Upgrading to VMware Tools 5.1 reports the message: Error in the RPC receive loop: RpcIn: Unable to send

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
After upgrading a Terminal Server or Terminal Server-based Citrix XenApp virtual machine to VMware Tools 5.1, you experience these symptoms:

• In the Windows Application Event log, you see this error reported multiple times in quick succession (log spew):
  
  Error in the RPC receive loop: RpcIn: Unable to send.
   
• On a Linux guest operating system, you see log spews similar to:
  
  vmusr[2116]: [warning] [vmusr] Error in the RPC receive loop: RpcIn: Unable to send.
  
  or
  
  [warning] [vmsvc:guestinfo] Conversion to UTF-8 failed
  [warning] [vmsvc:guestinfo] Failed to get vmstats
   
• User instances of vmtoolsd fails with this error:
  
  Access violation (0xC0000005)
   
• You cannot map network drives.
• You experience disconnected terminal sessions.

Note: This issue may also occur on non-Terminal Servers, such as Windows 2008, Windows 2003, and Linux distributions.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 5.1.x
VMware vCenter Server 5.5.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1

Cause

This issue occurs when the VMware Tools daemon (vmtoolsd) handles more than two Terminal Sessions. When a user connects to a Windows virtual machine, each terminal session should have one vmtoolsd running. However, vmtoolsd is limited to only two sessions running simultaneously.

Thus, the Windows Application Event log fills up with warning messages similar to this until the total connection count is > 2 per session:

[vmusr:vmusr] Error in the RPC receive loop: RpcIn: Unable to send.

Resolution

This issue is resolved in VMware ESXi 5.1 Patch 3, available at VMware Downloads. For more information, see VMware ESXi 5.1, Patch Release ESXi510-201310001 (2053402).
 

To work around this issue, disable VMware Tools logging to the Event Log and general virtual machine logging to the vmware.log file for the virtual machine.

 

Note: If you encounter issues with VMware Tools, the logging will need to be enabled again for troubleshooting.

To disable VMware Tools application event logging:

1. Open the tools.conf file using a text editor. The tools.conf file is located at:
    
   • Windows XP and Windows Server 2000/2003:
     
     C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Tools\
      
   • Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008:
     
     C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Tools\
      
   • Linux:
     
     /etc/vmware-tools/tools.conf
      
   For more information, see the Configuration File Location section in Enabling debug logging for VMware Tools within a guest operating system (1007873).
   
   Note: If the tools.conf file is not present, create the file manually using a plain text editor.
    
2. Add this section to the tools.conf file:
   
   [logging]
   vmusr.level = error
   vmsvc.level = error
    
3. Save and close the file.
4. Restart the VMTools service (Administrative Tools > Services).
   
   Note: If there are users logged in to more than one session, restarting the VMTools service may not be sufficient. You may have to stop the vmtoolsd.exe process for all instances.

To disable general virtual machine logging:

1. Click the virtual machine in the Inventory.
2. In the Summary tab for that virtual machine, click Edit Settings.
3. In the virtual machine Properties dialog box, click the Options tab.
4. Under Advanced, click General and deselect Enable logging.
5. Click OK to save the change.
6. To make the change take effect, power off the virtual machine and then power it on.
7. If the issue continues, try uninstalling and reinstalling VMware Tools.
   
   Note: If you do not want to power off your virtual machine to disable logging, you can also use vMotion to migrate the virtual machine after changing this setting.

Additional Information

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Enabling debug logging for VMware Tools within a guest operating system
VMware ESXi 5.1, Patch ESXi510-201212402-BG: Updates tools-light
VMware ESXi 5.1, Patch Release ESXi510-201310001
Virtual machine with multiple user login session fails with the error: GuestRpc: Channel X, conflict: guest application toolbox-dnd tried to register, but it is still registered on channel Y
VMware Tools 5.1 にアップグレードすると次のメッセージが報告される：RPC 受信ループでエラーが発生しました：RpcIn：送信できません
升级到 VMware Tools 5.1 导致报告以下消息：RPC 接收循环中出错: RpcIn: 无法发送