Configuring VMware Tools on Oracle Linux kernel 2.6.39-400.245 or higher causes the operating system to panic

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VMware vSphere ESXi

Linux virtual machines running Oracle Linux kernel 2.6.39-400.245 and higher kernels panic when installing or upgrading VMware Tools.
You are using VMwareTools-version.tar.gz distributed with ESXi host
The operating system panics when VMware Tools is rebuilding initrd ramdisk.
The panic references the Virtual Machine Communication Interface (VMCI)
Running vmware-config-tools.pl to reconfigure an existing installation of VMware tools causes the operating system to fail.

This issue occurs because the prebuilt modules distributed with VMware Tools are incompatible with the latest Oracle Linux kernels.

Compile the VMware Tools modules during installation or configuration of VMware Tools using the steps below.

Note: This process requires a compiler and kernel header to be installed within the guest operating system.

Log in to the guest operating system terminal or command line.
Install the compiler of your choice. For example, run this command to install the GCC Compiler:

yum install gcc
Install the kernel headers associated with your operating system's kernel version.

For example, run this command to install the kernel headers for kernel version 2.6.39-400.245.1.el6uek.x86_64:

yum install kernel-uek-devel-2.6.39-400.245.1.el6uek.x86_64

For example, run this command to install the kernel headers for kernel version 2.6.39-400.246.2.el6uek.x86_64:

yum install kernel-uek-devel-2.6.39-400.246.2.el6uek.x86_64
Install or reconfigure tools using the vmware-install.pl script. Answer No when prompted to run the vmware-config-tools.pl script.

For more information, see Installing VMware Tools in a Linux virtual machine using a Compiler (1018414).
Run this command to configure VMware Tools with the compile option:

vmware-config-tools.pl --compile

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