Installations of VMware Tools for virtual machines running on VMware ESX 3.5 Update 2 and later include the VMware Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). This service is required for effective quiescent snapshots in VMware vSphere or Infrastructure without relying on the VMware File Sync Driver.
However, third-party and partner VSS providers (if present in the guest operating system) conflict with the VMware Volume Shadow Service provider.
These additional VSS providers are commonly included with other backup products, such as Symantec System Recovery or BackupExec.
In most cases, these additional providers are not required if you are relying on VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) or VMware Data Recovery (VDR) to perform virtual machine backups, and can be removed to resolve the issue.
If these providers are required in the guest operating system, however, remove the VMware VSS component from your VMware Tools installations in the affected guest systems. This forces VCB and VDR to use the "File Sync Driver" for quiescent snapshots, instead of VSS.
Note: A power cycle of the virtual machine is required to clear the
Protocol error from VMX
error. If the virtual machine cannot be powered down due to tasks in progress, restart VMware Tools in the guest operating system and restart the management services on the ESX host hosting the virtual machine.
For more information, see
Restarting the Management agents on an ESX or ESXi Server (1003490).