the VM Guest (Install/Upgrade VMWare Tools) in vSphere and go thru the process, make sure that I would say "yes" when getting asked about the kernel during the install questions.  Once that was complete, VMWare Tools was installed successfully.

However this time after installing the new kernel (2.6.-32.696.20.1.el6.x86_64 ), removing VMWare Tools (VMWareTools-10.1.10-6082533.tar.gz) and then re-installing again because its the same version from our ESXi servers, I get an error message from that VM saying that VMWare Tools is not installed.

I went to VMWare downloads and grabbed the Linux iso for 10.1.5 and when I got that to install successfully, I got an error message saying it was "out of date."

I also just installed the new kernel and did not remove VMWare Tools either and the status remained the same, which was Running.  In the past, once upgrading the kernel and if I didn't do anything, the status would change to "Error."

Am I missing a step or did something change that I need to do differently?

Is anyone else experiencing something like this?

I see there are open-vm-tools for RHEL6, however that comes from EPEL, and I would prefer to stay with official packages for production systems.

thanks

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2 Replies
parmarr
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

What version of ESXi are you running the RH linux virtual machine on? It would also be helpful to get the entirety or snippets of the VMware Installation Tools install log to see where it's failing? Please review KB Installing VMware Tools in a Linux virtual machine using a Compiler (1018414) that may assist on further troubleshooting this issue. https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1018414.

Sincerely, Rahul Parmar VMware Support Moderator
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71rellimcm39
Contributor
Contributor

Running ESXi 6.0.0.

There wasn't any entries under /var/log/vmware-install.log for when I was trying to install a new kernel back on 31 jan 2018.  I had a snapshot and when VMWare Tools wasn't working, I rolled back to the snapshot.

From the KB video, I'm performing all of the exact same steps.  However during the install, something isn't working and the VMWare Tools doesn't successfully get installed.

Now I did upgrade a kernel successfully on 10 Jan 2018 for RHEL6 and I do have an entry under /var/log/vmware-install.log and this is what the log looks like:

Wed Jan 10 08:24:58 2018 vmware-install.pl start

Creating a new VMware Tools installer database using the tar4 format.

Installing VMware Tools.

In which directory do you want to install the binary files?

[/usr/bin]

What is the directory that contains the init directories (rc0.d/ to rc6.d/)?

[/etc/rc.d]

What is the directory that contains the init scripts?

[/etc/rc.d/init.d]

In which directory do you want to install the daemon files?

[/usr/sbin]

In which directory do you want to install the library files?

[/usr/lib/vmware-tools]

The path "/usr/lib/vmware-tools" does not exist currently. This program is

going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you want?

[yes]

In which directory do you want to install the common agent library files?

[/usr/lib]

In which directory do you want to install the common agent transient files?

[/var/lib]

In which directory do you want to install the documentation files?

[/usr/share/doc/vmware-tools]

The path "/usr/share/doc/vmware-tools" does not exist currently. This program

is going to create it, including needed parent directories. Is this what you

want? [yes]

The installation of VMware Tools 10.1.10 build-6082533 for Linux completed

successfully. You can decide to remove this software from your system at any

time by invoking the following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-uninstall-tools.pl".

Before running VMware Tools for the first time, you need to configure it by

invoking the following command: "/usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl". Do you want

this program to invoke the command for you now? [yes]

Initializing...

Making sure services for VMware Tools are stopped.

Found a compatible pre-built module for vmci.  Installing it...

Found a compatible pre-built module for vsock.  Installing it...

The module vmxnet3 has already been installed on this system by another

installer or package and will not be modified by this installer.

The module pvscsi has already been installed on this system by another

installer or package and will not be modified by this installer.

The module vmmemctl has already been installed on this system by another

installer or package and will not be modified by this installer.

The VMware Host-Guest Filesystem allows for shared folders between the host OS

and the guest OS in a Fusion or Workstation virtual environment.  Do you wish

to enable this feature? [no]

Found a compatible pre-built module for vmxnet.  Installing it...

The vmblock enables dragging or copying files between host and guest in a

Fusion or Workstation virtual environment.  Do you wish to enable this feature?

[no]

VMware automatic kernel modules enables automatic building and installation of

VMware kernel modules at boot that are not already present. This feature can

be enabled/disabled by re-running vmware-config-tools.pl.

Would you like to enable VMware automatic kernel modules?

[yes]

Disabling timer-based audio scheduling in pulseaudio.

Do you want to enable Guest Authentication (vgauth)? Enabling vgauth is needed

if you want to enable Common Agent (caf). [yes]

Do you want to enable Common Agent (caf)? [yes]

No X install found.

Creating a new initrd boot image for the kernel.

Generating the key and certificate files.

Successfully generated the key and certificate files.

vmware-tools start/running

The configuration of VMware Tools 10.1.10 build-6082533 for Linux for this

running kernel completed successfully.

You must restart your X session before any mouse or graphics changes take

effect.

You can now run VMware Tools by invoking "/usr/bin/vmware-toolbox-cmd" from the

command line.

To enable advanced X features (e.g., guest resolution fit, drag and drop, and

file and text copy/paste), you will need to do one (or more) of the following:

1. Manually start /usr/bin/vmware-user

2. Log out and log back into your desktop session

3. Restart your X session.

Enjoy,

--the VMware team

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