VMware Tools operations are disabled on RHEL 6.0 guest operating system when you enable SELinux policy

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Many operations of VMware Tools are disabled when you enable the Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) policy on virtual machines running the RHEL 6.0 operating system.

The following symptoms are reported on such virtual machines:

• Guest customization fails when the default SELinux policy is enabled in the RHEL 6.0 operating system.
• Request to reset virtual machine fails because the corresponding VMware Tools script does not run successfully.

Environment

VMware Workstation 11.x (for Linux)
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware Workstation 10.x (Linux)
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware Workstation 9.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 8.x (Linux)
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware Fusion 3.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware Workstation 7.x (Linux)

Resolution

Red Hat has resolved this issue in their latest patches.

To resolve this issue, perform one of these tasks:

• Install the latest RHEL 6.0 patch that includes selinux-policy-3.7.19-55.el6.noarch or later.
• Disable SELinux if it is not necessary.

The issue affects the products that support RHEL 6.0 as guest operating system, which includes Fusion 3.1.2, Workstation 7.1.2, ESX 4.0 Update 2, ESX 4.1 and new released products.