Adding VSS and removing the Filesystem Sync driver when upgrading VMware Tools in a Windows virtual machine

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

VMware Consolidated Backup uses VSS for quiescing on ESX Server 3.5 Update 2 hosts when backing up Windows Server 2003, Vista, and Windows Server 2008 virtual machines.

If you uninstall and reinstall VMware Tools, the Filesystem Sync driver remains installed, which may cause an issue with snapshots. This article provides an automated method to add VSS and remove the Filesystem Sync driver when upgrading VMware Tools in Windows virtual machines.

Symptoms:

Environment

VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Installable
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware ESX Server 3.5.x
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Embedded
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable

Resolution

To add VSS and remove Filesystem Sync components during a VMware Tools upgrade:

• For ESX 3.5 Update 2 hosts, add this line in the Advanced Options of the Automatic Tools Upgrade:
  
  /s /v "FILEADDLOCAL=VCBRequestor.dll REMOVE=Sync /qb- REBOOT=R"
  
  
• For ESX 4.0 hosts, add this line in the Advanced Options of the Automatic Tools Upgrade:
  
  /s /v "FILEADDLOCAL=comreg.exe REMOVE=Sync /qb- REBOOT=R"
  
  
• For ESX 4.1 hosts, and ESXi 4.1 and 5.x hosts, Vmware tools for these versions no longer remove the sync driver. Please check this KB:
  VMware Tools does not remove SYNC driver (2047607)

Additional Information

Windows 仮想マシンの VMware Tools のアップグレード時に VSS を追加して Filesystem Sync ドライバを削除する
在 Windows 虚拟机中升级 VMware Tools 时添加 VSS 并移除文件系统同步驱动程序