Hi everyone,
I had the same issue - running OS X Mojave Version 10.14.5, and VMWare Fusion Version 11.1.1 (14328561). I upgraded to this latest version of VMWare after running into the CPU spike of the vmware-vmx process (running well beyond 100% resulting in both vm and native OS freezing, unfreezing, system panic across the board, and all fans turning on on the MacBook Pro). So I updated, and then re-installed VMWare tools on the VM (Ubuntu 19.04 Disco Dingo).
Just before I upgraded, I was able to open a terminal on the VM (Ubuntu) and ran "top" to see if I could identify the process spike - and thankfully the offending process was clearly visible as an "hgfs" process. On the far left column of top is the PID (Process ID) which I noted, opened another terminal trying to complete before the system froze, and was able to type the command:
CLI Commands:
top
(Identify the top process monopolizing the CPU - it should be obvious @ 100%++ CPU utilization and note the PID)
sudo kill <pid>
(insert your pid number for <pid>.
On the "top" active terminal I immediately saw the hgfs process disappear, and CPU spike / root cause was truly terminated - the CPU spike nose dived back to normal "cool" levels - around 3% to 5% on the VM, and OS X host too in turn CPU nose dived back to normal levels. Both systems after that were totally responsive and happy.
So thinking this may be an update issue, I updated everything to the latest on the VMWare Fusion side, and after the update re-installed the VMWare tools into the VM (Ubuntu 19.04).
My hope was that this was a fluke, and problem solved yesterday. But this morning on startup of the VM the exact same thing happened, again the same hgfs process (with a different PID given the restart) but still the exact same CPU spike behavior. I resolved the issue the same way, just killed the hgfs process in Ubuntu which was the root cause. Even after killing the hgfs process, I can still access my shared drive (I have one shared drive in the root folder) so this truly looks like a semi-consistent startup issue. Given my need for Ubuntu and general VM stability after killing the offending hgfs process I can manage, but I'm concerned the spike may recur during normal operating time. For now I'm just keeping an eye in the VM with an open "top" terminal active so that if I suddenly hear the fans or notice what seems to be a CPU spike, I'm quickly aware of which PID and again resolve if needed. Some additional information regarding versions below (within the Ubuntu 19.04 VM after installing the latest version of VMWare tools):
CLI Command:
/usr/bin/vmhgfs-fuse --version
Output:
/usr/bin/vmhgfs-fuse: version 1.6.6.0
FUSE library version: 2.9.9
fusermount version: 2.9.9
using FUSE kernel interface version 7.19
CLI Command:
/usr/bin/vmware-toolbox-cmd -v
Output:
10.3.10.10540 (build-12406962)
I hope this helps - and other than this issue in general performance of the VM with 4 cores allocated and 10GB memory has been stable with Ubuntu 19.04 Disco Dingo.
Good luck everyone!