VMware tools uninstalling automatically in windows OS.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Issue/Introduction

• During a Windows patching cycle, if the Automatic VMware Tools upgrade option is enabled, a race condition may occur. If the VM reboots before the VMware Tools upgrade completes, the task remains in a suspended state.

• Re-installation of VMware Tools will not complete while the task is suspended

• VMware Tools drivers, including the vmxnet3 network driver, are unloaded.

• The VM becomes unreachable over the network.

 

• In vmware.log we can see similar snippets:

  /vmfs/volumes/datastore-UUID/vmname/vmware.log

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ In(05) vcpu-0 - Guest: vnet: AUDIT: DriverUnload : vNetWFPFilter 12.1.0.0 build-19947491  unloaded

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ In(05) vcpu-4 - TOOLS Received tools.set.version rpc call, version = TOOLS_VERSION_NONE (uninstalled), type is unset

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ In(05) vcpu-4 - TOOLS Setting toolsVersionStatus = TOOLS_STATUS_NO_TOOLS

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ In(05) vcpu-4 - TOOLS setting legacy tools version to '0' type -1, manifest status is 7

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ In(05) vcpu-4 - Tools_SetVersionAndType: Updating the Tools Version in the disk

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ In(05) vcpu-6 - VMXNET3 user: Ethernet0 RSS fields requested by vmx: 3

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ In(05) vcpu-5 - Guest: Driver=vmxnet3, Version=1.9.14.0 - unloaded

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ In(05) vcpu-5 - Guest: Driver=vsock, Version=9.8.19.0 - unloaded

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ In(05) vcpu-7 - Guest: Driver=vmci, Version=9.8.18.0 - unloaded

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ In(05) vcpu-0 - Tools: Tools heartbeat timeout.

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ In(05) vcpu-0 - Tools: Running status rpc handler: 1 => 0.

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ In(05) vcpu-0 - Tools: Changing running status: 1 => 0.

  YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ In(05) vcpu-0 - Tools: [RunningStatus] Last heartbeat value 83527 (last received 20s ago)

 

Environment

ESXi 8.x

Cause

This issue occurs due to a race condition between WSUS patching and VM reboots, where the system restarts before the VMware Tools installation completes. As a result, the VMware Tools upgrade task remains in a suspended state without being properly monitored.

Resolution

There is no resolution. Please reach out to guest OS vendor.

Workaround:

Turn off "Check and upgrade VMware tools before each power on", and then perform Windows patching.