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vmhyperv
Contributor
Contributor

Updating VMware tools with no re-boot (Shows error)

Hi,

  I am trying to update VMware tools in Vm with Cli

Syntaxt Update-Tools -VM VM1 -NoReboot

but its shows error.Please let me know why the cli not working.

[vSphere PowerCLI] C:\> Update-Tools -VM MATLKADV1SQP094 -NoReboot
WARNING: Automatic update of VMware tools is not fully supported for
non-Windows OSs. Manual intervention might be required.
Update-Tools : 6/16/2011 12:04:24 PM    Update-Tools        The operation for t
he entity VirtualMachine-vm-14833 failed with the following message: "Cannot co
mplete operation because VMware Tools is not running in this virtual machine."

At line:1 char:13
+ Update-Tools <<<<  -VM MATLKADV1SQP094 -NoReboot
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [Update-Tools], ToolsUnavailab
   le
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Client20_TaskServiceImpl_CheckServerSideTaskUpda
   tes_OperationFailed,VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Cmdlets.Commands.UpdateVmT
  ools

Thanks

Kumar

Tags (1)
1 Reply
mattboren
Expert
Expert

Hello, vmhyperv-

The Update-Tools cmdlet is for doing just that -- updating existing Tools on a VM.  Per the help, "VMware Tools must be installed prior to updating".
It looks like VMware Tools are not running on the VM in question, by the part of your error message, "Cannot complete operation because VMware Tools is not running in this virtual machine".
For a fresh install of Tools on a VM that does not have them, one way you could do it would be:
  1. use the Mount-Tools cmdlet to mount the Tools ISO
  2. send a command to the given machine (assumes that it is accessible via the network), via something like psexec.exe (for a Windows VM) or plink.exe (from the PuTTY suite, to act against *nix) that initiates the Tools installer from the now-mounted Tools ISO

Btw, per various places on the web, the "no reboot" parameters for the Windows installer seem to be:  '/s /v"/qn /norestart"'.

Message was edited by mattboren:  added clarification on step 2) about the command initiating the Tools installer