Error in MSVCR80.dll causing vmware-hostd to crash

This morning VMWare web interface didn't work when I fired up my machine. After some investigation I find the following in the event log:

Faulting application name: vmware-hostd.exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x4ade2d25
Faulting module name: MSVCR80.dll, version: 8.0.50727.5592, time stamp: 0x4d2be7f2
Exception code: 0x40000015
Fault offset: 0x000046b4
Faulting process id: 0x17f4
Faulting application start time: 0x01cc09cb0c92dbd3
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Server\vmware-hostd.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft.vc80.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_8.0.50727.5592_none_d09196c24426e2d4\MSVCR80.dll
Report Id: 4d3cc4dc-75be-11e0-8009-5c260a0e99b4

When the machine starts up the VMWare Host Agent service is not started even though its startup type is set to Automatic. If I start it the VMWare web interface does not work. If I restart the web interface then the VMWare Host Agent immediately crashes.

Any ideas?

EDIT: I already tried downloading and installing both the x86 and x64 versions of the Visual C++ 2005 redistributable. My system is Windows Server 2008 R2. I also tried un- and then re-installing VMWare Server 2, which should have taken care of the "datastores.xml" error that's all over google.

EDIT2: I found the following in the hostd log file:

[2011-05-03 20:41:10.959 'App' 1212 info] Trying vimsvc
[2011-05-03 20:41:10.970 'Vimsvc' 1212 info] Initializing vimsvc plugin
[2011-05-03 20:41:10.978 'Libs' 1212 info] [ADS] Failed to get host ADS object in ACE initialization (0x80070005)
[2011-05-03 20:41:10.978 'Libs' 1212 warning] Failed to initialize active directory
[2011-05-03 20:41:10.978 'App' 1212 error] Failed to initialize Active Directory services
[2011-05-03 20:41:10.979 'App' 1212 panic] error: Not initialized
[2011-05-03 20:41:10.979 'App' 1212 panic] backtrace:

This made me think the problem may be that this is on my laptop, and since I work at a client site I had not connected to my company's network in quite some time. So tonight I connected via VPN and restarted the service.... and now it works. I can't say for certain that was the problem but it seems possible.

Great solution is provided on VMWare forums by "dramatik2": http://communities.vmware.com/message/1425952#1425952

Question by "dramatik2":

Am receiving the following error on all our VMWare Server systems this morning. I'm assuming its related to Microsoft Updates since its Wednesday today. Anyone else experiencing problems?

VMWare Host Agent Service stops working shortly after it is started.

The following error message is logged in the event logs:

• Log Name: Application
• Source: Application Error
• Date: 11/25/2009 7:52:28 AM
• Event ID: 1000
• Task Category: (100)
• Level: Error
• Keywords: Classic
• User: N/A
• Computer: *******
• Description:
• Faulting application vmware-hostd.exe, version 0.0.0.0, time stamp 0x49cc4272, faulting module MSVCR80.dll, version 8.0.50727.4016, time stamp 0x49cc5361, exception code 0x40000015, fault offset 0x000046b4, process id 0x1230, application start time 0x01ca6de724a24d6a. Event Xml:

Answer by "dramatik2":

Resolution:

Ran the following directly from the commandline:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Server\vmware-hostd.exe" -u "C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Server\hostd\config.xml"

Noticed that it was failing on authorizing a Domain User Account.

Edited the following file removing any lines referring to the offending Domain User Account:

C:\ProgramData\VMware\VMware Server\hostd\authorization.xml

Restarted the service - it worked!

Cause:

The Domain Controllers (AD/DNS) on our network are all virtual. Its a catch 22 situation. The Domain Controllers won't start before VMWare Server can authenticate against them.

Suggestion: Make sure to have at least one Domain Controller running on a physical machine