VMware Tools Automatic Upgrade fails with the error: vix error code = 21009

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

When you are upgrading VMware Tools for a virtual machine running on VMware ESXi, you experience these symptoms:

• VMware Tools Automatic Upgrade fails with the error:
  
  vix error code = 21009
   
• This file is present on the virtual machine:
  
  Microsoft Windows
  
  C:\Windows\\Temp\\vmware-SYSTEM\\VMwareToolsUpgrader.exe
  
  Red Hat Enterprise Linux
  
  /tmp/vmware-root
   
• In the vmware.log file, you see entries similar to:
  
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS:00Z| vcpu-0| I120: TOOLS INSTALL Error copying upgrader binary /usr/lib/vmware/isoimages/windows.iso::VMwareToolsUpgrader.exe (=> C:\Windows\TEMP\vmware-SYSTEM\VMwareToolsUpgrader.exe) into guest, HgfsStatus = 8.
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS:00Z| vcpu-0| I120: TOOLS INSTALL renaming old C:\Windows\TEMP\vmware-SYSTEM\VMwareToolsUpgrader.exe before retrying autoupgrade
  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS:00Z| vcpu-0| I120: TOOLS INSTALL Having tried autoupgrade 5 times. Giving up

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 6.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

This issue occurs due to a stale upgrade file from a previous VMware Tools upgrade.

Resolution

Workaround:

To work around this issue:

• Reboot the VM
• Manually upgrade VMware Tools within the Guest OS

Microsoft Windows

1. Log in to the virtual machine as an administrative user.
2. Open an elevated command prompt.
3. Run this command:
   
   attrib -R C:\Windows\Temp\vmware-SYSTEM\VMwareToolsUpgrader.exe

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

1. Log in to the virtual machine as an administrative user.
2. Using the terminal or graphical user interface, remove the file:
   
   /tmp/vmware-root

Note: For multiple virtual machines, PowerCLI command Invoke-VMScript can be utilized to automate the workarounds. For more information, see the VMware PowerCLI Documentation.

Note: If the above steps does not help with Windows Guest OS, reboot the Guest VM after uninstall the exiting VMware Tools.

Additional Information