VMware /bin/sh: can't fork

This issue occurs with ESXi hosts running on HP hardware with these versions of AMS:

hp-ams 500.9.6.0-12.434156
hp-ams-550.9.6.0-12.1198610
hp-ams 500.10.0.0-18.434156
hp-ams-550.10.0.0-18.119861

Resolution

This is a known issue affecting ESXi 5.x.

To resolve this issue, upgrade to AMS version 10.0.1.

For ESXi 5.0 and 5.1, see HP Agentless Management Service Offline Bundle for VMware ESXi 5.0 and vSphere 5.1.

For ESXi 5.5, see:

• HP Agentless Management Service Offline Bundle for VMware vSphere 5.5
• HP ESXi Offline Bundle for VMware vSphere 5.5

Note: The preceding links were correct as of April 16, 2015. If you find a link is broken, provide a feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.

If upgrade is not an option, work around this issue.

To work around this issue, remove the package on all hosts running on one of the preceding AMS versions.

Note: In some cases, commands running on the ESXi host fails with cant't fork. In this case, the virtual machines running on the ESXi host needs to be powered off and the ESXi host rebooted.

Run this command to verify the installed versions of AMS:

esxcli software vib list | grep ams

To remove the package on all hosts running on these AMS versions:

1. Log in to the host using SSH. For more information, see Using ESXi Shell in ESXi 5.x and 6.0 (2004746).
2. Run this command to stop the HP service (does not persist on reboot):
   
   /etc/init.d/hp-ams.sh stop
3. Run this command to remove the VIB:
   
   esxcli software vib remove -n hp-ams
4. Reboot the host.