Which has the latest VMware Tools version - ESXi5.1 or VMWS9?

[seetee]

Which has the latest VMware Tools version -  ESXi5.1 or VMWS9?  Does it matter?

Had used the vCenter Converter Standalone Client to migrate a few VM's from VMWare Workstation 9 to ESXi 5.0 U1.  I had already Installed VMware Tools on the VM's in Workstation 9.  When i started the VM's in ESXi 5.0 U1 and tried to Install/Upgrade VMware Tools, unable to do so as the message was that the VMware Tools installed was a more recent version than what ESXi 5.0 U1 has.  Understandable, because presumably VMWS9 was released after ESXi 5.0U1.

However, the same thing happened with my attempt to upgrade the VMware tools after an upgrade from ESXi 5.0 U1 to ESXi 5.1.  Message was that the installed version of VMWare tools (derived from VMWS9) was a later version than with ESXi 5.1.

Would it be better to uninstall VMware Tools on the ESXi 5.1 VM's and then install again?  Or does it not really matter?

[karthickvm]

Hello Sette,

Please check the builld numbers of the VMware tools for Workstation 9 and ESXi 5.1 . If the build number of Tools from WS9 is greater than what ESXi 5.1 then it wont upgrade.

The best solution will be uninstall the tools (instlaled from WS9) and install the fresh VMware tools from ESXi 5.1

Hope this answers your questions.

[seetee]

Thanks for your response.

The build number of the VMware Tools from VMWS9 is 9.2.0 build 799703

I uninstalled this on one of my VM's, rebooted and installed the VMware Tools on the ESXi 5.1 and rebooted and

The build number of the VMware Tools from ESXi 5.1 is 9.0.0 build 782409

So, it does look as though the ESXi 5.1 VMware Tools is less fresh than for VMWS9.

There doesn't appear to be any difference in behaviour in the VM by uninstalling the VMWS9 and installing ESXi51.  My original question was "does it matter".  Would it be best to downgrade the other VM's to the VMTools that come with ESXi51?

[karthickvm]

Hi Seetee,

Definitely It does matter , because Tools for WS9 and ESXi 5.1 are different.

WS9 : Hosted Virtualization, Tools will talk to application(WS9) installed on OS

ESXi5.1 : Bare Metal virtualization, Tools will communicate to VMM (virtual Machine Monitor).

Additionally VMware tools from ESXi will contain Balloon(VMMEMCLT )driver, vShield Driver and lot many which is specific to the ESXi hosts.

So It is recommended to install the VMware tools from where you are running the VM

I strongly recommend to uninstall VMware tools installed from ws9 and reinstall from ESXi 5.1 else we cannot determine when the issue will happen.