VMware Server 2.x and Windows 2003
After having some performance issues with VMware server 1.x, we decided to upgrade to the 2.x release. It wasn’t long after executing the setup binary that I had issues…
Because most apps allow an upgrade path, I made a backup of my main configurations, and executed the v2 installer. I was prompted that if I was to continue, v1 would be removed first. Letting it do this simple action, the services were uninstalled… This is where I was promptly flashed a nice little error… I don’t remember the exact verbiage, but it went something along the lines of “Your group policies restrict access to running this application, please contact your system administrator”. Two issues with this:
- I am the system administrator
- I don’t have any defined policies blocking the running of applications
Checking the windows event logs showed the following error too:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: MsiInstaller
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1008
Date: 10/30/2008
Time: 12:04:04 PM
User: MYDOMAIN\jangliss
Computer: VMHost
Description:
The installation of C:\DOCUME~1\jangliss\LOCALS~1\Temp\1\{AF08C71F-F822-4416-87A9-2BBF5A8A5F12}~setup\VMware Server.msi is not permitted due
to an error in software restriction policy processing. The object cannot be trusted.
For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
There is a little bit of a hint in the error message, but it’s also a little misleading. The hint is at the end, the misleading portion is the rest of the message. “The object cannot be trusted” seemed to strike a trigger in my memory of a war with service pack 1 for Visual Studio. During that install, I was told the signature couldn’t be validated, and a google around eventually redirected me to KB925336.
On a whim, I attempted installing the same package on this host, rebooted, and tried the installer again. This time, no issues. So it seems the MSI provided by VMware is considered “large”, which causes Windows not to be able to validate the digital signature.
Large is an understatement … 580mb??? That’s what is called, in technical terms, “Ginormous” (or, for the layman, “Fricken huge”).
Out of curiosity, what do you think of the new interface?
Personally, I liked the thick client interface better. It’s kind of annoying to have to login to the admin console every time.
I much prefer the old interface. The new one certainly gives you access to more information, but is prone to issues. One of the first things I stumbled across after the upgrade was a resource issue which locked up the vmware-authd service, and made the web service entirely unusable. Being crafty, I figured I could use the command line tools, but even they too have been update to call through the web service, making the server practically dead.
I’m also a little baffled about their shift in storage. The original version allowed you to put the images anywhere, and load them. The new version requires them to be located in a defined storage block. Whilst you can add more storage groups, it’s a PITA when you’ve got images on several different disk clusters. The funny thing about that though, is that the first time you start the new install after an upgrade, it powers on all the old hosts… but as soon as you try to restart, it reports the files are missing. I imagine this is probably to bring it more inline with their ESX class apps.