Solution: "VMware Host Agent" service stops / crashes / runs for a short time before stopping

Thanks to this forum and other sources on the internet, I managed to piece together a fix for VMware Server 2 not working.

I was so glad to get this problem resolved that I thought I'd post this note, with everything in one place, to help any others who suffer the same issue as I had to endure...

Host environment:

Host=Vista Ultimate 64-Bit, member of a windows domain

PC=Dell Latitude laptop, Core 2 Duo 2.5GHz, 4GBRAM

Problem:

When connected to my company's network (the domain to which the PC belongs), VMware Server 2 runs just fine.

When away from the network (this is a laptop after all!) VMware Server 2 will not work.

I found myself on site infront of a customer trying to get a VM up and running for some critical work that needed to be delivered, but VMware server refused to start which made me look rather silly.  I had checked it all out the day before and it all worked, I was prepared - but VMware server had other ideas!

Observations:

When disconnected from the domain, on powering up the laptop the "VMware Host Agent" service (vmware-hostd.exe) would start for a few seconds and then stop.  This service is required for the web interface and also for the VI Client; without this service, you can not control your VMs.

Attempts to start the "VMware Host Agent" service manually caused the service to run for, say, 5 seconds and then stop.

When plugged in to the network: it works.

When disconnected from the network: it doesn't work.

After some poking around I discovered that if I established a VPN connection back to the company network (using my phone as a modem!) and then tried starting the  "VMware Host Agent" service - it started and continued to run.  The service continued to run even after the VPN connection had been terminated.  The service ran for many hours until I rebooted the laptop and then back to it not working until I VPN'ed in and manually kicked the service off again.

I thought "it must be because VMware was installed using a domain admin account".  Wrong.  I uninstalled all VMware applications and then re-installed it all on-site using the local admin account.  Same problem!

*_Solution:_</strongI can only comment on what worked for me.</p>

The problem was caused by the "VMware Host Agent" service (vmware-hostd.exe) reading in an xml file, trying to check domain account membership, failing and then stopping.

Take a look in the following file (this is the path on Vista; for XP/2003 it is in Documents and Settings\All Users\...):

C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Server\hostd\authorization.xml

This xml file stores the settings made in the Permissions tab of the VMware Infrastructure Web Access.

On my laptop this file contained a windows group stored in the domain (AD) and not a local windows group.  Deleting the domain group from the xml file resolved the issue of the service stopping shortly after starting.

Here is the authorization.xml file I ended up using:

&lt;ConfigRoot&gt;

  &lt;ACEData id="10"&gt;

    &lt;ACEDataEntity&gt;ha-folder-root&lt;/ACEDataEntity&gt;

    &lt;ACEDataId&gt;10&lt;/ACEDataId&gt;

    &lt;ACEDataIsGroup&gt;true&lt;/ACEDataIsGroup&gt;

    &lt;ACEDataPropagate&gt;true&lt;/ACEDataPropagate&gt;

    &lt;ACEDataRoleId&gt;-1&lt;/ACEDataRoleId&gt;

    &lt;ACEDataUser&gt;Administrators&lt;/ACEDataUser&gt;

  &lt;/ACEData&gt;

  &lt;ACEData id="12"&gt;

    &lt;ACEDataEntity&gt;ha-folder-root&lt;/ACEDataEntity&gt;

    &lt;ACEDataId&gt;12&lt;/ACEDataId&gt;

    &lt;ACEDataIsGroup&gt;true&lt;/ACEDataIsGroup&gt;

    &lt;ACEDataPropagate&gt;true&lt;/ACEDataPropagate&gt;

    &lt;ACEDataRoleId&gt;-1&lt;/ACEDataRoleId&gt;

    &lt;ACEDataUser&gt;Users&lt;/ACEDataUser&gt;

  &lt;/ACEData&gt;

  &lt;NextAceId&gt;13&lt;/NextAceId&gt;

&lt;/ConfigRoot&gt;

I hope that this helps.