Autoupgrade is not supported for guest.initiateUpgradeAtShutdown Windows Event in VMware ESXi 5.0/5.1

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides information on why the message is displayed in the virtual machine event logs after every reboot.

Shutting down a Windows Guest operating system results in this EventID 1000 message:

[warning][vmsvc:autoUpgrade] vmx returned Autoupgrade is not supported for guest.initiateUpgradeAtShutdown

Or:

[warning] [vmsvc:autoUpgrade] RPC 'guest.initiateUpgradeAtShutdown' failed, reply is Unknown command.

Environment

• VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
• VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
• VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1

Cause

The installed vmware-tools version in the guest determines whether autoupgrade can happen or not. There are cases where autoupgrade is not supported. For example, autoupgrade is not supported when a guest does not have vmware-tools running, or when vmware-tools are too old.

These messages are reported:

• If the vmware-tools auto upgrade is not applicable because the vmware-tools version is already up to date.
• When the ESX host ISO for vmware-tools installed is not available/accessible.
• When isolation.tools.autoinstall.disable=TRUE is set in the vmx file to prevent all autoupgrades from the guest.

Resolution

This message is a warning and can be safely ignored.