update manager and vmtools

[glassin]

My update manager states that my vmtools are compliant at ver.  10.1  I know there is a new version out 10.3.  I have updated the esxi hosts via update manager shouldn't the vm's show not compliant on a VUM scan?   I am not understanding how this is supposed to work.

thank you.

[SupreetK · Accepted solution]

For VM tools, it will use a pre-configured baseline that is bundled with the host version that the VMs are running on. For example, let us assume the host version is 6.0 U3 and the tools version that is bundled with this version of ESXi is 10.1. Here, the VUM will scan only for 10.1 and not any higher version of VM tools. If you want to install 10.3.0 version of tools, you will have to manually download it from VMware and install/upgrade on the VMs.

Please consider marking this answer as "correct" or "helpful" if you think your questions have been answered.

Cheers,

Supreet

[glassin]

thank you very much.  Looks like i have 6.0 U3F and only scanning for 10.1.   Is this something normally wait for another esxi update and scan for the tools?  Or can that wait be too long in which case do manually (just seems time consuming).

[SupreetK]

Unless you encounter any issue with the current up-to-date version (that is bundled with the ESXi version currently the hosts are running on) of tools, I do not see any need to manually download and install the latest version of VM tools.

Cheers,

Supreet

[golddiggie]

IME, it's best to keep them in sync with the host version. Unless you actually encounter a reason to manually install a newer version.

[glassin]

our environment is a tad touchy on vulnerabilities so tickets are opened the day they are released.

"VMware Tools HGFS out-of-bounds read vulnerability"

Advisory ID: VMSA-2018-0017

[SupreetK]

Then, you may have to use the command line option to upgrade the VM tools on all the VMs remotely. Copy the setup folder to all the VMs and use some tool such as PsTool to remotely trigger the update on all the VMs. You will get many scripts on the net to copy the setup folder to all the VMs at once and commands on how to use PsTool.

Cheers,

Supreet

[golddiggie]

Pretty sure you could also do it via PowerCLI.

[SupreetK]

With PowerCLi, you can upgrade only to the bundled version of VMware Tools. If you want to go with not-yet bundled version of VMware Tools such as 10.3, PowerCLI will be unable to help us. In this case, we need to download the latest version of tools on the required VMs and execute the .msi, either locally or remotely if needed to be done for multiple VMs. Curious to know how we can achieve this via PowerCLI

Cheers,

Supreet

[glassin]

Thank you i am understanding more and more.  So 10.3 isn't "bundled" yet with a host update, but all things being equal it will at some point in the future.  Assuming it takes me awhile to put together a plan to do it manually just checking the host updates from time to time may have the bundle?  How would i identify it?

[SupreetK]

It will be bundled in the future but, not sure by when and with which version

Cheers,

Supreet