Automatic Tools Upgrade on Server 2008, 2008 R2, and Vista VMs - not so automatic

[danbarr]

Today I upgraded two hosts that make up our development cluster from ESX 3.5 U5 to 4.0 U1 (already running vCenter 4.0 U1). I did a clean install on each host, and it went great.

Then I began to test the VMware Tools and virtual hardware upgrades on some VMs. A Server 2003 guest went just fine - automatic tools upgrade went without error, and the VM hardware upgrade was smooth too.

But on both a Vista and a Server 2008 R2 guest, the tools upgrade just hangs, and when I log into the machine interactively, Windows tells me that an interactive service needs my attention, and when I click through that message, I'm presented with the fully interactive VMware tools upgrade process. I can complete this manually and it goes OK, but for some reason the automatic tools upgrade is NOT doing a silent/unattended upgrade. The following event is logged shortly after I begin the automatic tools upgrade:

Event 1000 - Interactive Services detection -"A device or program has requested attention. Device or application: C:\Windows\system32\MsiHnd.dll. Message title: VMware Tools."

I have not had this issue with prior VMware tools upgrades, even the recent upgrade from 3.5.0.153875 to 3.5.0.207095.

Any help would be appreciated. I definitely don't love the thought of interactively upgrading VMware Tools on all our 2008 & 2008 R2 guests.

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Dan Barr

IT Infrastructure Manager

Mercer Insurance Group

[danbarr]

Seems this problem with the interactive install only happens when doing the tools upgrade via Update Manager. This weekend I upgraded a bunch of test VMs and just used the normal "Install/Upgrade VMware Tools" option on the guest, and it properly did a silent unattended upgrade on the 2008/2008R2 guests. I then used Update Manager just for the virtual hardware upgrade which worked OK and rolled through all the VMs pretty quickly. Would be nice if it also somehow handled the second reboot that Windows guests need after they detect & install the new hardware on first bootup under hw version 7.

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Dan Barr

IT Infrastructure Manager

Mercer Insurance Group

[nirgertner]

Hi Dan,

I'm running into the same issue with ESXi v4.1. Were you able to find a way to use VUM for the VMTools upgrade or is the interactive install the sole solution.

Thanks,

Nir.

[VMmatty]

I had the same problem and did figure out a workaround for the problem. I wrote a full blog post about it but the short answer is this - if you run the VMware Tools service as a user with rights to the server instead of Local System (which is the default) then you can update the VMware Tools without issue. I was able to confirm that works on Server 2008, Server 2008 R2, and Windows 7.

Here is the full post: http://www.thelowercasew.com/issues-updating-vmware-tools-with-update-manager

Matt

My blog:

[SurfControl]

we're having the same issue with esx u2 on win7 and 2008 r2 machines...

[VMmatty]

Try the steps in the blog post I linked above and see if that helps. I've confirmed that it works for me, though I admit this isn't the most elegant solution and requires at least restarting the VMware Tools service. If you apply it globally via Group Policy it's almost easier to just reboot the VMs to make it apply.

[Ultramar]

I've run into the same issue. Anyone know if there is a way to make this work?

I'm running ESX 4.1U1 and even using a user account that is local admin does not work, I still get the ISD message.

[SurfControl]

we're having this issue as well, i'm wondering if there's a fix from vmweare to address this issue yet?