Is it possible to push VMware tools with SMS??

[lonecedar2]

We have just upgraded to ESX 3.5 and VC 2.5. I need to know if if is possible to push VMware tools out to all VM's via SMS? I cant find a VMware toolssetup.exe or msi.

Thanks

lonecedar

[alanrenouf]

You should just be able to mount the iso in one of your VM's, click to install VMware tools and when the wizard runs look for a cdrom and copy what you need before canceling the tools install and take the MSI from the cdrom drive and then install it via SMS.

Or you can copy the ISO from /vmimages/tools-isoimages/windows.iso

If you found this information useful, please consider awarding points for Correct or Helpful.

Alan Renouf

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant

UK

[tgradig]

This command worked for us. Not on SMS, but should be the same. I put the command in a batch file. I copied the batch file locally and ran it and the tools installed. Remove the /norstart if you want the tools to install and reboot afterwards. myapp-v1.msi is VMware tools.msi is located.

Msiexec /i myapp-v1.msi REINSTALLMODE=vomus REINSTALL=ALL /norestart /passive

Good Luck,

Tony G.

[desh_thomson]

We are pushing updates via SMS with no reboot option :

msiexec.exe /i "vmware tools.msi" /qn ADDLOCAL=ALL REBOOT=ReallySuppress

[dogbertvm]

We are pushing updates via SMS with no reboot option :

msiexec.exe /i "vmware tools.msi" /qn ADDLOCAL=ALL REBOOT=ReallySuppress

A caveat to that approach: Using the ADDLOCAL=ALL parameter unmodified will install drivers and enable features that are probably not desirable for most VMware ESX guest OSs. Namely this will install the drivers for audio (Audio), Shared Folders (Hgfs) and the WYSE multimedia extensions. It will also install "Guest SDK" and also the experimental "Descheduled Time Accounting" drivers that VMware doesn't recommend for production systems. I also think it installs "Mac BootCamp Support" (BootCamp).

A different approach is to use something along the lines of:

msiexec /i "VMware Tools.msi" /qn ADDLOCAL=ALL REMOVE=Audio,BootCamp,vmdesched,GuestSDK,Hgfs,WYSE REBOOT=ReallySuppress

The list of drivers removed shown here is for the VMware tools that come with ESX 3.5.0. New versions of the tools will almost definately have new features that aren't desired. I haven't been able to find a way to "ADDLOCAL" only the features I explicitly want installed (Buslogic, MemCtl, Mouse, SVGA, Sync, VMXNet, Toolbox).

I used Microsoft Orca to interrogate the "VMware Tools.msi" for the list of available "features."

Mike

[lonecedar2]

Thanks for the helpful responses everyone. I will work with our SMS admin and see how the msiexec command line works.

-lonecedar

[frank_wegner]

I did some research on this topic and talked to VMware engineering and product management. Here is the answer from Palo Alto: „Invoking .msi directly hasn't been tested by VMware so it's up to customers to take the risk. There is no KB article or documentation that advises customers how to deploy/manage Tools with SMS. It is not supported by VMware. If anything breaks with msi installs customers can not open a service request for it."

So if you plan to use this feature in production you should raise an enhancement request to get it supported:

Here is some more background:

The correct way to install tools is to invoke setup.exe directly. This should handle upgrade and invoke 32 or 64 bit msi properly.

Command to suppress reboot and do silent install - setup.exe /s /v"/qn REBOOT=ReallySuppress" . /s - suppress splash screen, /v - pass parameters to msi directly, /qn - instruct msi to do silent install, REBOOT=R suppress reboot.

[LucasAlbers]

Why is it better to deploy with sms then just check the checkbox that tells the machine to automatically upgrade to newer vmware tools as required?

Is this on systems that don't have a previous version of vmware tools installed?

[AsherN]

Because yoou may need to keep a detailed log of software deployment for audit compliance.

And 'auto' anything on a server is not a good thing.

[desertpole]

Nicely done! I was ready to use Orca, but found your post first. Thanks a bunch.