Using all the permutations of various $insParm configs, I still cannot get the VMtools installer not to pop up the dialog box at the end saying Yes/No to a reboot which eventually times out and reboots the machine. I think the problem may be that the Tools' setup.exe is the part of the installer causing this reboot, so passing these parameters to the MSI that's chained off of it isn't going to do us any good. We need a switch for the actual tools installer which says to forgo a reboot. Does anyone know of one?

I suppose building this into the Upgrade-Tools cmdlet would be ideal, though... has there been a response to your feature request?

Results:

"C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\VMwareToolsUpgrader.exe" -p "/s /v\"/qn /norestart\""
FAILED (system rebooted)

Mount VMware Tools CD and run:
msiexec /i "D:\VMware Tools.msi" /qn REBOOT=ReallySuppress REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=VOMUS
SUCCESS (no reboot)

Mount VMware Tools CD and run:
setup.exe /S /v"/qn /norestart REBOOT=ReallySuppress REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=VOMUS"
SUCCSES (no reboot)

if I set $insParm = '/S /v"/qn /norestart REBOOT=ReallySuppress REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=VOMUS"'
FAILURE (vm reboots)

so something with Powershell is not working here.

EDIT: Also tested
"C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\VMwareToolsUpgrader.exe" -p "/S /v\"/qn /norestart REBOOT=ReallySuppress REINSTALL=ALL REINSTALLMODE=VOMUS\"'
FAILED.

So either the problem is PowerShell or that PowerShell is using VMwareToolsUpgrader on the backend, which doesn't support the noreboot option or at least that option is undocumented.

I would like to have a powershell script which runs at "Hosts & Clusters" level.

What the script should do:
Install VMware Tools whitout reboot on VMs which have "OldTools" or "Tools not Installed"

This script didnt work for me:
$insParm = '/s /v"/qn /norestart"'
$updList = get-cluster -name "My_Cluster_name"|get-vm | where-object {$_.powerstate -eq "PoweredON"} | % {get-view $_.ID} |where {$_.guest.toolsstatus -match "toolsOld" } | where {$_.guest.guestfamily -match "windowsGuest"}
{
$uVM.name
$uVM.UpgradeTools_Task($insParm)

Any help would be appreciated

UpgradeTools_Task is a method of the VirtualMachine object.
This is an SDK object not a VITK object, so in principle has nothing to do with the VITK.

It looks as if the $uVM variable doesn't contain a VirtualMachine object.
You can check the object type with

$uVM.GetType()

That script is indeed for PowerShell but you need to know that you can use 2 types of objects.
First there are the objects from the VITK, their name mostly ends with Impl, and then there are the objects from the SDK.
Have a look at how to reference config.hardware.device for further details on this.

The Get-View cmdlet allows you to go from the VITK objects to the SDK objects.
And that is what jp1960's script does with the "...Get-View $_.ID..." cmdlet (on line 4).
This is required since the UpgradeTools_Task method is only available on the SDK object.

Are you sure you aren't missing that part.

I'll include the script for completeness

$insParm = '/s /v"/qn /norestart"'
$updList = get-cluster -name <clustername> | get-vm | `
where-object {$_.powerstate -eq "PoweredON"} | % {
	get-view $_.ID} |where {$_.guest.toolsstatus -match "toolsOld" } | where {$_.guest.guestfamily -match "windowsGuest"}
{
	$uVM.name
	$uVM.UpgradeTools_Task($insParm)
}

Thanks, this worked well for me. I don't have time for installing powershell on every machine. It's good stuff, don't get me wrong, and I'm sure a windows update would install it fine on all machines, but this is more native and worked great for me. Now I can set up a chron on this and have it run periodically to keep my VMs up to date and ready for update manager to do its thing as well. Thanks!

Out of curiosity, to which tools version are you upgrading ?
To VC2.5u4 ?