Apparently VMware vCLI does not support Ubuntu 9.04 out of the box per Re: Installing vCLI on Ubuntu Server 9.04, but thanks to eparthuisot, it's actually only two packages that you need to install to get the latest version of vCLI installed on your minimal Ubunutu server.

Setup:
Ubuntu server 9.04 (32bit or 64bit)
VMware-vSphere-CLI-4.0.0-161974.i386.tar (32bit installer)
VMware-vSphere-CLI-4.0.0-161974.x86_64.tar (64bit installer)
libxml-libxml-perl
libclass-methodmaker-perl

Instructions:

0. Verify version of Ubuntu:

primp@ubuntu-test:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 9.04
Release:        9.04
Codename:       jaunty

Steps for installing on Ubuntu Server 9.04 32bit:

1. Download vCLI from VMware's site and upload via scp or other means to your Ubuntu system

2. Download and install libxml-libxml-perl and libclass-methodmaker-perl and libcrypt-ssleay-perl

primp@ubuntu-test:~$ sudo apt-get install libxml-libxml-perl
[sudo] password for primp:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  libxml-libxml-common-perl libxml-namespacesupport-perl libxml-sax-expat-perl libxml-sax-perl
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libxml-libxml-common-perl libxml-libxml-perl libxml-namespacesupport-perl libxml-sax-expat-perl libxml-sax-perl
0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 51 not upgraded.
Need to get 523kB of archives.
After this operation, 2064kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
.......

primp@ubuntu-test:~$ sudo apt-get install libclass-methodmaker-perl
.......

primp@ubuntu-test:~$ sudo apt-install libcrypt-ssleay-perl 
.......

Note: If you're doing this as a regular user, you may need to use sudo or switch over to root to perform these elevated operations

3. Extract vCLI tar file

primp@ubuntu-test:~$ tar -zxvf VMware-vSphere-CLI-4.0.0-161974.i386.tar.gz
.......

4. Install vCLI

primp@ubuntu-test:~$ cd vmware-vsphere-cli-distrib/

primp@ubuntu-test:~/vmware-vsphere-cli-distrib$ sudo ./vmware-install.pl
Creating a new vSphere CLI installer database using the tar4 format.

Installing vSphere CLI.

Installing version 161974 of vSphere CLI


You must read and accept the vSphere CLI End User License Agreement to
continue.
Press enter to display it.

......
<stick with the defaults>
......

Please wait while copying vSphere CLI files...

The installation of vSphere CLI 4.0.0 build-161974 for Linux completed
successfully. You can decide to remove this software from your system at any
time by invoking the following command:
"/usr/bin/vmware-uninstall-vSphere-CLI.pl".

This installer has successfully installed both vSphere CLI and the vSphere SDK
for Perl.

Enjoy,

5. Verify vCLI

primp@ubuntu-test-32bit:~$ esxcfg-nas -l --server himalaya.primp-industries.com --username root
Enter password:

dlgCore-NFS-bigboi.VM-Backups is /exports/XXXXXX from A.B.C.D mounted

Steps for installing on Ubuntu Server 9.04 64bit:

1. Download vCLI from VMware's site and upload via scp or other means to your Ubuntu system

2. Download and install libxml-libxml-perl and libclass-methodmaker-perl

primp@ubuntu-test:~$ sudo apt-get install libxml-libxml-perl
[sudo] password for primp:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  libxml-libxml-common-perl libxml-namespacesupport-perl libxml-sax-expat-perl libxml-sax-perl
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libxml-libxml-common-perl libxml-libxml-perl libxml-namespacesupport-perl libxml-sax-expat-perl libxml-sax-perl
0 upgraded, 5 newly installed, 0 to remove and 51 not upgraded.
Need to get 523kB of archives.
After this operation, 2064kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
.......

primp@ubuntu-test:~$ sudo apt-get install libclass-methodmaker-perl
.......

Note: If you're doing this as a regular user, you may need to use sudo or switch over to root to perform these elevated operations

3. Extract vCLI tar file

primp@ubuntu-test:~$ tar -zxvf VMware-vSphere-CLI-4.0.0-161974.x86_64.tar
.......

4. Install vCLI

primp@ubuntu-test:~$ cd vmware-vsphere-cli-distrib/

primp@ubuntu-test:~/vmware-vsphere-cli-distrib$ sudo ./vmware-install.pl
Creating a new vSphere CLI installer database using the tar4 format.

Installing vSphere CLI.

Installing version 161974 of vSphere CLI


You must read and accept the vSphere CLI End User License Agreement to
continue.
Press enter to display it.

......
<stick with the defaults>
......

Please wait while copying vSphere CLI files...

The installation of vSphere CLI 4.0.0 build-161974 for Linux completed
successfully. You can decide to remove this software from your system at any
time by invoking the following command:
"/usr/bin/vmware-uninstall-vSphere-CLI.pl".

This installer has successfully installed both vSphere CLI and the vSphere SDK
for Perl.

Enjoy,

5. Verify vCLI

primp@ubuntu-test-64bit:~$ esxcfg-nas -l --server himalaya.primp-industries.com --username root
Enter password:

dlgCore-NFS-bigboi.VM-Backups is /exports/XXXXXX from A.B.C.D mounted

and now you're on your way to using vCLI on Ubuntu!