VMware Cloud Community
conradsia
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Install VM tools without rebooting

I thought I read somewhere you could either do an unattended install for VMware tools or you could use a no reboot switch from the command line to install the tools without rebooting, but I can't seem to find anything now.

Help?

Thanks

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conradsia
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

All I could find is this http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_installation_guide.pdf P.168 and it doesn't look like it can not reboot.

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khai
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

in order for you to use VMtool, it has to be rebooted, because VMtool includes various drivers that windows need to load at boot time.

conradsia
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I understand just looking for a way to remotely upgrade out of date tools and it not cause a reboot immediately. The vmtools-upgrade seems to require that the vm be shut down anyway.

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RParker
Immortal
Immortal

technically, drivers are just services, that have a run time equivalent, like Linux Run level, so theorhetically it is possible to leave the machine AFTER it updates the drivers.

I think they do a reboot, because some drivers like network function from a boot level call, but I have seen tools update, and the build gets updated, and therefore it is an inplace upgrade. There are numerous places on the net that explain the boot calls and registry changes in windows, so that it basically runs a program before Windows starts because the files are in use, but with Windows 2003 and Windows XP/Vista you can simply restart services without reboot, its a hassle but it can be done.

I have done it, but our systems aren't that critical, so I don't worry about it.

But watch the build level before and after you do a VM Tools upgrade, and ALL the drivers will update. It says you MUST reboot for changes to take affect, but that's not totally accurate, it will be fine if you just leave it (if you absolutely need to keep the system running). Then maybe set a scheduled task that will power down the VM and restart it later....

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conradsia
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I understand, but again I want to do remote installs of the tools on multiple servers and it looks like you can only do remote installs of the tools from VC when the vm's are shut down anyway, so it doesn't matter.

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