VMware Tools

[mredwarren]

Good morning Community,

I am trying to find out how would one go about finding out what version of VMware tools is available when it gives you the "Upgrade available".

What I am trying to find out is how can I find out what version it will be upgraded to before it takes place? And more importantly, where is that VMware Tools update is coming from?  Is it prepackaged in the ESXi Update or does it have to be manually imported?

Any information is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Ed

[mredwarren]

I found more information and see that the update is bundled, I would assume in the ESXi update.

https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/340

Additional Information

VMware Tools are normally bundled with VMware products as well as security updates when applicable. As of VMware Tools version 10, customers also have the option to download from My VMware.

 

So I guess the question is, is there a way to find out that version number in the GUI before installing or from the command line? Or just guess that it is the same version that is released at the same time the ESXi Upgrade?

[ObjectifDubai]

Hi,

 

Indeed, the version of vmware tools available depends on your version of ESXI. You will find here (https://packages.vmware.com/tools/versions) a concordance table between the version of ESXI and the version of VMWare Tools available.

 

The vmware-tools are used on Windows VMs, for several years the Linux OS has included open-vm-tools, VMWare advises their use.

https://docs.vmware.com/fr/VMware-Tools/11.3.0/com.vmware.vsphere.vmwaretools.doc/GUID-8B6EA5B7-453B-48AA-92E5-DB7F061341D1.html

[Patrick Long]

It is correct the specific vmTools versions come bundled with ESXi, as others have indicated.  If you upgrade VMTools on a vm, it will get the Tools version that is bundled with your host version.  However, vmTools have been forward and backward compatible to host versions for many years.  If you are in a shared storage environment, you can upload vmTools source files to a shared location accessible to all hosts and point to that location so that no matter what host your vm is on, if your hosts are of various versions(i.e. you are in the middle of an upgrade cycle, etc.) the currency of its vmTools installation is always compared against what is in that one central location rather than what is provided locally on each host.

These are excellent guides to configuring productLocker to point to shared storage https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2129825 and :https://www.vladan.fr/configure-vmware-tools-update-from-shared-productlocker-location/

That being said, I believe there is a bug in 7.0 U3 that is causing this setting to be reset to default value on a host every time VUM is used to apply updates to that host.  Follow here for updates > https://communities.vmware.com/t5/ESXi-Discussions/productLocker-location-getting-changed-when-applying-any-patches/m-p/2903857#M281104