VMware Tools installation and upgrade tips and tricks

The VMware Tools package provides drivers (such as VMXNET3, PVSCSI, SVGA etc.) and services that enhance the performance of virtual machines and make several vSphere features easy to use. Here are some tips and tricks when working with VMware Tools:

• An overview of the VMware Tools versions mapping can be found here, link
• The latest VMware Tools versions can be downloaded from the following links: link and link
• Within VMware ESXi, the VMware Tools are located under: /vmimages/tools-isoimages
• The latest VMware Tools version 10.3.10 is compatible with ESXi 6.0.0 to 6.7 U3
• To view what VMware Tools components are installed on a Windows operating system: open Regedit and browse to the following location.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Features\10176710886A59A4C938D6DEE96B37D5

Names with a squire or minus are not installed. Another method in Windows 10 for example is going to the Apps & Features and select: modify VMware Tools

• A silent or unattended default installation can be done using the following command. This command does not installed the NSX components:

Setup64.exe /s /v "/qb REBOOT=R" /l c:\windows\temp\vmware_tools_install.log

• Use the ADDLOCAL and REMOVE option to define what components to install. The following command installs all the components expect the Hgfs, SVGA,VSS, AppDefense and the NetworkIntrospection component. This VMware Tools configuration can be used for example for a Horizon View Golden image.

setup64.exe /s /v" /qb REBOOT=R ADDLOCAL=All REMOVE=Hgfs,SVGA,VSS,AppDefense,NetworkIntrospection"" /l c:\windows\temp\vmware_tools_install.log

The following VMware Tools component values can be used:

The latest version of the VMware Tools component values can be found here, link

Extract the VMware ISO for drivers

Sometimes is handy to extract the VMware ISO to get the VMXnet3 and PVSCSI drivers.

• Mount the ISO
• setup64.exe /A /P C:\Folder to extract

PowerCLI

To identify and upgrade the VMware Tools versions PowerCLI is your friend. First install the PowerCLI module, link . After the module is installed, connect to the vCenter Server.

$vcsa = "vcsa03.lab.local"
 
Import-Module VMware.PowerCLI
Connect-VIServer -Server $vcsa

Identify VMware Tools versions

To get the VMware Tools versions of the running VMs use the following PowerCLI command:

Get-VM | Get-VMguest | Where {$_.State -eq 'Running'} | Select VmName, ToolsVersion

• Get all the running VMs that don’t have VMware Tools version 10.3.10 installed:

Get-VM | Get-VMguest | Where-Object {$_.State -eq 'Running' -and $_.ToolsVersion -notlike '10.3.10'} | Select VmName, ToolsVersion

• Get all the running VMs that have an outdated version of VMware Tools:

Get-VM | Get-VMguest | where-object {$_.State -eq 'Running' -and $_.ExtensionData.ToolsversionStatus -eq 'GuestToolsNeedUpgrade'} | Select VmName

Update VMware Tools

Once you have an overview of all the VMware Tools versions that are outdated is easy to upgrade them to the latest version. In this example, the -NoReboot option is used so the OS will not be rebooted. Make sure when using -NoReboot option that the reboot will be planned in a maintenance window. This stops for example installing Windows Updates because there is a pending reboot action that needs to be performed first.

First export all the VMs to a CSV file that will be saved under c:\temp\vms.csv

Get-VM | Get-VMguest | where-object {$_.State -eq 'Running' -and $_.ExtensionData.ToolsversionStatus -eq 'GuestToolsNeedUpgrade'} | Select VmName | export-csv c:\temp\vms.csv -NoTypeInformation

Verify the CSV file and make sure only the VMs are listed that need to be upgraded. After that import the CSV and update the VMware Tools using the following commands:

$vms = Import-Csv c:\temp\vms.csv
$vms | % { get-vm -name $_.VmName | Update-Tools -NoReboot}