I recently installed Windows 7 on my desktop PC at work. I use VMware server quite heavily to assist in testing various aspects of both client and server Operating Systems. So I downloaded and installed the latest version of VMware Server only to be confronted with the following error when attempting to access the VMware Servers web interface:

The VMware Infrastructure Web Service at “http://localhost:8222/sdk” is not responding (Connection Refused)
VMWare Error

So I head towards the first port of call and make sure the required services are all started. Sure enough, the VMware Host Agent service has not started and can also not be started manually.

The Fix:

  1. Make sure that you are logged onto the PC as an administrator
  2. Browse to %HOMEDRIVE%\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Server\hostd
  3. Delete the datastores.xml file from this directory
  4. Restart the VMware Host Agent service

The datastores.xml file will now be regenerated automatically and the VMware Host Agent service will start. You will now be able to log into the VMware Server web interface as normal.

10 Responses to “VMware Server 2.0 on Windows 7 Host – Connection Refused”

  1. Mike says:

    Man this saved me! Everyone kept crying about recreating a host file which was already all set. Thanks for the tips!

  2. agreenlees says:

    No worries Mike. Glad I could help!

    AG

  3. jagdeep says:

    Nope. I do not have any datastores.xml file anywhere – neither under Program Files and nor under users folder on Windows 7.

    HELP

  4. agreenlees says:

    Hi Jagdeep

    Try starting/restarting the VMware Server Windows services then see if you have a datastores.xml file in the mentioned folder.

    AndrewG

  5. AlexSG says:

    This was the fix!

    VMWare stopped working after a reboot of Windows 7 64 bit. Do you know what may have caused the problem?

    Regards

  6. agreenlees says:

    Alex
    Does following the steps in my post resolve the issue after each restart?

    Andrew

  7. johnf says:

    Hi,
    I can not start vm host agent and also not datastores.xml file existing. I can’t figure out. Thanks.

  8. Hikmet Tenis says:

    Dont search for datastore.xml, search in W7 doesnt find that file because its under hidden directory go to c:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Server\hostd and you will see datastore.xml file there, as I said ProgramData is hidden so you should select the “Show hidden folders and files” in folder options in control panel

  9. Juan says:

    Thanks for your help, i solved my problem with your tips.

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