6.0.1

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“Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a NetWare Virtual Machine,” on page 241
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“Manually Install or Upgrade VMware Tools in a FreeBSD Virtual Machine,” on page 243
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“Upgrade VMware Tools,” on page 244
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“Perform an Automatic Upgrade of VMware Tools,” on page 245
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“Upgrade the Compatibility for Virtual Machines,” on page 246
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“Schedule a Compatibility Upgrade for Virtual Machines,” on page 247
Upgrading VMware Tools
You can upgrade VMware Tools manually, or you can configure virtual machines to check for and install
newer versions of VMware Tools.
The guest operating system checks the version of VMware Tools when you power on a virtual machine. The
status bar of the virtual machine displays a message when a new version is available. The displayed version
also is the version of the ESXi the VMware Tools is bundled with.
In Windows virtual machines, you can set VMware Tools to notify you when an upgrade is available. If this
notification option is enabled, the VMware Tools icon in the Windows taskbar includes a yellow caution
icon when a VMware Tools upgrade is available.
To install a VMware Tools upgrade, you can use the same procedure that you used for installing VMware
Tools the first time. Upgrading VMware Tools means installing a new version.
For Windows and Linux guest operating systems, you can configure the virtual machine to automatically
upgrade VMware Tools. Although the version check is performed when you power on the virtual machine,
on Windows guest operating systems, the automatic upgrade occurs when you power off or restart the
virtual machine. The status bar displays the message Installing VMware Tools ... when an upgrade is in
progress.
IMPORTANT When you upgrade VMware Tools on Linux guest operating systems, new network modules
are available but are not used until you either restart the guest operating system or stop networking, unload
and reload the VMware networking kernel modules, and restart networking. This behavior means that even
if VMware Tools is set to automatically upgrade, you must restart or reload network modules to make new
features available.
This strategy avoids network interruptions and allows you to install VMware Tools over SSH.
For vSphere virtual machines, you can use one of the following processes to upgrade multiple virtual
machines at the same time.
You can use one of the following processes to upgrade multiple virtual machines at the same time.
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Log in to vCenter Server, select a host or cluster, and on the Virtual Machines tab specify the virtual
machines on which to perform a VMware Tools upgrade.
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Use Update Manager to perform an orchestrated upgrade of virtual machines at the folder or
datacenter level.
Some features in a particular release of a VMware product might depend on installing or upgrading to the
version of VMware Tools included in that release. Upgrading to the latest version of VMware Tools is not
always necessary, however, VMware highly recommends that you upgrade to the most updated version of
the VMware Tools. Newer versions of VMware Tools are compatible with several ESXi host versions. To
avoid unnecessary upgrades, evaluate whether the added features and capabilities are necessary for your
environment. See “Hardware Features Available with Virtual Machine Compatibility Settings,” on page 93.
However, VMware highly recommends installing and using the latest version of VMware Tools.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration
226 VMware, Inc.