Workaround for vmrun under VMWare Workstation 12

Ever since upgrading to VMWare Worksation 12 (12.0.0, 12.0.1 and 12.1.0), I haven't been able to use 'vmrun' to work with my Shared virtual machines. This had been working since (at least WS8) and up to (and including) VMWare Workstation 11.1.2.

I used to be able to do this in shared workstation mode:

$  /usr/bin/vmrun -T ws-shared -h https://localhost:943/sdk -u user1 listRegisteredVM
Total registered VMs: 23
[ha-datacenter/standard] WinVista/winVista.vmx
[ha-datacenter/standard] RHEL6_x64/RHEL6.vmx
[ha-datacenter/standard] VCS41_node1/VCS4.vmx
[ha-datacenter/standard] VCS41_node2/VCS4.vmx
[ha-datacenter/standard] VCS41_node3/VCS4.vmx
[ha-datacenter/standard] VCS41_node4/VCS4.vmx
[ha-datacenter/standard] VCS51_node1/VCS5.vmx
[ha-datacenter/standard] VCS51_node2/VCS5.vmx
[ha-datacenter/standard] VCS51_node3/VCS5.vmx
[ha-datacenter/standard] WinXP/winXPPro.vmx
[ha-datacenter/standard] VCS51_node4/VCS5.vmx
[....]

Now, on VMW 12, I just get this failure:

$  /usr/bin/vmrun -T ws-shared -h https://localhost:943/sdk -u user1 listRegisteredVM
Host password: 
Unable to connect to host.
Error: The specified service provider was not found

Fortunately, vmrun (part of the VIX API bundle) is quite flexible and I just found a workaround.

On a normal VMW 12 install, there's a text config file that lists the API endpoints:

$ cat /usr/lib/vmware-vix/vixwrapper-config.txt 
[....]
# Workstation 12.0.0
ws        19  vmdb  12.0.0 Workstation-12.0.0
player    19  vmdb  12.0.0 Workstation-12.0.0

# Workstation 12.0.1
ws        19  vmdb  12.0.1 Workstation-12.0.0
player    19  vmdb  12.0.1 Workstation-12.0.0

# EOF

On VMW 11, you'll note that the 'ws-shared' entries are present whereas they are missing from VMW 12.

$ cat /usr/lib/vmware-vix/vixwrapper-config.txt 
[....]
# Workstation 11.0.0
ws        17  vmdb  11.0.0 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0
player    17  vmdb   7.0.0 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0
ws-shared 17  none  11.0.0 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0

# Workstation 11.1.0
ws        17  vmdb  11.1.0 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0
player    17  vmdb   7.1.0 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0
ws-shared 17  none  11.1.0 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0

# Workstation 11.1.2
ws        17  vmdb  11.1.2 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0
player    17  vmdb   7.1.2 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0
ws-shared 17  none  11.1.2 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0

# ESX/vSphere/Server2.0 support
viserver 12  none 2.0.0   Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0
esx      12  none 4.0.0   Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0

The workaround is a two-part process:

  • copy the libs from a VMW11 to your VMW12 install.
That's only the /usr/lib/vmware-vix/Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0 directory.

  • edit vixwrapper-config.txt on VMW12 to add the missing entries and point to the libs you just copied over.
$ cd /usr/lib/vmware-vix
$ diff -c vixwrapper-config.txt.orig vixwrapper-config.txt
*** vixwrapper-config.txt.orig  Fri Oct 30 11:52:49 2015
--- vixwrapper-config.txt       Fri Nov 20 15:59:39 2015
***************
*** 26,34 ****
--- 26,36 ----
  # Workstation 12.0.0
  ws        19  vmdb  12.0.0 Workstation-12.0.0
  player    19  vmdb  12.0.0 Workstation-12.0.0
+ ws-shared 19  none  12.0.0 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0
  
  # Workstation 12.0.1
  ws        19  vmdb  12.0.1 Workstation-12.0.0
  player    19  vmdb  12.0.1 Workstation-12.0.0
+ ws-shared 19  none  12.0.1 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0
  
  # EOF

That's the end of the story, vmrun works again with VMW 12 in Shared VMWare Workstation mode...:

$ /usr/bin/vmrun -T ws-shared -h https://localhost:943/sdk -u user1 listRegisteredVM
Host password:
Total registered VMs: 42
[ha-datacenter/standard] VCS41_node1/VCS4.vmx
[ha-datacenter/standard] VCS41_node2/VCS4.vmx
[ha-datacenter/standard] VCS41_node3/VCS4.vmx
[ha-datacenter/standard] VCS41_node4/VCS4.vmx
[ha-datacenter/standard] VCS51_node1/VCS5.vmx
[ha-datacenter/standard] VCS51_node2/VCS5.vmx
[ha-datacenter/standard] VCS51_node3/VCS5.vmx
[ha-datacenter/standard] WinXP/winXPPro.vmx
[ha-datacenter/standard] VCS51_node4/VCS5.vmx
[ha-datacenter/standard] DOS622/dos.vmx
[ha-datacenter/standard] Beini_122/Beini.vmx
[....]


