The automatic VMware Tools upgrade does not complete on a Windows Server 2008 Virtual Machine.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms - 

• On Windows Server 2008 SP2 virtual machines, VMware Tools upgrades initiated through 'Check and upgrade VMware Tools before each power on' or via the ESXi host/VCSA UI/API may stall when no interactive user session is active.
• The upgrader process waits indefinitely for vcredist_x86.exe to exit, leading to unchecked growth of vminst.log and possible disk space exhaustion.

Cause

• The vcredist_x86.exe component included with the VMware Tools installer stalls and never exists

Resolution

There is currently no permanent resolution available for this issue.

Workaround -

• To complete the VMware Tools upgrade on Windows Server 2008 SP2 virtual machines:
• Log in to the VM with an administrator account. Terminate the vcredist_x86.exe process that uses a command line similar to:
  • 'c:\vcredist_x86.exe" /quiet /noRestart -burn.unelevated BurnPipe.{32940ADA-3765-4E48-8624-3DB276BB8083} {D6A63D73-EE4C-4698-8D19-C926D5E854A4} 1088'
• Once terminated, the VMware Tools upgrader process should complete successfully.
• Verify the size of the vminst.log file in the system temp directory. If it has grown significantly, delete the file to reclaim disk space.
• Do not enable the VM setting "Check and upgrade VMware Tools before each power on" on Windows Server 2008 SP2 VMs.
• Instead, perform an interactive upgrade of VMware Tools from within the guest operating system of the VMs.

Note - This issue does not occur on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 virtual machines.