VMware Tools 11.1.1 Release Notes

Introduction

VMware Tools | 18 JUN 2020 | 16303738

Check for additions and updates to these release notes.

What's New

For more information about the issues fixes, see the Resolved Issues section.

Earlier Releases of VMware Tools

For earlier releases of VMware Tools, see the VMware Tools Documentation page.

Before You Begin

VMware Tools 11.1.1 supports the following guest operating systems:

windows.iso

supports Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

VMware Tools 11.1.1 depends on and ships Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015, 2017, and 2019. While preparing the system for VMware Tools 11.1.1 installation, Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015, 2017, and 2019 is installed on the system as a prerequisite. Installing or upgrading to VMware Tools 11.1.1 is not supported for Windows versions that do not meet the prerequisites. You must continue to use VMware Tools 10.2.x or later until you can patch or update Windows OS to meet the prerequisites for VMware Tools 11.1.1. Refer to Microsoft's update KB2977003 for the latest supported Visual C++ downloads.

Windows OS level prerequisites

Windows Server 2019

Windows Server 2016

Windows 10

Windows Server 2012 R2 with Microsoft update. For more information, see KB2919355.

Windows 8.1 with Microsoft update. For more information, see KB2919355.

Windows Server 2012

Windows 8

Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1)

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1)

darwin.iso

supports Mac OS X versions 10.11 and later.

For more information about

linux.iso

, see VMware Tools 10.3.22 Release Notes.

For more information about

solaris.iso

, see VMware Tools 10.3.10 Release Notes.

VMware Tools ISO images are frozen for some end of life guest operating systems. Some ISO images are not included with ESXi in the

tools-light

VIB. For more details, see the VMware Tools Documentation page. All VMware Tools ISO images are available for download from https://support.broadcom.com.

VMware Tools for Windows
: 32-bit and 64-bit installer executable (.exe) files are available for download. These files are provided for easier access and installation of VMware Tools in Windows guest operating systems.

For the resolution on incompatibility and general guidelines, while upgrading ESXi hosts to ESXi 5.5 Update 3b or ESXi 6.0 Update 1 or later, and using earlier versions of Horizon View Agent, refer to the knowledge base articles:

Connecting to View desktops with Horizon View Agent 5.3.5 or earlier hosted on ESXi 5.5 Update 3b or later fails with a black screen.

Connecting to View desktops with Horizon View Agent 6.0.x or 6.1.x hosted on ESXi 5.5 Update 3b or later fails with a black screen.

Connecting to View desktops with Horizon View Agent 6.1.x hosted on ESXi 6.0 Update 1 or later fails with a black screen.

Internationalization

VMware Tools 11.1.1 is available in the following languages:

English

French

German

Spanish

Italian

Japanese

Korean

Simplified Chinese

Traditional Chinese

Product Support Notice

The Windows pre-Vista iso image for VMWare Tools is no longer packaged with ESXi. The Windows pre-Vista iso image is available for download by users who require it. For download information, see the Product Download page.

End of Feature Support Notice

Balloon driver has been removed from MacOs VMware Tools 11.1.0.

VMware Tools 10.3.5 release supports the tar tools (

linux.iso

) and OSPs. Releases after VMware Tools 10.3.5 include only critical and security fixes and do not support new features in VMware Tools tar tools and OSPs. Use open-vm-tools for those operating systems that support open-vm-tools. For more information on different types of VMware Tools, see https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2016/02/understanding-the-three-types-of-vm-tools.html.

Compatibility Notes

Starting with VMware Tools version 10.2.0, Perl script-based VMware Tools installation for FreeBSD has been discontinued. FreeBSD systems are supported only through the open-vm-tools packages directly available from FreeBSD package repositories. FreeBSD packages for open-vm-tools 10.1.0 and later are available from FreeBSD package repositories.

Guest Operating System Customization Support

The Guest OS Customization Support Matrix provides details about the guest operating systems supported for customization.

Interoperability Matrix

The VMware Product Interoperability Matrix provides details about the compatibility of current and earlier versions of VMware Products.

Installation and Upgrades for this release

VMware Tools can be downloaded from the Product Download page.

VMware Tools Operating System Specific Packages can be downloaded from http://packages.vmware.com/tools/releases/index.html. For more information on installing OSPs, see the VMware Tools Installation Guide for Operating System Specific Packages.

The steps to install VMware Tools vary depending on your VMware product and the guest operating system you have installed. For general steps to install VMware Tools in most VMware products, see General VMware Tools installation instructions (1014294).To set up productLocker to point to the shared datastore, see KB 2004018. For specific instructions to install, upgrade, and configure VMware Tools, see the VMware Tools Documentation page.

Note
: If you are using VMware Tools version earlier than 9.4, refer to VMware Tools 10.1.0 Release Notes for specific upgrade guidelines.

Windows Guest Drivers Installed by VMware Tools

VMware Tools 11.1.1 supports the following driver versions on a Windows guest operating system.

Drivers	VMware Tools 11.1.1
Hardware Drivers
vmci	9.8.16.0
vsock	9.8.16.0
pvscsi	1.3.15.0
wddm	8.16.07.0008
vmxnet3	1.8.16.0
vmxnet2	2.2.0.0
vmmouse	12.5.10.0
vmusbmouse	12.5.10.0
vmaudio	5.10.0.3506
efifw	1.0.0.0
Software Drivers
vmrawdsk.sys	1.1.5.0
vmmemctl.sys	7.5.5.0
vmhgfs.sys	11.0.42.0
vsepflt.sys	11.1.1.0
vnetWFP.sys	11.1.1.0
glgxi.sys	2.3.0.0
giappdef	2.3.1.0
Security DLL
vmwsu.dll	2.5.0.0

Resolved Issues

Denial-of-service vulnerability in the Host-Guest File System (HGFS) implementation of VMware Tools for Mac OS

VMware Tools for Mac OS contains a denial-of-service vulnerability in the Host-Guest File System (HGFS) implementation. The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures project (cve.mitre.org) has assigned the identifier CVE-2020-3972 to this issue. For more information, see VMSA-2020-0014.

