V blog

Came across this error “Error 1316 A network error occurred while attempting to read the file” when updating server 2008 vmware tools. Unable to uninstall the old version either.

This is an issue with Microsoft Windows Installer and does not affect all Windows 2008 systems. The problem can occur when the original install path from the older version of VMware Tools is invalid

To correct this issue, you must perform a forced uninstall and re-install of VMware Tools.

To uninstall and re-install VMware Tools:

1. Right-click on the virtual machine.
2. Click Guest > Install/Upgrade VMware Tools.
3. Open a Console to the virtual machine and log into the guest operating system.
4. Click Start > Run, type cmd, and click OK to open a command prompt in Windows.
5. Change the drive to your CD-ROM drive. For example, D:\.
6. Type setup /c and press Enter to force removal of all registry entries and delete the old version of VMware Tools.
7. In My Computer, double click the CD-ROM that contains VMware Tools.
8. Select setup.exe to install if Auto-Run doesn’t start.

“Unable to obtain hardware information for the selected machine”

Came across above error with vconverter 4.0.1 build 161434 and the older versions with server 2008 r2 64bit cold v2v convert.

Vconvert doesn’t properly support server 2008 64bit R2. Way around it is to change the Guest Operating System from virtual machine settings to Vista 64bit and vconvert will detect the vm and convert fine. After the conversion, change the OS back to server 2008 64bit R2.

vConvert won’t let you reduce the size of vm on virtual machine hardware 7. Only option is to use Thin Provision.

When installing VirtualCenter client or server, I get an msiexec error message and the installation will fail. Came across this at a client.

The Install Shield package of VirtualCenter files is a 16-bit application that uses 8.3 file notation.
Your system may have 8.3 file name creation disabled by the Administrators or Group policy in order to increase performance on an NTFS file system.
This message is shown because there is an unknown parameter passed to the msiexec command.
Typically, this error is because the installer does not quote the %TMP% and %TEMP% variables, and if they are configured with some blank space file path, the installation fails.

Solution:

Set the %temp% environment variable to use an 8.3 naming convention path (that is, C:\temp).
You must create a new temporary folder for the installation and set the environment variables %TMP%, %TEMP% to use it:

This can be changed from Systems Properties – Advanced – Environmental Variables.

Came across this VMware comparison with Microsoft and Citrix. Thought it would be useful to share.

Ever wish you could restart a virtual machine or migrate it to another host from the convenience of your mobile phone? With VMware vCenter Mobile Access, you can.

VMware vCenter Mobile Access allows you to monitor and manage VMware Infrastructure from your mobile phone.

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Desktops of the future will need to be able to intelligently deliver data and applications on a wide variety of computing devices, web applications, and computers. Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) was the first step in this evolution. Over the past three years an entire ecosystem has been built around VDI and just as everyone beginning to realize the power of VDI, VMware is changing the game again.

VMware announced VMware View 3. VDI is now a part of VMware View. The View product portfolio will also include

• VMware View Manager (formerly VMware Virtual Desktop Manager): Enterprise class server which helps rapidly provision virtual desktops and connects users to their personalized desktops.
• VMware View Composer: New Product – Enables storage optimization and scalable management of virtual desktops from a single master image.
• ThinApp: Delivers and deploys applications more efficiently, more securely, and more cost-effectively with agentless application virtualization.

VMware announced the plans to bring virtualization and its many proven benefits to mobile phones through the new VMware Mobile Virtualization Platform (MVP). Built on innovative technology of Trango Virtual Processors acquired recently.

VMware MVP is a thin layer of software that is embedded on a mobile phone to decouple the applications and data from the underlying hardware. It is optimized to run efficiently on low power consuming and memory constrained mobile phones. The MVP currently supports a wide range of real-time and rich operating systems including Windows CE 5.0 and 6.0, Linux 2.6.x, Symbian 9.x, eCos, µITRON NORTi and µC/OS-II.

VMware Mobile Virtualization Platform will help handset vendors reduce development time and get mobile phones to market faster. In addition, end users will benefit by being able to run multiple personalities—for example, one for personal use and one for work use on the same phone.