Thursday 30 October 2014

VMware tools installation will fail with Error - The Microsoft Runtime DLL installer failed to complete installation

Came across this issue during a P2V migration of a Windows 2008 machine. 

Issue : VMware tools installation will fail with Error " VMware Product Installation" - "Setup cannot continue.  The Microsoft Runtime DLL installer failed to complete installation."

The Logs for the VMware tools is located in temp Directory of the Machine as vminst.log. You can access the log by typing %temp% in the Run window.

* BootStrapper-build-1734305| ** InstallVCRedist [vcredist_x86.exe][ /Q]
* BootStrapper-build-1734305| Found 
"C:\Users\vmadmin\AppData\Local\Temp\{81330AE8-6050-4FD6-8271-BA97348C4118}~setup\vcredist_x86.exe"
* BootStrapper-build-1734305| Attempting to launch ""C:\Users\vmadmin\AppData\Local\Temp\{81330AE8-6050-4FD6-8271-BA97348C4118}~setup\vcredist_x86.exe"  /Q"
* BootStrapper-build-1734305| Child exited with code 1603
* BootStrapper-build-1734305| Process returned 1603
* BootStrapper-build-1734305| Launching VC dll installer failed with 1603.
* BootStrapper-build-1734305| DisplayMessageBox: "VMware Product Installation" - "Setup cannot continue.  The Microsoft Runtime DLL installer failed to complete installation."

How the issue was fixed:

1) When looked at the log file, the error indicated that "vcredist_x86.exe" was not being installed and this caused the Installation to fail.

2) Downloaded the file from Microsoft website and tried installing the file which also failed.

3) Tried installing Windows updates, which was not done for a long time.There were around 100 updates that had to be installed and strangely all of the udpates failed.

4) As a last step we tried doing chkdsk and it complained that the disk was in use and it would schedule the scan the next time of restart.

5) Okay, so we went ahead with the resart of the VM and during bootup there was the message, " CANNOT OPEN VOLUME FOR DIRECT ACCESS".. WOW now that was a error message that I had seen first. 

6) So, we felt it was some service that was locking the disk that was causing the issue and a quick search on the internet pointed torwards the Anti-Virus software causing the issue.

7) Logged back into the OS and to be on the safe side, uninstalled the Anti-virus. Enabled the chkdsk and restarted the Machine. There it was the same error message. :-( 

8) Atlast, I thought let me connect the Drive to another machine and do chkdsk maybe it might help.I shutdown the VM, and in the vCenter Inventory, selected another 2008 VM. In the Edit Settings, selected " Add Disk" browsed through the datastore and added the VMDK of the faulty VM as the second disk.

9) Logged into windows,the disk was offline brought the disk online and when I ran a chkdsk there it was . The disk had a lot of invalid entries which started getting fixed. Once this was completed. I shutdown the VM. Removed the VMDK and Powered on the faulty Virtual Machine. During the bootup, chkdsk ran by itself and fixed some more entries.

10) After a while, Windows came and VMware tools installation completed successfully.

Hope this info helps.

xx

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Thank you very much for this post! I had a 2008 P2V that would not install the VMware tools. I tried numerous suggested fixes, but your suggestion to add the offending disk to another VM and chkdsk on it worked! I was able to install the tools on the initial VM after correcting errors on the disk under the other VM. Thanks so much!!!

Ravi Kumar said...

Thanks for the comments Kevin. Nice to know that the information helped.

J said...

Worked for me too. THANKS!

Yossi m. said...

i have a easy solution for this ... copy the VMware Tools64 to the machine and it will install it successfully worked for me.

Unknown said...

Exact same issue, your solution worked for me also THANK YOU so much!!

Sagy said...

Worked for me. Thank you!

Os said...

Thank you for the post Ravi Kumar. years later, this post is still helping us out.

Unknown said...

You saved my life x 1000 !!

Thank you so much !!

Unknown said...

You saved my life x 1000 !!

Thank you so much !!

Anonymous said...

This really bailed me out. Thanks! I linked it in some VMware blogs that were having the same issue. Cheers!!!!!!