Unable to open the console of a remote running virtual machine in VMware Workstation server and fails with error

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
When user connects to Workstation server and open the console of a remote running virtual machine, you may see an error similar to:

“Unable to connect to the MKS: Login (username/password) incorrect”.

Environment

VMware Workstation Pro 15.x (Windows)

Cause

This issue occurs because authd port in %PROGRAMDATA%\VMware\VMware Workstation\config.ini is not the same as the port that vmware-authd.exe is actually listening on. The issue is likely to occur after VMware Workstation is upgraded.

Resolution

Currently, there is no resolution.

Workaround:
To work around this issue:

1. Check the below parameters in %PROGRAMDATA%\VMware\VMware Workstation\config.ini on the host that is running Workstation server:

authd.client.port = "##"

2. Check the ports that vmware-authd process is listening on: 

• Open Performance monitor > Network > Listening Ports on host that is running Workstation Server
• Find vmware-authd.exe process
• Check the port that this process is listening on. 

3. If above two ports are not the same, please change the port number in step 1 to the one in step 2.