Installing VMware Tools on a virtual machine running 32-bit CentOS 6.4 guest operating system causes the virtual machine to reboot repeatedly

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

If you install VMware Tools on a virtual machine running CentOS 6.4 for i386 architecture (32-bit) and reboot the virtual machine, the virtual machine reboots repeatedly.

This issue occurs if you set Network Adapter Type as Flexible while configuring the CentOS guest operating system. This issue is known to occur in ESX 4.1 with patch ESX410-201211001, ESX 4.1 with patch ESX410-201301001, ESX 4.1 with patch ESX410-201304001, ESXi 5.0 Update 2, and ESXi 5.1 Update 1.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1

Resolution

Workaround: To work around this issue, set Network Adapter Type as VMXNET 3 while configuring the CentOS guest operating system.