September 2012

What to do next
(Recommended) If you upgraded VMware Tools as part of a vSphere upgrade, next determine whether to
upgrade the virtual machines in your environment. To review and compare the hardware available for different
compatibility levels, see the vSphere Virtual Machine Administration documentation.
Operating System Specific Packages for Linux Guest Operating Systems
For vSphere deployments, VMware provides operating system specific packages (OSPs) as a packaging and
distribution mechanism for VMware Tools. These VMware Tools OSPs are packaged using native package
formats and standards such as rpm and deb.
Using OSPs provides the following benefits:
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You can use the native update mechanisms of the guest operating system to download, install, and manage
VMware Tools.
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You can upgrade to the latest version of VMware Tools without having to upgrade to the latest version
of vSphere.
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Because VMware Tools OSPs follow the best practices and standards of the specific Linux operating
system, OSPs use standard mechanisms for determining dependencies among packages. These
mechanisms allow you to audit the packages on virtual machines with or without graphics components.
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You can use standard operating system tools to examine OSPs during VMware Tools installation. This
process allows you to easily determine which components to install and to verify the validity of the
packaging.
IMPORTANT Use OSPs if you want to use native update mechanisms, rather than vCenter Server, to manage
updates for VMware Tools. If you use an OSP, the VMware Tools status is unmanaged on the virtual machine
Summary tab. The status unmanaged means that you cannot use vCenter Server to manage VMware Tools
and you cannot use vSphere Update Manager to upgrade VMware Tools.
For more information, go to the VMware Operating System Specific Packages Web site, at
http://www.vmware.com/download/packages.html.
Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a Solaris Virtual Machine
For Solaris virtual machines, you manually install or upgrade VMware Tools by using the command line.
Install the latest version of VMware Tools to enhance the performance of the virtual machine's guest operating
system and improve virtual machine management. When you power on a virtual machine, if a new version of
VMware Tools is available, you see a notification in the status bar of the guest operating system.
Prerequisites
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Power on the virtual machine.
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Verify that the guest operating system is running.
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Because the VMware Tools installer is written in Perl, verify that Perl is installed in the guest operating
system.
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For vSphere virtual machines, to determine whether you have the latest version of VMware Tools, in the
vSphere Client inventory, select the virtual machine and click the Summary tab.
Installing and Configuring VMware Tools
22 VMware, Inc.