VMware backup fails: Backing up data of VM disk [XXXXXXX]xxx/xxxx-xxxxx.vmdk' to media : "Job man (4045021)

Date: JAN 2011
Product & Version: VMware 2.0
OS Version: Linux
Application version: ESX 4.1. , VI server version 4.1.0, 258902


Symptoms:

VMware plugin crashes during backup trying to backup the VMDK file and then fails with 'Job manager lost message channel unexpectedly' as seen in binary log.
This is verified in the trace as the last function executed is 'etDynamicLibFunctionAddress. FunctionName = VixDiskLib_Open' as seen in the vmwxxx.log trace.
In the vixDiskLib-xxxx.log we see the libexpat.so.0 LINUX library cannot be opened because it does not exist.

Extract From binary log:
Job Message 2011/01/10 13:46:41 619 Data Plugin linux-srv Backing up data of VM disk '[Systeme01] bcs/bcs_1-000006.vmdk' to media
Error 2011/01/10 13:46:41 619 Jobs linux-srv Job manager lost message channel unexpectedly

Extract from VMware trace:
6 VDDK 16642 35 0 134641387492 Opening disk '[Systeme01] bcs/bcs_1-000006.vmdk'
5 DYNLIB 16642 12 0 134641387508 0xb735b560 = GetDynamicLibFunctionAddress. FunctionName = VixDiskLib_Open

From vixDiskLib-xxxx.log file:
VixDiskLib: config options: libdir '/usr/netvault/dynlib/vddk', tmpDir '/tmp/vmware-root'.
VixDiskLib: Could not load default plugins from /usr/netvault/dynlib/vddk/plugins32/libdiskLibPlugin.so: Cannot open library: libexpat.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory.

Cause:
libexpat.so.0 library not installed

install the "Libexpa0" package

or

in /usr/lib created the symbolic link

ln -s /lib/libexpat.so.1.5.2 libexpat.so.0


Explanation:

Vmware tries to use a deprecated library