Hello there.
There is a lab, which consits of 3 ESXi 6.7u3 (14320388) managed by VCSA 6.7u3 (14368073). I was trying to configure a vmtools repo on a shared datastore (VMFS 6), and it seems that my attempt was successful, however I'll try to highlight the main steps, which I have performed:
1. Download vmtools 11.0.0 (for Windows) and 10.3.20 (for some legacy Linux VMs);
2. Make dir "VMtools" on shared datastore "UNITY01-LUN-1";
3. Extract the tools packages, here is the content of archives:
4. Upload "vmtools" and "floppies" catalogs into "VMtools" directory on shared datastore:
As you can see, "vmtools" folders of different VMware tools versions (11.0.0 and 10.3.20) were merged, so VMware tools for Windows and Linux are available in a single directory. In fact, these files of 10.3.20 tools: "linux.iso", "linux.iso.sha", "linux.iso.sig", "linux_avr_manifest.txt" and "linux_avr_manifest.txt.sig" were copied into the folder. Files "version.txt", "buildNumber.txt", "isoimages_manifest.txt" and "isoimages_manifest.txt.sig" were not copied, cause they were already present in 11.0.0 vmtools folder.
Also I've made the same permissions for new ProductLocker location as it was in the original location (700 for files, 755 for folders "vmtools" and "floppies").
5. Update ProductLocker location via UpdateProductLockerLocation_Task method, so now ESXis report this location:
This is the correct datastore:
Okay, now if I try to update/install vmtools, VM shows me that iso is still mounted from [] /usr/lib/vmware/isoimages/windows.iso:
However this path represents the chain of symlinks, which leads to my custom vmtools repository:
Well, it's all fine at first sight.
But if I try to migrate the VM with mounted VMtools, I got an error:
I was totally sure that I will have the ability to move VM with mounted VMtools, if it will be located on shared datastore. Is it an expected behavior?