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jayinoz2
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How to install VMCI driver with latest VMware tools

We installed the VMware patch required to enable vShield on the host and add the VMCI component to VMware Tools.

We then tried to upgrade VMware tools using the custom option, but because the guest had  a newer version of VMware Tools that supplied with the patch (ESXi500‐201109001), the client reported this, and failed to update.

They have a couple of questions around this:

  • Given this scenario we removed the existing version and installed the old version, and all worked okay. But this required two steps and two reboots – is there an easier way? Is there an automated way of doing this?

  • Once an older version of tools is installed, how to we upgrade this? – it didn’t seem possible to do this without removing the older version, which appeared to remove the VMCI component, and disabled vShield protection on the guest.

Am I being dumb here?

Please help

Thanks

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JonathanG
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Run msiexec with these parameters, case sensitive

/v "/qn ADDLOCAL=VMCI,VShield REMOVE=Hgfs

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Arrow1
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Hi,

I recently deployed a demo Deep Security environment. As part of the setup, I installed on Virtual machines (running on an ESX4.1) vmware tools

downloaded from http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/5.0p01/windows/index.html

MAKE SURE to select CUSTOM install so that to have a change to select what to install.

Expand "VMware Device Drivers">"VMCI Drivers" and select "vShield Drivers" ==> "Installed on local disk"

Hope this help

Regards

Bernard

Regards Bernard
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jayinoz2
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Thanks Disri1,

but unfortunately that does not help at all Smiley Sad

I know how to install the VMCI driver, but not how to install this in conjunction with the latest version of VMware tools, as per my post below.

There seems to be no information available via Google, so I can only assume that almost noone is using shield endpoint. Is this completely off the mark?

Thanks all,

Jay

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Arrow1
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Hi,

Why not trying to select "Install Vmware Tools" again from the vSphere Client for that machine... Then select Custom... this should allow you to install VMCI driver using the current version of Vmware tools.

Regards

Regards Bernard
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jayinoz2
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Yes, that was the plan Smiley Happy

I tried this and I got either 'Unspecified error' or 'the version you have installed is newer than the version you are installing' (sorry I don;t remember which)

Either way, the only way I could install was to remove the new version and then install the whole of the old version inc VMCI driver.

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Arrow1
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Strange!

After uninstalling the most recent version I would probably try reinstalling the same version (custom install) in one unique operation 😉

Regards

Regards Bernard
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jayinoz2
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But when I added the vShield Endpoint update (Updates tools-light  ESXi500-201109402-BG) didn't this change the version held within ESX to the older version?

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Arrow1
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Probably... however, I guess those recommandations for ESXi500-201109402-BG are quite old and think, as of today, that installing most recents vmware tools should be ok for getting Endpoint well working (both anti-malware and web reputation).

Regards

Regards Bernard
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jayinoz2
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Do the newer versions contain the VMCI driver? I didn't think so.

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Arrow1
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VMCI drivers are not only used by DS. I don't tested it  but I guess most recent version include them as well.

Regards Bernard
jayinoz2
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Seems I should have more faith Smiley Happy

I've installed a vanilla version of 5.0.0U1 623860 and this includes the vShield Endpoint driver within Tools (Tools version 8.6.5 621624). I've also downloaded the latest tools, VMware-tools-windows-8.6.5-731933.iso and this tool includes the vShield Endpoint driver.

  • So, given I've installed the ESXi500-201109001 patch, which I guess has overwritten the current version of VMware tools with an old version - how can I update the version held within ESX to the latest version - is this simply a case of replacing an .iso within a datastore?

  • Secondly, when installing from scratch, the ESXi500-201109001 patch includes:

VMware ESXi 5.0 Patch ESXi500-201109401-BG: Updates esx-base

VMware ESXi 5.0 Patch ESXi500-201109402-BG: Updates tools-light

I guess I just need to install ...9401 (to prevent downgrading VMtools within ESX) - so how do I go about doing this (previously I've used esxcli software vib install –d /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/Patches/ESXi500-201109001.zip to perform the update)? DO I simply install the full patch and then overwrite the now downgraded version of VMware Tools with the laest version?

  • Finally, is there an MSI command line option I can add to enable the vShield Endpoint driver automaticaly on a number of VMs that already have the latest VMtools version installed without the driver? (I know I'm lazy, but I don't want to perform a manual GUI update on 1000 systems)

Thanks again.

Jay

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Arrow1
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For the first question, I can share this with you:

I recently do the opposite as what you asked for: without accessing Vmware site, where would I fould wmware tools iso image?

The answer was:

- log on the DCIU ESX console the hit F2

- select "troubleshooting options and enable remote ssh

- use putty and connect to the ESX as root.

- cd /vmimages/tools-images

There should be a windows.iso image here... may be you can replace it by the one you want.

hint: I have a NFS datastore connected to this ESX and this allowed me to copy iso from /vmimages/tools-images to /vmfs/mynfs... may be you can do the same.

Hope this is useful

Bernard

Regards Bernard
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JonathanG
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Run msiexec with these parameters, case sensitive

/v "/qn ADDLOCAL=VMCI,VShield REMOVE=Hgfs

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jayinoz2
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Thanks Distri,

You can replace the iso but when you attempt to use it you get this error 'Cannot complete signature verification on the required VMware Tools ISO image.'

The windows.iso.sig file presumably contains the signature, which fails to match since the .iso has been changed.

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Arrow1
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Bad news! I noticed that there is a Windows.iso.sig file in the image folder... may be somebody could give hints (scripts) so that to generate a corresponding .sig

BTW (not checked) may be there is a .sig file for each version on the Vmware FTP site?

Another idea would be using Update manager (UM)... may be it should be possible to download windows.iso to ESX using UM.

Regards

Regards Bernard
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jayinoz2
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Thanks, but just checked there - just the iso

Unfortuately the sig file doesn't look like a simple hash file to me.

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Arrow1
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Neither for me!

Regards Bernard
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