VMware vSphere

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  • 1.  Determining the VMtools version the ESXi publishes?

    Posted Sep 04, 2018 07:29 PM

    Hello! I have this pretty simple question that I spent the whole day trying to find an answer to but I couldn't

    It's either a very stupid question that nobody bothered to ask, or I am just bad at Googling, or there really isn't a easy way to tell

    My question is, and please try and understand what I mean, is the following-

    How do I know which version the ESXi host is publishing to it's VMs?

    I mean, how do I know the version that is inside the \vmimages\tools-isoimages\windows.iso ?

    When I click on a VM in vSphere, and it tells me "Upgrade available" how do I know WHICH upgrade is available? 10.2.1? 10.2.5? 10.3?

    What version will the VM get from the host?



  • 2.  RE: Determining the VMtools version the ESXi publishes?

    Posted Sep 04, 2018 07:57 PM

    The quickest way is to refer to this version chart which pairs up the build number of VMware tools (left-most column) with the ESXi build number (right-most column). Since there are more build numbers of ESXi published than there are referenced by the table, you find your build number and first see if it's listed. If not, find the build number which is the next highest number. The build before that should be the one which contains the corresponding version of the tools listed.



  • 3.  RE: Determining the VMtools version the ESXi publishes?

    Posted Sep 04, 2018 08:18 PM

    But does the vmWare tools version affect the ESXi build number? what if I decide to put a higher version vmtools ISO there, will it change the ESXi build version?



  • 4.  RE: Determining the VMtools version the ESXi publishes?

    Posted Sep 04, 2018 08:22 PM

    No, the version of VMware tools has no impact on the build number of ESXi. If you wanted to (and some do), you can even download the latest version of tools and make it available to your ESXi hosts.



  • 5.  RE: Determining the VMtools version the ESXi publishes?

    Posted Sep 04, 2018 09:12 PM

    So knowing the ESXi build is only good to determine the minimum version of the VMTools, no?

    Say I have a ESXi version 6.5, according to the list, the minimum version of VMTools would be 10252 (10.0.12 ), correct?

    However, what if some other person from my company comes and put a 10272 (10.1.0) ISO there instead, how will I know that this is the version he put?



  • 6.  RE: Determining the VMtools version the ESXi publishes?

    Posted Sep 04, 2018 09:18 PM

    So knowing the ESXi build is only good to determine the minimum version of the VMTools, no?

    There's not really such thing as a "minimum version" only "this is the version that ships with that build".

    Say I have a ESXi version 6.5, according to the list, the minimum version of VMTools would be 10252 (10.0.12 ), correct?

    See answer to above question. You'd need to look at the build of that version to determine what's the closest earlier build that has a corresponding VMware tools version.

    However, what if some other person from my company comes and put a 10272 (10.1.0) ISO there instead, how will I know that this is the version he put?

    You'd need to look at the ISO to see that version as far as I know. Why is this a chief concern of yours?