Error "The VMware Tools power-on script did not run successfully" when vCenter is powered on or rebooted

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

When powering on or restarting vCenter, the following errors may be observed in the event log or vmware.log:

The VMware Tools power-on script did not run successfully in this virtual machine.

Environment

vCenter 9.0 and later

Cause

This issue occurs because the /opt/vmware/share/vami/vami_poweron_vm_script, executed by VMware Tools, fails to complete successfully.

Originally, vami_poweron_vm_script was designed to call two separate scripts:

1. /etc/vmware-tools/poweron-vm-default

2. /opt/vmware/share/vami/vami_set_guestinfo

However, as of vCenter Server 9.0, the vami_set_guestinfo script has been removed. Because of this, the call to the script fails and triggers the failure of vami_poweron_vm_script.

Resolution

This issue will be fixed in the future release.

There is no functional impact from vami_set_guestinfo not being executed, making this error ignorable.
To suppress this error, apply the following workaround:

Workaround

1. Log in to the vCenter Appliance via SSH using root privileges.

2. Create a backup of the target script file.

   cp /opt/vmware/share/vami/vami_poweron_vm_script /opt/vmware/share/vami/vami_poweron_vm_script.bak
   

3. Comment out vami_set_guestinfo

   sed -i 's|/opt/vmware/share/vami/vami_set_guestinfo|# /opt/vmware/share/vami/vami_set_guestinfo|g' /opt/vmware/share/vami/vami_poweron_vm_script
   

4. Verify that the line has been successfully commented out:

   grep "vami_set_guestinfo" /opt/vmware/share/vami/vami_poweron_vm_script
   

Note:
The vami_set_guestinfo script is also called within the resume script (/opt/vmware/share/vami/vami_resume_vm_script).
Apply the same workaround to this resume script.