The vmtools was report "running (unsupport)" after install vmtools version (10.0.12) in ESXi6u3a

[tianhailong666]

Hello ,

We recent met a issue that customer has a VM (SLES 10 SP2 64bit) which running on ESX4.0.    last week customer exported this VM as OVF and imported it to ESXi6.0u3a platform.   

VMware announced that  ESXi6.0U3 had not support this OS version except  for SLES10sp3 and SLES10sp4.   we found SLES10 sp2 can running on ESXi6.0U3. The important issue is we need to upgrad VMtools.

report below errors when we start install vmtool as routine.

"VirtualMachine.MountToolsInstaller" for object "sles10sp2" on ESXi "192.168.0.233" failed.

vix error code = 21001

Unable to install VMware Tools. An error occurred while trying to access image file "/usr/lib/vmware/isoimages/linuxPreGlibc25.iso" needed to install VMware Tools: 2 (No such file or directory). Please refer the product documentation or KB article 2129825 for details about how to get VMware Tools package for this guest operating system.

. VMware Knowledge Base

KB2129825 suggested download correct vmtool version ISO as below show(vmtool 10.0.12) and replace in  /locker/packages.  we did it as KB.   we can also see vmtool (10.0.12) is guest OS  is installed succussfully.  but  vsphere client vm summar still report error  "running (unsupport)"

so everybody who know how to reslove this issue and running(unsupported) if is normal or abnormal.  Could you explain it kindly ?  thanks for your reply in advance!

below is vmware tool 10.0.12 Doc explaination.

• VMware Tools Lifecycle Management: VMware Tools 10.0.12 freezes support for legacy Guest Operating Systems. Frozen ISO images are available for download from http://my.vmware.com. These ISO images are not shipped with ESXi in the tools-light VIB. VMware Tools 10.1.0 caters to the current guest operating systems. VMware Tools 10.0.12 caters to the legacy guest operating systems.

• VMware Tools support for Guest Operating Systems in 10.0.12
  • VMware Tools support for Guest Operating Systems in version 10.0.12
    • winPreVista.iso supports Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows 2003.
    • linuxPreGLibc25.iso supports Linux guest operating systems earlier than Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11, Ubuntu 7.04, and other distributions with glibc version earlier than 2.5.

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Tools/10.0/rn/vmware-tools-10012-release-notes.html

[tianhailong666]

Have somebody who has been met it before or any idea about it ?   thanks

[tianhailong666]

Well,  I problably think it's working well since I can reboot VM without error via console (vmtools can direct to interactive wiht guest OS) as well as I can see vmtoolsd is running also.

but It also confuse me that for below KB which say that unsupport status is need to upgread or install vmtool.    I think I have already installed correct tools for that gust OS running ESXi6.0U3.

VMware Knowledge Base

Status	Internal values (VMODL)	UI values	UI hint
Green	guestToolsCurrent	Current	VMware Tools is installed and the version is current.
	guestToolsSupportedNew	Current	VMware Tools is installed and the version is current.
Yellow	guestToolsSupportedOld	Out-of-date	OK. This version is supported on the existing host, but upgrade if new functionality does not work.
Red	guestToolsNotInstalled	Not Installed	Install VMware Tools. See the vSphere Client Help.
	guestToolsTooOld	Unsupported Note: Supported by Technical Support, Tools upgrade may be required as part of action plan.	Upgrade or reinstall VMware Tools. This version is not supported on the existing host. See the vSphere Client Help.
	guestToolsNeedUpgrade	Unsupported Note: Supported by Technical Support, Tools upgrade may be required as part of action plan.	Upgrade or reinstall VMware Tools. This version is not supported on the existing host. See the vSphere Client Help.
	guestToolsBlacklisted	Error	Upgrade immediately to avoid possible corrupt code. See the vSphere Client Help.
	guestToolsTooNew	Unsupported new version	Uninstall and reinstall this version of VMware Tools. This version is known to be too new to work correctly with this virtual machine. See the vSphere Client Help.
Gray	guestToolsUnmanaged	3rd-party/Independent	The status is unknown. Tools are installed, but are not managed by VMware.
	guestToolsNotRunning	3rd-party/Independent	Tools are installed but vmtoolsd was stopped using the init.d script.

[hyvokar]

Unsupported may well work, but as the name say, there's no support if it doesn't.

I usually use open vm tools, but with something as old as sles10 you are out of luck with those too.