VM web console getting hung, need to open a new console again and again it's getting stuck frequently

Products

• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

The VM’s web console hangs whenever we click on a folder inside the guest OS. Mouse movement works fine, but clicking causes the console to freeze.

When we open a new console session for the same VM, the folder appears to be opened already. we have to open a new web console for every click action.

This issue was found commonly on VMs that were converted from P2V.

Environment

vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

The cause of the issue appears to be a race condition between ESXi and the webMKS connection, resulting in the webMKS console receiving a palletized (non-trueColor) pixel format instead of trueColor.

Web console logs using inspect option (developer options) in browser and below are the error traces when the console screen is stuck:

Uncaught TypeError: this._setReadCB is not a function
    at WMKS.VNCDecoder._getNextServerMessage (wmks.min.js:2:17774)
    at WMKS.VNCDecoder._gobble (wmks.min.js:2:17705)
    at WMKS.VNCDecoder._processMessages (wmks.min.js:2:31887)
    at WebSocket.wsMessage (wmks.min.js:3:4315)

wmks.min.js:2 Uncaught TypeError: this._setReadCB is not a function
    at WMKS.VNCDecoder._getNextServerMessage (wmks.min.js:2:17774)
    at WMKS.VNCDecoder._gobble (wmks.min.js:2:17705)
    at WMKS.VNCDecoder._processMessages (wmks.min.js:2:31887)
    at WebSocket.wsMessage (wmks.min.js:3:4315)

(To open the developer console in most web browsers, press Ctrl + Shift + J (Windows/Linux) or Cmd + Option + J (Mac). You can also right-click anywhere on the page, select "Inspect", and then navigate to the "Console" tab.)

Resolution

VMware Engineering is aware of the issue and will be fixed in future release.

It is suggested to use VMRC or RDP as a workaround.