Unattended VMtools failing on Windows Enterprise 1909

[RyanCButler]

Tried a variety of versions of tools VMware-tools-windows-10.1.0-4449150, VMware-tools-windows-10.3.5-10430147.iso and VMware-tools-windows-11.0.1-14773994.iso and i'm getting suck during the VMtools unattended install with a new install of Windows 1909 Enterprise with "Setup failed to install..."

Running e:\setup64 /s /v "/qb REBOOT=R"

[Scott Vessey]

Moderator: Moved to Virtual Machine, Guest OS, and VM Tools

[SupreetK]

What errors do you see in the VMware Tools log file?

* %temp%\vminst.log
* %temp%\vmmsi.log
* C:\windows\temp\vminst.log

-Supreet

[RyanCButler]

FYI This is being called as part of the autounattend.xml that I have used on previous versions of Win 10.  Logs have been attached.

            <RunSynchronous>

                <RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">

                    <Description>Install VMware Tools from windows.iso</Description>

                    <Order>1</Order>

                    <Path>a:\vmtools.cmd</Path>

                    <WillReboot>Always</WillReboot>

                </RunSynchronousCommand>

            </RunSynchronous>

-----

cmd contains

@rem Silent mode, basic UI, no reboot

e:\setup64 /s /v "/qb REBOOT=R"

----

[jmwilliams]

I am seeing the same issue using VMware-Tools-windows-10.3.2-9925305, also using the same setup script from mounted floppy drive in unattend file.

Did you ever find out the cause?

[jmwilliams]

In case it's helpful for anyone else, I was able to get around this by excluding both the VMCI and EFI Firmware drivers from the VMware Tools install:

e:\setup64 /s /v "/qb REBOOT=R ADDLOCAL=ALL REMOVE=VMCI,EFIFW"

Finding the component name for the EFI Firmware was especially tricky, as VMware doesn't include it in the Tools documentation.

[Adamp1986]

I'm seeing the same behavior with VMware-tools-windows-11.0.1-14773994 and Win 10 1909.  I need the VMCI modules to be installed so my VM can report it's IP address into vCenter which is needed for downstream automation tasks.  Any advice? 

[Docandrew]

I too am having this issue and needed the VMCI for the same thing you are.

In my case, I am using Packer. Hitting "Enter" to dismiss the driver errors got it to successfully boot to desktop - once there, Packer was still waiting for an IP while I manually installed VM Tools (with no problems). The VM Tools installation completed and rebooted the machine, after which point Packer got the IP and continued the automated setup with no issues.

Hopefully that workaround helps you. This is still a bit of an annoyance, as I'd like the image creation to be totally hands-off. Looking forward to a resolution. It appears to be a OS version specific issue - the exact same workflow using Windows Server had no problems at all. I tried a few different versions of the VMTools ISO as well.

[jesperalberts]

I managed to find a workaround:

I took the VMXNET3 driver from an existing system and copied it to the "setup" folder of Packer and moved the installation of VMware Tools to the "OOBE" part of the unattended.xml file. Everything works like a charm since doing this.

[dacarab2]

I ran into similar issues with this as well, when trying to automate a Server 2019 template installation with Packer on vSphere 7. The vmtoolsd service would install about one time in ten - then I added my timezone (GMT) to the windows unattend file I was using, and since then it has worked every time.

When troubleshooting, I noticed that one time when it had worked, the Time Service had managed to get out to sync with time.windows.com - which made me wonder if vmtoolsd wasn't installing due some kind of wierd time / authentication issue  / race condition where occasionally it was able to sync time and not error.

Just speculation on my part - but for me, adding the correct timezone in my unattend file was all that was required to resolve the issue permanently.

Hope this is of use to someone...

Cheers

[jesperalberts]

Did you ever find a solution for this?