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rrosenau
Contributor
Contributor

Fusion 11.5 vcenter remote control lost connection

I'm able to use Fusion 11.5 to connect to vCenter (ESX 6.7). When I use remote control a VM I lost focus to the VM. Nothing is responding. When I close the remote control and will open the VM again I get a dark grey black screen. Same issue with remote control in Chrome to vCenter. Then it will opens fusion and I've te same issue. When I use VMware Remote Console instead of Fusion also the same issue.

I close Fusion and start Fusion again, connect to vCenter and open a VM no problem. After a few minutes remote control freeze. I stil can see the VM but cannot select or do anything inside the VM.

Quit Fusion en start Fusion again. Issue is since upgrading Fusion to 11.5 and macOS to Catalina (10.15).

Please help

20 Replies
bfan
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

It's a known issue. After a few minutes, the remote control will become not responding.

A workaround is that close the VM window, then select another VM in library, wait about 6 seconds, open that VM again. Hope it can work to you.

JayJay0324
Contributor
Contributor

Hi thanks for the workaround, it works.

I'm facing same issue, I guess it's linked to Catalina upgrade.

Anyone has info about a fix?

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azhuravlev
Contributor
Contributor

I also faced  with this issue.

The workaround works! thanks

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robertn
Contributor
Contributor

Essentially the same for me.  Fusion to a remote VM on a vCenter and ESXi (all current versions and patches).  After some tens of minutes without any of my activity on that remote screen, it freezes.  The remote VM (win10) doesn't have a screen saver and all power save is off.  I'm working continuously on the local so no screen saver or power pauses.

I right-click the VCSA object in the Fusion console, Disconnect then I'm able to re-Connect and continue right along.  When the remote is frozen, my local Win VM has also frozen.  Most of Fusion is frozen in fact but I can still do this disconnect/connect.  Once the connection is working to the remote again, the local also is also working again.

All since Catalina, no issues before.  Today's Fusion update did not resolve (11.5.1 15018442).

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JayJay0324
Contributor
Contributor

This is just scandalous and vmware do nothing about this !

Very disappointed !

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pmhparis
Contributor
Contributor

I've also been waiting for VMWare to fix this. Since I updated to Catalina, Fusion 11.5 connections to VMs on ESXi servers will freeze after a variable amount of time. It can time-out after only a minute or rarely after a few hours but more commonly after around 30 minutes. Disconnecting and re-connecting to the ESXi server is insufficient to unfreeze. So is refreshing. The only thing that works is quitting Fusion, restarting it, reconnecting to the ESXi server and re-opening the VMs. I'm now doing this up to a dozen times a day so it's a major PITA.

I don't pay for Fusion to spend my time quitting and relaunching it to kludge around their bugs so I'll be opening a case with support to find out what they say.

If I find out anything, I'll update the thread.

Solidbrass
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I have support request 19073076410 open for this issue.  I'd recommend anyone else having this problem reference the same support request so we can get some movement.

davenacy2
Contributor
Contributor

Please add me to the list of those that are plagued by this frustrating defect.

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Mikero
Community Manager
Community Manager

Just an FYI, but I've had the team investigate this. First I've seen it, but I've been away from the forums for a little bit.

It seems I don't connect to my remote hosts for very long, so I've never hit the issue.

In any case, just wanted to let folks know that we're working on it.

Our sincere apologies for the experience.

-
Michael Roy - Product Marketing Engineer: VCF
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OIUTWQE
Contributor
Contributor

Same issue just posting here to give this post more traction.

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HanSooloo
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Mikero​ thanks for the note.  Been running into the same problem for a while and it really is a productivity killer.

What is the ETA for the fix?  What is causing this issue?

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Mikero
Community Manager
Community Manager

We're aware and working on it, but I don't have any ETA to communicate.

FWIW, we use this feature internally in a variety of different departments within VMware. We're pretty motivated to get it fixed ASAP.

-
Michael Roy - Product Marketing Engineer: VCF
robertn
Contributor
Contributor

I'm glad to see you've got some internal examples for testing.

I'd posted my details earlier.  Recently, I've been trying to use the Web console instead of the Remote Console but with the screen resizing issues that come along with a randomly sized browser at launch time and the font/resolution issues on a large display size, it's a poor substitute for Remote Console.  At least it stays functional as long as the underlying vCenter GUI doesn't auto-logout.

I've found that, with Remote Console, I get a freeze-up regardless of the launch point; either via a vCenter Browser UI or from VMware Fusion connected to the vCenter.  As I type this, one thing I haven't tried is a Remote Console via my Fusion when It has a connection directly to an individual ESXi host instead of vCenter.

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robertn
Contributor
Contributor

I've tested the Fusion-Direct-To-ESXi + Remote Console variation and surprisingly, this seems to be holding its own without a freeze.  At least it's better than wrangling the Web Console on a high-res system and of course better than the freezes associated with Fusion-To-vCenter + Remote Console.

Versions: The MacOS, ESXi, vSphere and Fusion are all maintained current.

Update: This just took a little longer to freeze but it did eventually lock up.  So the Remote Console, regardless of connection pathway, will freeze when left unattended for some time.  As before, dropping the Fusions remote connection to the ESXi then re-connecting it will allow the Remote Console to the VM to be re-established.

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ikkisoft
Contributor
Contributor

Adding myself to the list of people annoyed by this issue. Still having the same problem with Fusion Professional Version 11.5.1 (15018442).

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Teneth
Contributor
Contributor

Same issue for me. It's quite annoying as my work depends a lot on handling different VMs. It's been such a long time since the thread was opened and it's still unfixed.

HNAZach
Contributor
Contributor

I agree!!!  This has been broke WAY TO LONG !!!

bfanMikero​ & All of VM-Fusion team.

What is the problem?!?   Catalina has been released over 4 months now and STILL NOT FIXED!

Some of us manage LARGE clusters and rely on our PURCHASED applications to work!

I have called support, they have no idea! not even how to route a ticket to the correct team!

Please respond with some kind of response!

andrewws
Contributor
Contributor

I can confirm that we are also experiencing this issue. This is also affects VMware Remote Console. 

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mnehemiah
Contributor
Contributor

This is so annoying, Please fix!!  way too long

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