For your convenience, I placed a zip file here with the proper files on my site.
Extract with:
$ sudo unzip -o -d / vmrun_ws-shared_VMW12.zip

Comments

  1. UnknownMay 9, 2016 at 9:14 AM

    Thank you, I followed your instructions successfully. However, I had to edit one more file:
    /usr/lib/vmware/vixwrapper-product-config.txt
    and add one more line there:
    ws-shared 19 vmdb 12.1.0 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownNovember 21, 2016 at 8:07 AM

    Hi Vincent,
    your solution was working fine since the last upgrade to wokrstation 12.5.2. After that i get messages like "Cannot open VM: ... There was an error in communication" when i try to stop VMs, despite starting it works fine.
    Do you encounter the same problem or already got an solution for that?
    Thanks,
    Christian

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ElCoyote_December 23, 2016 at 11:06 AM

      Hi Christian,
      I am still running 12.1.1 and have not yet upgraded to 12.5.2 due to other issues.
      I couldn't get vmrun to run properly on 12.5.2 so the whole issue will need to be re-explored.
      Regards,
      Vincent

      Delete
    2. UnknownMarch 1, 2017 at 10:28 AM

      You have to update the config file for 12.5.2 and you should be fine

      Delete
    3. Eugene IvakhivMay 15, 2017 at 5:45 AM

      Confirming: it was working on 12.1.1. Broken on 12.5.4. Downgrade it is...

      Delete
  3. ElCoyote_May 16, 2017 at 5:17 AM

    Hi Eugene,
    You don't need to downgrade.. you can keep using 12.5.5 and use the hacks provided here. This is what I have on RHEL6.9:

    # cat /usr/lib/vmware-vix/vixwrapper-config.txt
    # Workstation 12.0.0
    ws 19 vmdb 12.0.0 Workstation-12.0.0
    player 19 vmdb 12.0.0 Workstation-12.0.0
    ws-shared 19 none 12.0.0 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0

    # Workstation 12.0.1
    ws 19 vmdb 12.0.1 Workstation-12.0.0
    player 19 vmdb 12.0.1 Workstation-12.0.0
    ws-shared 19 none 12.0.1 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0

    # Workstation 12.1.0
    ws 19 vmdb 12.1.0 Workstation-12.0.0
    player 19 vmdb 12.1.0 Workstation-12.0.0
    ws-shared 19 none 12.1.0 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0

    # Workstation 12.1.1
    ws 19 vmdb 12.1.1 Workstation-12.0.0
    player 19 vmdb 12.1.1 Workstation-12.0.0
    ws-shared 19 none 12.1.1 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0

    # Workstation 12.5.0
    ws 19 vmdb 12.5.0 Workstation-12.0.0
    player 19 vmdb 12.5.0 Workstation-12.0.0
    ws-shared 19 none 12.5.0 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0

    # Workstation 12.5.1
    ws 19 vmdb 12.5.1 Workstation-12.0.0
    player 19 vmdb 12.5.1 Workstation-12.0.0
    ws-shared 19 none 12.5.1 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0

    # Workstation 12.5.2
    ws 19 vmdb 12.5.2 Workstation-12.0.0
    player 19 vmdb 12.5.2 Workstation-12.0.0
    ws-shared 19 none 12.5.2 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0

    # Workstation 12.5.3
    ws 19 vmdb 12.5.3 Workstation-12.0.0
    player 19 vmdb 12.5.3 Workstation-12.0.0
    ws-shared 19 none 12.5.3 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0

    # Workstation 12.5.4
    ws 19 vmdb 12.5.4 Workstation-12.0.0
    player 19 vmdb 12.5.4 Workstation-12.0.0
    ws-shared 19 none 12.5.4 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0

    # Workstation12.5.5
    ws 19 vmdb 12.5.5 Workstation-12.0.0
    player 19 vmdb 12.5.5 Workstation-12.0.0
    ws-shared 19 none 12.5.5 Workstation-11.0.0-and-vSphere-6.0.0

    ReplyDelete

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