VM information/status in VC with vmware tools

[wagde]

Hi

I wanted to know what is the aditional information of a VM I get in the VC if the VMware tools are installed. I see that when VMware tools are installed, I see more infor about the IP, DNS name.. in the summary tab.

1. What other information is visible only with vmtools installed ?

2. Are the performace graphs more accurate with VMware tools installed ?

3. What about the alarms ? does they work without vmtools ? is there a difference between "with" and "wothout" vmtools ?

4. Does VMtools communicate with Virtual Center somehow, and sends it any information ? If I connect directly to the ESX with the VIC, do I lose information ?

5. What is "Heartbeat", Is it part part of VMtools ? What information it add ? Is there any document which can help me understanding what does it do ?

Thanx

Wagde

[weinstein5]

VMware Tools is a set of drivers that are design to work in the virtual environement improving performance - they include virtual video drive, virtual mouse dirve, improved NIC driver, improved SCSI driver, the Balloon Driver, VM heartbeat

1) With VMware tools you install the Balloon Driver and the Heartbeat - so without VMware Tools you can not see this informaiton - other than that there are is no additinal information that VMware tools provides -

2) No they are as accurate

3) They work without VMware Tools - there is no differnece

4)VMware tools only communicates with the ESX Host - the information is retrieved by the VC Server

5) The heartbeat is installed with Vmware tools - it allows the vmkernel to determine the health of the VM and report on it - this is how VMware HA is able to recover form a VM failure -

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[wagde]

Hi

Thanx for the answer.

I understand that the only difference is "balooning" and "heartbeat"

I need to get more information about the VMware heartbeat feature.

How does it work ?

what does it report ?

Why/When is it useful ?

Where can I see its reports (in VIC ?) ?

how does the vmkernel identify problems in the quest os?

Should the guest OS elaborate with Vmtools in order to let "heartbeat" work properly ?

Is there any documentation of it in the VMware site ?

Thanx

Wagde