Installing VMWare Tools

1. Installation of VMWare Tools

VMware Tools is a suite of utilities that enhances the performance of the virtual machine’s guest operating system and improves management of the virtual machine.

Although the guest operating system can run without VMware Tools, many VMware features are not available until you install VMware Tools. For example, if you do not have VMware Tools installed in your virtual machine, you cannot use the shutdown or restart options from the toolbar. You can use only the power options.
     
The installers for VMware Tools are ISO image files. An ISO image file looks like a CD-ROM to your guest operating system. There is an ISO image file for each type of guest operating system, including Windows, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, and NetWare. When you select the command to install or upgrade VMware Tools, the virtual machine’s first virtual CD-ROM disk drive temporarily connects to the VMware Tools ISO file for your guest operating system.

The installation procedure varies, depending on the operating system.

2. Procedure

The installers for VMware Tools are ISO image files. An ISO image file looks like a CD-ROM to your guest operating system. There is an ISO image file for each type of guest operating system, including Windows, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, and NetWare. When you select the command to install or upgrade VMware Tools, the virtual machine’s first virtual CD-ROM disk drive temporarily connects to the VMware Tools ISO file for your guest operating system.    

The installation procedure varies, depending on the operating system.

Example for Windows servers:

  1. In VSphere left column expand the cluster, resource pool that your system resides in, select your system (has to be turned on) and right click.  At this point a drop down menu will appear, select Guest from following menu select "Install/Upgrade VMware Tools". Following window will appear:
  2. If you are performing an upgrade or reinstallation, in the Install/Upgrade VMware Tools dialog box, select Interactive   Tools Installation or Interactive Tools Upgrade and click OK. The process starts by mounting the VMware Tools virtual disc on the guest operating system.
  3. Log into the system as Administrator and right click CD drive, if autorun is enabled select run. If autorun is disabled, open and explore contents of ISO and select/run Setup.exe. Follow on-screen instructions.
  4. If you are installing VMware Tools for the first time, click OK in the Install VMware Tools information screen.
  5. Log into the system as Administrator and right click CD drive, if autorun is enabled select run. If autorun is disabled, open and explore contents of ISO and select/run Setup.exe. Follow on-screen instructions.  If the New Hardware wizard appears, go through the wizard and accept the defaults.When prompted, reboot the virtual machine.
  6. Back on VSphere select system, the VMware Tools label within Summary tab changes to OK.

Example for Red Hat Linux:

Ensure that your Linux virtual machine is powered on.

  1. If you are running a GUI interface, open a command shell.
  2. In vCenter, click VM in the virtual machine menu, then click Guest > Install/Upgrade VMware Tools and click OK or in vCloud Director (cloud.ou.edu), in the VM list view, right click the VM and select Install VMware Tools.
  3. For the following steps login as root or sudo.
  4. Create a mount point, run: 
    mkdir /mnt/cdrom
  5. Mount the CDROM, run: 
    mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom/
  6. Copy VMwareTools-version.tar.gz to root directory where <version> is the version of VMware Tools you want to install). 
    cp /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-version.tar.gz .
  7. And expand: 
    tar -vxf /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-version.tar.gz
  8. To check the existing version of VMware Tools, use the "cd" command to go to /mnt/cdrom/ directory and list the contents of the directory with the command # ls.
    Note: You can only perform the install as a root user or by using the sudo command
  9. Change directory to vmware-tools-distrib and run install script: 
    ./vmware-install.pl/
  10. Accept defaults.
  11. To configure VMware Tools for your running kernel, run: 
    /usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl
  12. To unmount the CDROM, run: 
    umount /mnt/cdrom
  13. You may delete vmware-tools-distrib and .tar.gz files from root direstory when finished.
  14. To end the VMware Tools install, click VM in the virtual machine menu, then click Guest > End VMware Tools Install. Alternatively in vCloud Director (cloud.ou.edu) right click the VM and select End VMware Tools Install.

3. Affected Systems & Services

Only the VM in question should be affected.

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