NOT SOLVED !! : Open-VM-Tools - NOT WORKING on vSphere

[yngndrw]

My VM Tools installed fine. It says "Unmanaged" in VMWare but I believe that's just because it's the open version of the tools which don't have all the features.

pfSense Version: 2.0-RC1 (amd64) built on Sat Feb 26 18:07:23 EST 2011
Open-VM-Tools Version: 217847

[toomeek]

What is Open-vm-tools? Something like Virtualbox-additions (paravirtualized drivers)?
Uh, never used, don't have to.
I just use Qemu-KVM and rtl8139/e1000 standard network devices. I would like to test performance, but I see "iperf" package is not available to download in Beta.
I use 2.0-RC1 (i386) built on Fri Apr 15 14:44:27 EDT 2011.

EDIT: sorry, I missed "Add" button.
Yes, You're correct. They are needed. Just never used more than 20Mbits before.
Tested both - from hypervisor (it has nVidia Corporation MCP61 Ethernet Gigabit NIC) and from client with 1Gbit NIC. Both reached ~50Mbits.

EDIT: Just tested again on Dell PowerEdge R310 with 2 x "Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme II BCM5716 Gigabit Ethernet" and reached ~73Mbits on "e1000" network device.
Oh, good to know that. I was planning to use virtualized pfSense as a router for LAN traffic too (routing traffic between 2 subnets). Becouse of heavy load (IP cameras, printers) I need to reach 1Gbit or more for that.

[Clouseau]

Onhel: No I can't. I must and want to use "native" psSense package menu drivers aka Open-VM-Tools. Now I understand why not to use open source drivers. Poor and extremely slow support  :-[ Community idea is not working here at all. Now the installation fails just for missing package icu-4.6.1.tbz. This has been the situation for long time now. This is situation in 32bit version. With 64bit version there is other major show stopper issues. (yeah - I'm a bit frustrated now)

I just can't understand how this can have a STABLE status on package list? "Open-VM-Tools: Stable 313025 platform: 2.0"
A totally non working package installer and status is STABLE?

installation@ESXi: 2.0-RC1 (i386) built on Sun Apr 17 04:28:14 EDT 2011

Downloading http://files.pfsense.org/packages/8/All/icu-4.6.1.tbz …  could not download from there or http://ftp2.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-8.1-release/All/icu-4.6.1.tbz.
of icu-4.6.1 failed!

Installation aborted.Backing up libraries.

[tojaktoty]

Disregarding the present openvmtools issues, any advantages using amd64 versus i386 on esxi?

[luma]

Hi,

I'm using pfSense 32bits on VMWare ESXi.

Concerning package installation issue, Martin(mfuchs) has recently made progress but it seems that the last problem is availibility of icu-4.6.1.tbz.

Do you think it's possible to sync this file from Martin (http://pfsense.trendchiller.com/packages/icu-4.6.1.tbz) to the pfsense one (http://files.pfsense.org/packages/8/All/)?

Thanks for all your effort!

[Clouseau]

@luma:

Hi,

I'm using pfSense 32bits on VMWare ESXi.

Concerning package installation issue, Martin(mfuchs) has recently made progress but it seems that the last problem is availibility of icu-4.6.1.tbz.

Do you think it's possible to sync this file from Martin (http://pfsense.trendchiller.com/packages/icu-4.6.1.tbz) to the pfsense one (http://files.pfsense.org/packages/8/All/)?

Thanks for all your effort!

This missing icu-4.6.1.tbz package has been synced at 29'th April, has anyone tryed the installation after this? I will do it tomorrow but I'm interested to hear if this issue now fixed?

[kaugustyn]

Hi

This missing icu-4.6.1.tbz issue is resolved, but OpenVM Tools hangs on installation. Tested on yesterday on 2 installations, will try today for more investigation.

But thanks for correction :)
Best regards

[Clouseau]

okey,

I made an upgrade test again. Open-VM-Tools fails to install. There is some kind  of parse error(Syntax error) on line 13.

Now Dashboard shows all the time that some "Packages are currently being reinstalled in background". But the reality is that there is nothing packages in reinstallation (only Open-VM-Tools hangs this process) I had to reboot the firewall - now no access to firewall web GUI !! Had to reboot webConfigurator to gain access again. Now - no access to WAN network. It totally lost it's connectivity. Then I tried to remove the Open-VM-Tools package. No luck there. Even this hangs up now. It seems to stuck in "Loading package instructions…"

My pfSense is now dead - R.I.P  8)

This situation has changed from bad to worse! Open-VM-Tools installation problem is now CRITICAL!

[Clouseau]

Ping… anyone?

This issue is now in critical stage. This package breaks pfSense!

[focalguy]

This information would probably be more useful in the ticket:
http://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/1385

[jimp]

Reinstall the package in about 5 minutes, the syntax error should be fixed.

[toomeek]

Hmm..
May I attach something?
QEMU PC emulator version 0.12.5 (qemu-kvm-0.12.5), Copyright 2003-2008 Fabrice Bellard
using KVM.

On Debian I have "virtio-net" NIC attached.
On pFsense I have "Intel E1000" NIC attached, becouse pfSense won't recognize "virtio-net". Shame..

Measured throughput Client (Gigabit NIC) -> VM (attached to Gigabit NIC bridge)
Debian: ~860 Mbps
pfSense: ~260 MBps

Let's do more tests. Using 2.0-RC1 (i386) built on Thu Apr 14 18:50:50 EDT 2011.

[jimp]

That has nothing to do with VMware or VMware tools, start your own thread please.

[JoeUser]

Open-VM-Tools 217847 working on 2.0-RC1 (amd64) built on Sat May 7 23:04:11 EDT 2011.
Tools status in vSphere client shows "Unmanaged", tools are running and kernel modules are present.

[danswartz]

Dunno how many folks know this - I was told this on a vmware forum: people get confused and worried when they see "Unmanaged" for the vm tools status.  That is fine.  What it means is it is vm tools not installed via the esx/esxi interface, do esx/esxi is not managing it for you.  If it said 'not installed' or 'not running', then worry.  HTH.

[Clouseau]

I will have a try tomorrow and hope that tools runs fine. Unmanaged status is just telling that fact that it's not managed by Vmware vSphere client. Vmware should change this status info to something much better (Open Source Tools OK)

[calvinz]

so anyone had luck installing open-vm-tools up to this point ?

[jimp]

@calvinz:

so anyone had luck installing open-vm-tools up to this point ?

As I said earlier in the thread, it loads fine on 32 and 64 bit VMs for me now.

[danswartz]

Ditto here.

[Clouseau]

Confirm! Open-Vm-Tools works again ! Huh….. Nice job! This was an huge problem for me and I'm happy to see this is over.