VMware Tools Upgrade on Linux Guests Requires Manual Network Service Restart

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

After upgrading VMware Tools on virtual machines running any Linux guest operating system, network communication will be temporarily lost until the network service is restarted.

Environment

VMware ESX Server 3.0.x
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Embedded
VMware ESX Server 3.5.x
VMware ESXi 3.5.x Installable

Resolution

VMware recommends you reboot the Linux virtual machine after upgrading its VMware Tools.

If you need to delay rebooting the virtual machine for some reason, you can restart the network service with the following command:

# /etc/init.d/network restart