General system error when installing VMWare Tools

[WSP_Andy]

Aloha world -

This is my first experience in the VMWare forums so hopefully I've got this posted where it should be.

I just upgraded my ESX environment from 2.5.4 to Infrastructure 3.0.2. I had a number of issues that had to be resolved throughout the upgrade process and for the most part, everything is humming along again except I can't upgrade the VMWare Tools on any of my virtual machines.

I realize there is a script to do this process automatically but I require the manual functionality to work.

If I right click on any VM in VirtualCenter and hit "Install VMWare Tools", I immediately get a window back that says "A general system error has occurred: internal error". This seems to be VMWare's error for everything these days.

The 'vmimages' folder exists with the appropriate .ISO tools images in the tools subfolder. I have restarted both the VirtualCenter server and the ESX server. I have granted appropriate Administrator permissions within VirtualCenter to the proper user groups and their associated VMs... I'm now at a loss. I have no idea why this is happening and don't know where to go next.

The tools images are okay. If I manually mount the Windows version of the tools .ISO, I can install VMWare Tools just fine. However, the right-click "Install VMWare Tools" functionality used to work and no longer does.

Ideas? A place to start?

Thanks so much in advance!

Andy

[williamarrata]

Do you have the choice to upgade Virtual hardware?? You should be able to see this choice when you right click on a VM. If you do, please do that first, Then install tools.

[WSP_Andy]

All of the upgrade steps have been completed up to installing the VMWare Tools, so yes, the Virtual Hardware upgrades have been completed along with the datastore upgrades, VM file relocations, etc.

The last piece, upgrading the VMWare Tools, cannot be completed until this issue is fixed so that's where I'm at.

[williamarrata]

Have you tried starting vmware-tools manually by running .. /etc/init.d/wmware-tools start

[williamarrata]

Sorry , the command is /etc/init.d/vmware-tools start

Thanks

[williamarrata]

Make sure that you are loged in as the local admin in the guest OS before you start the tools install.

Also check that the virtual machine has a virtual cdrom drive that shows as the drive letter 😧 I'm hoping this is all helping.

[WSP_Andy]

I have no such runnable program "/etc/init.d/vmware-tools".

I don't see how running something from the ESX server would install anything on a specific local VM anyway? I'm assuming you meant run "/etc/init.d/vmware-tools start" from the ESX server... well even if I had the command, how would that target a specific VM? Would it ask me? Confused.

Again, as I said, if I mount the tools .ISO, I can install them just fine. It's the fact that I can't use the VirtualCenter "Install VMWare Tools" feature that is causing me headaches.

[williamarrata]

To trigger a fully-automatic upgrade - first

power off the VMs and login to the VC server. Open a command prompt to

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware VirtualCenter 2.0

Type something like

vmware-vmupgrade.exe -u vi3book\administrator -p vmware -h "<datacenter Name>

DataCenter/Intel Hosts/AMD Cluster/esx1.vi3book.com" -m 2 -t 10

Note:

The switches -u and -p are required and they set the user name and password to

authenticate against VirtualCenter. The -h switch is also required and it sets the

path to an ESX host within the Inventory. In this case all powered off VMs

running on esx1.vi3book.com will be updated.

The switches -m and -t are optional and set how many VMs can be

simultaneously updated and how long VMs are allow to stay powered on (in

mins). This deals with the issue of VMs that will not power down gracefully after a

VMware Tools upgrade.

Alternatively, you can specify each VM individually - you will soon see how much fun

that's going to be. Here's a sample

vmware-vmupgrade.exe

-u vi3book\administrator -p vmware

-n "DataCenter1/VMs 1/vm1"

-n "DataCenter2/VMs 2/vm2"

-n "DataCenter3/VMs 3/vm3"

-n "DataCenter4/VMs 4/vm4"

Note:

As you can see with the -n switch we can specify multiple VMs, and yes, you must

specify -n each and every time. Good Luck.

Make sure your VM or VMS or powered down when doing this.

[WSP_Andy]

Okay, perhaps I'm not explaining myself clearly enough. I am not interested in running any manual commands, an upgrade script, or anything of the sort.

I want to be able to click on a VM and hit "Install VMWare Tools" the way I used to and have the install progress and work properly. I am not going to be running the automatic upgrade script for the tools as my enterprise requires that the manual install feature work properly. It is that issue that I need assistance with.

[shoo]

have you seen this ?

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/160399

it sorted it for me.