VMware Tools does not start after updating the kernel

Environment

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5 Virtual Machine
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6 Virtual Machine
• VMware ESX Hypervisor
• VMWare provided vmware-tools package including guest modules for use within resident guests.

Issue

• VMware Tools does not start after updating the kernel with boot log messages:

  Checking acpi hot plug                                  [  OK  ]
  Starting VMware Tools services in the virtual machine:
  Switching to guest configuration:                       [  OK  ]
  VM communication interface:                             [FAILED]
  VM communication interface socket family:               [FAILED]
  Guest operating system daemon:                          [  OK  ]
  

• Vmware tools not running after kernel patches are installed

• VMTool not working

• After latest OS patchset installed VM coming up without NIC interfaces

• After upgrading the kernel some of my devices no longer work

Resolution

Warning: The vmware-tools package provided by VMWare is not authored by Red Hat directly. As such, Red Hat support cannot verify its behaviour, or the continued accuracy and content of the information below. It is recommended that the information below be secondary to opening a case with VMWare support and verifying that teams recommendations in moving forward.

• After updating the kernel, VMware tools just needs to be reconfigured -- not reinstalled
  Run the vmware-config-tools.pl script (from inside the RHEL guest) to update the initramfs/initrd

  # vmware-config-tools.pl
  

  NOTE: There is a high possibility that running this script will interupt network services on the server; run it from the console during regularly-scheduled downtime to prevent problems with applications and users

• Another option would be to use VMware's Content from www.vmware.com is not included.Operating System Specific Packages (OPSs) which provide weak versioning for VMware Tools

Root Cause

• In order for VMware-specific virtual hardware (e.g.: VMXNET3 ethernet controller) to work with a new kernel, initial ramdisk (initramfs in RHEL 6 and initrd in RHEL 5 & earlier) needs to be rebuilt to include the appropriate VMware-specific kernel modules (drivers)

Diagnostic Steps

• Check for VMware specific hardware in the output of an lspci command

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