WorkStation 11 shared VM's suddenly get a red X and "unable to read configuration data"

Question

This will usually follow a re-boot of the host machine, running Windows Server 2012.
I can then REMOVE the machine(s)
And open the .vmx file from the file manager ...
After which I can again share the file.
What can I do to prevent this?  Has anyone else seen the problem?
Thanks!

Answer 1

I'm seeing this as well. With Win7 as host OS. Not sure what causes it yet...
Highly annoying!
Update: Restarting "VMware Workstation Server" service seems to solve it. Tried setting the service to Automatic Start (Delayed), but that didn't help.
Update2: For now I've implemented a script (based on http://csi-windows.com/toolkit/csi-vmwsautoshutdown) that restarts the service with some delay after system startup (Scheduled Task) and forcefully starts all VM's. This seems to help ensuring the VM's Auto-Start.
VMwareHostdrestart.bat (call this from Scheduled Task)
@echo off
net stop VMwareHostd
net start VMwareHostd
%~dp0vmstartup.bat >%~dp0VMwareHostdrestart-vmstartup.log 2>&1
vmstartup.bat (modify to contain credentials for an user with sufficient rights in VMware Workstation)
@echo off
set PROGROOT=%ProgramFiles%
if not "%ProgramFiles(x86)%" == "" set PROGROOT=%ProgramFiles(x86)%
set HOST=127.0.0.1
set LOCALUSER=%COMPUTERNAME%\<username>
set LOCALPWD=<userpass>
set LOGGING=1
if not exist "%PROGROOT%\VMware\VMware VIX\vmrun.exe" (
echo VMware VIX Not Installed, aborting...
if %LOGGING% EQU 1 (
eventcreate /T ERROR /ID 1 /L APPLICATION /D "VMware VIX not installed, aborting..."
goto :ALLDONE
set VMRUN="%PROGROOT%\VMware\VMware VIX\vmrun.exe"
rem start, stop, reset, suspend, pause, unpause
set VMACTION=start
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
echo searching for vms...
set STOPPEDVMCOUNT=0
for /f "tokens=*" %%i in ('%VMRUN% -T ws-shared -h %HOST% -u %LOCALUSER% -p %LOCALPWD% listRegisteredVM ') do (
echo %%i |findstr /I /C:"["
if !ERRORLEVEL! EQU 0 (
echo Processing %VMACTION% for VM: %%i
%VMRUN% -T ws-shared -h %HOST% -u %LOCALUSER% -p %LOCALPWD% %VMACTION% "%%i"
if %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 (
if %LOGGING% EQU 1 (
eventcreate /T INFORMATION /ID 1 /L APPLICATION /D "Successful %VMACTION% of VM: %%i"
set /a STOPPEDVMCOUNT=!STOPPEDVMCOUNT!+1
) else (
if %LOGGING% EQU 1 (
eventcreate /T ERROR /ID 2 /L APPLICATION /D "Failed %VMACTION% of VM: %%i"
echo %STOPPEDVMCOUNT% VMs Started
rem if %LOGGING% EQU 1 (
rem         eventcreate /T INFORMATION /ID 1000 /L APPLICATION /D "%STOPPEDVMCOUNT% VMs Started"
rem )
endlocal
:ALLDONE
REM pause