Installing VMware Tools on RHEL w/o VMHGFS Module?

[rameredit]

I installed a RHEL 5.1 VM on ESX 3.5 this morning. I then installed VMware Tools, using the RPM. During the reboot, I get a couple of errors "loading local filesystems". After looking @ /etc/fstab on this VM - it has the following lines:

1. Beginning of the block added by the VMware software

.host:/ /mnt/hgfs vmhgfs defaults,ttl=5 0 0

1. End of the block added by the VMware software

Commenting out this line gets rid of the error. Why is there a hgfs module loading w/ the tools on an ESX VM? I thought hgfs did not work on ESX hosts. Any ideas/input? Just ignore it and continue on? If it is meant to be there, is there an error w/ this particular line?

According to vmware-config-tools.pl, there is a vmhgfs module loading that loads perfectly. Possibly this is happening b/c the OS is trying to mount the hgfs fs prior to the hgfs module being started w/ the tools?

[mcowger]

I suspect its because the same tools are used for ESX as Workstation, hence hte inclusion of the HGFS. We've seen the same issue, and found it benign, so we just ignore it.

--Matt

[Nocturne]

The same issue here with SLES10. And there are no documents about this "feature" on a esx host. No chance to disable this function?

[Texiwill]

Hello,

VMware has finally unified all the different versions of VMware Tools. VMHGFS does not work on ESX that is a fact, you can also further disable it within the VM using the isolation tools setting. However, the configuration step will still add the line unless you edit /etc/vmware-tools/locations and change VMHGFS_CONFED from yes to no. However to be ever vigilant just commenting out the line and setting the isolation tool setting is the best method just in case you migrate the VM to somewhere else.

But yes, if ESX is in use the driver can not be loaded and even if it was the other side of the equation (ESX) does not provide that functionality.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education. As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

[Nocturne]

Hello

Thanks for help, it works now!

I 've add the line isolation.tools.hgfs.disable = "TRUE" to the .vmx file from the VM and uncomment the /etc/fstab line from VMware.

[jadamt]

Have you run into any other issues with 5.1 on 3.5? It's not yet officially supported but hopefully when the release a patch to fix this issue it will be.

[OaktonIT]

"However, the configuration step will still add the line unless you edit /etc/vmware-tools/locations and change VMHGFS_CONFED from yes to no"

I did this but the lines were still added to the fstab after running vmware-config-tools.pl. Is there something else that needs to happen or do we just remove/comment out the lines from fstab?

TIA!

[Texiwill]

Hello,

You will have to comment out the line from /etc/fstab, even the must recent version adds this in.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354

As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

[wolfwolf]

Hi,

Is there a way to prevent the VMware Tools config script from modifying the /etc/fstab file?

Thanks.

[Texiwill]

Hello,

Short of modifying the vmware-config-tools.pl, there is no way.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354

As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

[wolfwolf]

Thanks for your reply.

I hope that VMware will fix this issue in the next VMware Tools release.

Thanks.

[AndyMcM]

On the /etc/fstab file and this subject. Make sure that you have a backup copy of /etc/fstab before running vmware-config-tools.p, as the script file does not always edit the fstab file correctly and we have had many cases of our fstab files being defaulted on our VMs and loosing all our NFS mounts.

A.