Just converted a server from Ubuntu 10.04 to 64bit RHEL 5.5 and this seems to have solved the problems connecting with the with web client as well as using the VMware Infrastructure Client as well.

Thanks for sharing..

If it works manually from the command line but not from the startup script I would suspect a syntax error. If you were to copy the change from this blog for /etc/init.d/vmware and paste into a pUTTY session with vi open, quotes (“) have a tendency to translate into periods (.). Also check the hostd log /var/log/vmware/hostd.log and see if it tells you anything.

I ran bash -x /etc/init.d/vmware start and compared to your output and found the following difference:

Yours:
+ vmware_bg_exec ‘VMware Server Host Agent’ /usr/lib/vmware/vmware-hostd -a -d -u /etc/vmware/hostd/config.xml

Mine:
+ vmware_bg_exec ‘VMware Server Host Agent’ /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-hostd -a -d -u /etc/vmware/hostd/config.xml

Unless you have a different directory structure than my Vmware Server you have a bad file path to vmware-hostd.

Let me know how you do.

George

Thank you for this full-covered solution! I try to use variant #2 on fresh CentOS 5.5 x64 2.6.18-194.8.1.el5, and can’t understand – this fix work, when i manually run
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH and /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-hostd -a -d -u /etc/vmware/hostd/config.xml &. But then i put it in /etc/init.d/vmware script , hostd can’t load. I try to debug it with bash -x /etc/init.d/vmware start , and see this:

+ return 0
+ service_vmware_mgmt start
+ case “$1″ in
++ vmware_product
++ echo wgs
++ exit 0
+ ‘[' wgs = wgs ']‘
+ echo ‘Starting VMware management services:’
Starting VMware management services:
+ vmware_start_hostd
+ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/vmware/vmacore:/usr/lib/vmware/hostd:/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libxml2.so.2:/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libexpat.so.0:/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libstdc++.so.6:/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1:/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8:/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libssl.so.0.9.8
+ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/vmware/vmacore:/usr/lib/vmware/hostd:/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libxml2.so.2:/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libexpat.so.0:/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libstdc++.so.6:/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1:/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8:/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libssl.so.0.9.8
++ vmware_product_name
++ echo ‘VMware Server’
++ exit 0
+ vmware_bg_exec ‘VMware Server Host Agent’ /usr/lib/vmware/vmware-hostd -a -d -u /etc/vmware/hostd/config.xml
+ local ‘msg=VMware Server Host Agent’
+ local func=/usr/lib/vmware/vmware-hostd
+ shift 2
+ ‘[' '' = yes ']‘
+ echo -n ‘ VMware Server Host Agent (background)’
VMware Server Host Agent (background)+ logger -t ‘VMware[init]‘ -p daemon.err
+ vmware_success
++ type -t echo_success
+ ‘[' function = function ']‘
+ echo_success
+ ‘[' color = color ']‘
+ echo -en ’33[60G'
+ echo -n '['
[+ '[' color = color ']‘
+ echo -en ’33[0;32m'
+ echo -n ' OK '
OK + '[' color = color ']‘
+ echo -en ’33[0;39m'
+ echo -n ']‘
]+ echo -ne ‘\r’
+ return 0
+ echo

+ return 0

e.g. all OK. But ps -aux | grep host
Warning: bad syntax, perhaps a bogus ‘-’? See /usr/share/doc/procps-3.2.7/FAQ
root 12371 0.0 0.0 61184 732 pts/2 S+ 12:36 0:00 grep host
– hostd is absent in running processes after vmware start script =\ May be you can help me with any ideas , why hostd run manually, but can’t run while running vmware start script?

Starting VMware services:
Virtual machine monitor[ OK ]
Virtual machine communication interface[ OK ]
VM communication interface socket family:[ OK ]
Virtual ethernet[ OK ]
Bridged networking on /dev/vmnet0[ OK ]
Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet1 (background)[ OK ]
DHCP server on /dev/vmnet1[ OK ]
Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet8 (background)[ OK ]
DHCP server on /dev/vmnet8[ OK ]
NAT service on /dev/vmnet8[ OK ]
VMware Server Authentication Daemon (background)[ OK ]
Shared Memory Available[ OK ]
Starting VMware management services:
declare -x G_BROKEN_FILENAMES=”1″
declare -x HISTSIZE=”1000″
declare -x HOME=”/root”
declare -x HOSTNAME=”crono.phys.uh.edu”
declare -x INPUTRC=”/etc/inputrc”
declare -x LANG=”en_US.UTF-8″
declare -x LESSOPEN=”|/usr/bin/lesspipe.sh %s”
declare -x LOGNAME=”root”
declare -x LS_COLORS=”no=00:fi=00:di=01;34:ln=01;36:pi=40;33:so=01;35:bd=40;33;01:cd=40;33;01:or=01;05;37;41:mi=01;05;37;41:ex=01;32:*.cmd=01;32:*.exe=01;32:*.com=01;32:*.btm=01;32:*.bat=01;32:*.sh=01;32:*.csh=01;32:*.tar=01;31:*.tgz=01;31:*.arj=01;31:*.taz=01;31:*.lzh=01;31:*.zip=01;31:*.z=01;31:*.Z=01;31:*.gz=01;31:*.bz2=01;31:*.bz=01;31:*.tz=01;31:*.rpm=01;31:*.cpio=01;31:*.jpg=01;35:*.gif=01;35:*.bmp=01;35:*.xbm=01;35:*.xpm=01;35:*.png=01;35:*.tif=01;35:”
declare -x MAIL=”/var/spool/mail/root”
declare -x OLDPWD
declare -x PATH=”/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin”
declare -x PWD=”/root”
declare -x SHELL=”/bin/bash”
declare -x SHLVL=”2″
declare -x TERM=”vt100″
declare -x USER=”root”
VMware Server Host Agent (background)[ OK ]
VMware Virtual Infrastructure Web Access
Starting VMware autostart virtual machines:
Virtual machines[ OK ]

Then, when I try to access the Web interface, I’m unable to connect. Any suggestions? Thanks!

P.S. Here’s what I’ve edited:

# Start host agent
vmware_start_hostd() {
export
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/vmware/vmacore:/usr/lib/vmware/hostd:/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libxml2.so.2:/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libexpat.so.0:/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libstdc++.so.6:/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libgcc_s.so.1:/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libcrypto.so.0.9.8:/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libssl.so.0.9.8
vmware_bg_exec “`vmware_product_name` Host Agent” \
“$vmdb_answer_LIBDIR/vmware-hostd” -a -d -u “$vmware_etc_dir/hostd/config.xml”
# “$vmdb_answer_SBINDIR/vmware-hostd” -a -d -u “$vmware_etc_dir/hostd/config.xml”
}