This issue is resolved in this release.

Guest VMs might fail with an intermittent blue screen due to NSX Network Introspection driver (vnetWFP) in a NSX environment

NSX Network Introspection driver (vnetWFP) can cause the guest operating system to fail during processing network connections, typically over loopback address. This behavior is observed in VMware Tools 11.0.0 and later versions.

This issue is resolved in this release.

NSX Guest Introspection drivers (vsepflt and vnetWFP) can leak memory while processing network traffic for ICMP or UDP packets

A memory leak can be observed in NSX Guest Introspection drivers (

vsepflt

and

vnetWFP

) when installed in NSX environment. This can lead to customers reaching the memory limits on their respective systems after some time. This issue is observed in VMware Tools 11.0.0 and later versions.

This issue is resolved in this release.

Known Issues

Upgrade of VMware Tools hangs in a Windows Server 2008 Virtual Machine

VMware Tools upgrade process hangs in a Windows Server 2008 VM. This happens because the 'vcredist' bundled in the tools installer gets stuck and does not return.

Workaround:

If you have Windows remote management interface to the VM in the guest network, then stop the process when it hangs, like

'"c:\vcredist_x86.exe" /quiet /noRestart -burn.unelevated BurnPipe.{32940ADA-3765-4E48-8624-3DB276BB8083} {D6A63D73-EE4C-4698-8D19-C926D5E854A4} 1088'

.

You can also choose to stop the child process manually.

VMware Tools 11.1.0 fails to install on a VM with VMware Horizon Agent 7.7 or earlier installed

VMware Tools installation setup fails with a popup message:

"Setup failed to install the SVGA driver automatically. This driver will have to be installed manually."

Workaround:

To avoid this issue, perform the following steps.

Choose Custom Setup.

Deselect the SVGA Driver.

Install VMware Tools.

Setup will complete successfuly and retain the existing installed SVGA Driver. To reinstall the SVGA driver on a failed VMware Tools install, see KB1016770.

Installing or upgrading versions earlier than VMware Tools 10.3.0 to VMware Tools 11.1.0 might take longer and Windows OS might need a restart

The installation process might appear to be in progress and displays a message similar to the following:

"Preparing 'VMware Tools' for installation..."

During this process, you might be prompted to restart the operating system.

Workaround:

For more information, see KB 55798.

VMware Tools upgrade fails on Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 without SHA-2 code signing support

Microsoft has changed Windows driver signing to use SHA-2 algorithm exclusively starting December 3, 2019. Hence, legacy Windows systems without SHA-2 code signing support fail driver signature verification.

Workaround:

For more information, see KB 78708.

Event Viewer driver warnings generated by VMware Tools boot start drivers glxgi, pvscsi, vsepflt, and vsock

When you have a secure boot VM with Microsoft Hyper-V and virtualization-based security enabled with Device Guard and Code Integrity policy set to enforced, then drivers, glxgi, pvscsi, vsepflt, and vsock might generate the event log warnings similar to the following.

Log Name: Microsoft-Windows-CodeIntegrity/Operational
Source: Microsoft-Windows-CodeIntegrity
Operational Log:
Warnings
Event ID: 3083
Level: Warning
Description:
Code Integrity determined kernel module system32\DRIVERS\vsock.sys that did not meet the WHQL requirements is loaded into the system.Check with the publisher to see if a WHQL compliant kernel module is available.

Workaround:

These warnings are safe to ignore. The drivers load and operate in the normal manner.

AppDefense driver glxgi logs an error in the event viewer

AppDefense driver

glxgi

logs an error in the event viewer similar to the following:

"

The glxgi service failed to start due to the following error: A device attached to the system is not functioning.

"

The events are observed when Guest Integrity is disabled.

Workaround:

These events do not impact the system and are safe to ignore.

After upgrading to a new VMware Tools version with installer parameter to remove the NetworkIntrospection feature, earlier version of vnetflt or vnetWFP driver service still runs

After the upgrade, the NetworkIntrospection feature is not present in the system's VMware Tools MSI database, but the feature's vnetflt or vnetWFP driver service still exists.

Workaround:

For more information, see KB 78016.

Drag functionality fails to work in Ubuntu.

Drag functionality fails to work in Ubuntu 16.04.4 32-bit virtual machine installed using easy install. Also, failure of copy and paste functionality is observed in the same system.

Add the

modprobe.blacklist=vmwgfx

linux kernel boot option.

To gain access to larger resolutions, remove

svga.guestBackedPrimaryAware = "TRUE"

option from the VMX file.

Shared Folders mount is unavailable on Linux VM.

If the Shared Folders
feature is enabled on a Linux VM while it is powered off, shared folders mount is not available on restart.

Note: This issue is applicable for VMware Tools running on Workstation and Fusion.

Shared Folders
feature from the interface.For resolving the issue permanently, edit /etc/fstab
and add an entry to mount the Shared Folders automatically on boot.

For example, add the line:

vmhgfs-fuse /mnt/hgfs fuse defaults,allow_other 0 0