Have you ever been trying to vMotion a VMWare virtual machine but get an error that prevents you because the VM is attempting to install VMWare Tools? Has this ever occurred when trying to put a host into Maintenance Mode? Are you looking for a quick way to vMotion the VM? Below I have the CLI commands to execute on the ESXi host to cancel the VMWare Tools install so you can vMotion the VM.
Errors:
There are compatibility issues that need your attention.
The virtual machine is installing VMware Tools and cannot initiate a migration operation
No guest OS heartbeats are being received. Either the guest OS is not responding or VMware Tools is not configured correctly.
Solution:
Log into the ESXi host via SSH. Execute the following commands.
#vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms
Use the above command to get the Vmid of the VMs that haven’t been migrated
#vim-cmd vmsvc/tools.cancelinstall <vmid>
Use the above command to cancel the VMWare Tools Install for that VM
Summary:
As you can see there is not a lot of work once you identify the virtual machine and use the getallvms command to find it’s/their Vmid and cancel the install. Once again, I hope y’all found this useful.