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VMtools in vcenter

DevilWAHDevilWAH Member Posts: 2,997 ■■■■■■■■□□
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OK what am i missing

how can I update the version on VMtools in vsphere with out having to update vsphere its self?

What I have is two ESXi clusters running version 5.0

When I look at the version of VMtools running on the hosts.

they are both on different versions (both showing as upto date)

So my question is can you update the vmware tool packages that Vcenter uses to upgrade the guests, I can't see any documentation to do this?

Cheers
  • If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Albert Einstein
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    blargoeblargoe Member Posts: 4,174 ■■■■■■■■■□
    The VMware Tools version is whatever comes with the ESX/i version running on the host. If you upgrade the host, the version of Tools may be upgraded on the host, and vCenter will raise the flag that VMware Tools is out of date.

    Why do you want a new version of the Tools? If the status is showing up to date, then there is no reason to update them. You might try using Update Manager and see if it lets you apply only the VMware Tools update package without updating the hosts, but I think they are dependent (not sure, never tried it).

    I also just remembered, you can download ISOs of all the VMware Tools versions, so you could do that and manually update VMWare Tools if you wanted.
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    DevilWAHDevilWAH Member Posts: 2,997 ■■■■■■■■□□
    I know there is an issue with VDR VSS that has been resolved with the latest version of VMware tools. Or at least it works fine once I updated the same guest machine (I had copied between clusters) to the very latest version but not when it is updated to a previous version.

    So assume I had a server with VMware tools version 4

    I copy it to cluster A and B and on both it does not work.

    On A i upgrade to version 5 and it still does not work.

    on B I upgrade to version 6 and it does work..


    What I want to see is if I upgrade the server on A to version 6 does it then work ??

    I think I will get the vmware tool disk and try from there :)

    cheers
    • If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Albert Einstein
    • An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties. It means that its going to launch you into something great. So just focus and keep aiming.
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    jimmyhelujimmyhelu Member Posts: 12 ■□□□□□□□□□
    no formal training on VMware

    have 1 esxi 4.0 server (patched fully) and am not able to install VMware Tools on a VM (it's a domain controller if it matters)

    VM is on, tried right-click on VM inside vCenter console and selected Install/Upgrade VMware Tools and get message in Tasks pane saying Initiated VMware Tools Installer Mount and it completes OK

    and that's it; but then I check in Summary TAB of the VM and it says VMware Tools: Not installed

    I installed VMware tools on other VMs on another esxi 4.0 server that is not even fully patched and I can see in Summary tab for my VMs VMware Tools: Installed

    what am I missing?
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    DevilWAHDevilWAH Member Posts: 2,997 ■■■■■■■■□□
    jimmyhelu wrote: »
    no formal training on VMware

    have 1 esxi 4.0 server (patched fully) and am not able to install VMware Tools on a VM (it's a domain controller if it matters)

    VM is on, tried right-click on VM inside vCenter console and selected Install/Upgrade VMware Tools and get message in Tasks pane saying Initiated VMware Tools Installer Mount and it completes OK

    and that's it; but then I check in Summary TAB of the VM and it says VMware Tools: Not installed

    I installed VMware tools on other VMs on another esxi 4.0 server that is not even fully patched and I can see in Summary tab for my VMs VMware Tools: Installed

    what am I missing?

    Try a manual install,

    All running the install from the esxi or vsphere client does it mount the CD and script the install.

    so try chosing to install vmware tools as normal. Then logging in to the guest and opening up the CD and running it manualy.
    • If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Albert Einstein
    • An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties. It means that its going to launch you into something great. So just focus and keep aiming.
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    DevilWAHDevilWAH Member Posts: 2,997 ■■■■■■■■□□
    I worked out if you use "update manager" you can scan the guests and chose to update to the latest version of VMware tools the host will support.
    • If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. Albert Einstein
    • An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties. It means that its going to launch you into something great. So just focus and keep aiming.
    Linkin Profile - Blog: http://Devilwah.com
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