VMWare Workstation 15 Pro shutdown suddenly (when the host Windows 10 is locked)

[yasokada]

My Environment:

VMWare Workstation 15 Pro

15.5.1 build-15018445

on Windows 10 Pro (v1903)

Several times I have problems using VMware Workstation recently.

I normally lock the host OS (Windows 10 Pro) when I go home while I run several Guest OSs using VMware.

Sometimes, in the morning of the next day, I find the VMware shutdown with all of the guest OSs shutdown.

It seems those guest OSs boot up normally (without a message of abrupt shutdown).

In one case, that happened about 1 hour after I lock the host OS. For other cases, I didn't record the time of the problem.

This happened five times by now.

I hope the developper solve this problem.

[wila]

Hi,

Are you sure this wasn't due to a Windows update?

The most recent Windows update was this Tuesday (or Wednesday depending on where you are in this world).

As a Windows update forces a reboot at the host OS it could describe what you are seeing.

Nowadays Windows is fairly disruptive with their reboots even although they do seem to try to hide that your system rebooted by restarting the same applications after the update.

Restarting VMware Workstation does not restart your VMs unless they are set to auto-start.

--

Wil

[yasokada]

Hi, wila

I am sure that the Windows Update does not affect this.

Because applications other than VMWare still works, which means there is no reboot on my computer.

Best regards

[wila]

Windows update nowadays restarts applications after the automatic windows update reboot.

The only way to be sure is to check the host event log to see if it rebooted.

Did those 5 times happen within the past few weeks?

Can you attach the vmware.log's next time it happens and then tell us the date/time your VM was unexpected shut down?

(You can attach the logs via the attach button/link at the bottom right of this reply window)

Sorry edited the reply as I mixed up a post with yours.

--

Wil

[yasokada]

Hello, wila.

Thank you for taking your time for this.

> Did those 5 times happen within the past few weeks?

Those happened within the past two months.

I update VMware regularly. And some of those happened before 15.5.1 build-15018445 and others with v15.5.1 build-15018445.

Next time, I will upload the vmware.log files (for guest OSs I run) with the information when to stop.

Best regards

Yas

[yasokada]

wila​

The VMWare Workstation shutdown occurred yesterday. Yesterday is the day related to the Windows Update.

So, what you said is to the point.

I attached the vmware.log file.

The situation occurred 2020-02-13 04:57 JST (the last update time of the vmware.log), which is 2020-02-13 19:57 UTC.

I also ran my software to log the timestamps on one of my Guest OS (Windows 10 v1909). The final update of the logging file is also 2020-02-13 04:57 JST.

The Windows Update shows:

Latest update.

Last check time: Today, 3:15 (JST).

If there's any other file I should post, please tell me. However, to continue my work I will use some of the guest OSs.

[yasokada]

Also attached is the Windows Log file created using "Get-WindowsUpdateLog" command on the PowerShell.

There was some event around 04:58 JST.

[wila · Accepted solution]

Hi,

In this particular case it really looks like a "Windows Update" forcibly rebooting the host.

The last few lines of the VMware log look like this:

2020-02-13T04:41:34.231+09:00| vmx| I125: MemSched: states: 0 482401 : 1 0 : 2 0 : 3 0
2020-02-13T04:41:34.231+09:00| vmx| I125: MemSched: Balloon enabled 1 guestType 4 maxSize 0
2020-02-13T04:43:23.859+09:00| vcpu-0| I125: DISKUTIL: scsi0:0 : capacity=125829120 logical sector size=512
2020-02-13T04:57:01.352+09:00| vmx| I125: VmdbPipeStreamsOvlError Couldn't read: (109) The pipe has been ended.
2020-02-13T04:57:01.352+09:00| vmx| I125: VmdbCnxDisconnect: Disconnect: closed pipe for pub cnx '/db/connection/#1/' (-32)
2020-02-13T04:57:01.354+09:00| vmx| I125: SOCKET 9 (2380) recv error 10054: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host
2020-02-13T04:57:01.357+09:00| vmx| I125: Vix: [mainDispatch.c:2810]: VMAutomation: Connection Error (1) on connection 2.
2020-02-13T04:57:01.362+09:00| vmx| I125: VmdbDbRemoveCnx: Removing Cnx from Db for '/db/connection/#1/'
2020-02-13T04:57:01.398+09:00| mks| W115: SOCKET 10 (-1) AsyncNamedPipeRecvCallback: failed to get overlapped result: 109.
2020-02-13T04:57:01.398+09:00| mks| I125: MKSControlMgr:  MKSControl Remote Disconnect: socket closed.
2020-02-13T04:57:01.398+09:00| mks| W115: MKSResponse: Error: (709)
2020-02-13T04:57:01.398+09:00| mks| I125: MKSControlMgr: MKSResponse error
2020-02-13T04:57:01.398+09:00| mks| I125: MKSControlMgr: Dropping MKSControl error due to prior unresolved error.
2020-02-13T04:57:01.398+09:00| mks| W115: MKSControlMgr: MKSControl Error: Disconnecting from UI
2020-02-13T04:57:01.398+09:00| mks| I125: MKSControlMgr: disconnected
2020-02-13T04:57:01.399+09:00| mks| I125: SWBWindow: Number of MKSWindows changed: 0 rendering MKSWindow(s) of total 1.
2020-02-13T04:57:01.399+09:00| mks| I125: SWBWindow: Number of MKSWindows changed: 0 rendering MKSWindow(s) of total 0.

Up until 04:57 everything looks normal, there's some activity around ballooning memory at 04:41 and then at 04:57 the VM gets killed.

If it was initiated by VMware it would have either a guest initiated or host initiated shut down notice, there's no such log detail.

If the VM had crashed then there would have been details about a crash, that's not in the log either.

The only thing you see there is that everything has become non communicative.

It is not even a shutdown of the VM, no files have been saved, it just gets killed without any notice.

Your WindowsUpdate.log starts a minute later, which also coincides with a Windows update.

For this particular event I'd say it really looks like a hard shutdown of your VMs triggered by a Windows Update.

This does not exclude your earlier observations, so I'm not saying that it always is caused by Windows Update, but this one very much looks like it was.

--

Wil

[yasokada]

wila​

I appreciate that you spent your time for looking through my log files.

I understand that this is caused by the Windows Update ,not by the VMWare itself. For the period of Windows Update, I will not continue to run VMWare.

Thank you very much again.