Installing VMware Tools in a Linux virtual machine using Red Hat Package Manager (RPM)

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides steps to install VMware Tools in a Linux guest operating system using Red Hat Package Manager (RPM).

 

Note: For an overview of installing VMware Tools, see: How to install VMware Tools

 

DISCLAIMER: If the list below applies to your Linux Distribution, please use the Doc listed below for open-vm-tools. Failure to do so may result in damage to the OS:

• https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/tools/11-0-0/vmware-tools-administration-11-0-0/installing-vmware-tools/install-open-vm-tools.html
• List of Distributions that use open-vm-tools
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 and later releases
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 and later releases
  • Ubuntu 14.04 and later releases
  • CentOS 7 and later releases
  • FreeBSD 10.3, 10.4 & 11.1
  • Debian 7.x and later releases
  • Oracle Linux 7 and later
  • Fedora 19 and later releases
  • openSUSE 11.x and later releases

Resolution

• If the Linux distribution is not RPM-based, has a custom kernel, or the RPM installer is no longer provided, refer to Installing VMware Tools in a Linux virtual machine using a Compiler.
• The RPM installer for installing VMware Tools on Linux Virtual Machines on ESXi 4.1 and 5.x is no longer bundled with the hypervisor. 

To install VMware Tools in a Linux guest operating system using RPM:

1. Ensure that the Linux virtual machine is powered on.
2. If running a GUI interface, open a command shell.
3. Click VM in the virtual machine menu, then click Guest > Install/Upgrade VMware Tools and click OK.
4. Create a mount point:
   
   mkdir /mnt/cdrom
    
5. To mount the CDROM:
   
   mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

To install VMware Tools using RPM

1. Run the following command to install:
   
   rpm -ivh /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-<version>.rpm
   
   Where <version> is the version of VMware Tools.
   
   
2. To check the existing version of VMware Tools, use the cd command to go to the /mnt/cdrom/ directory and list the contents of the directory with the command ls.
   
   Note: Perform the install as a root user or by using the sudo command. If the contents are compressed, extract the "VmwareTools-version.tgz".

 

1. To configure VMware Tools for the running kernel, run this command:
   
   /usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl
    
2. To unmount the CDROM, run this command:
   
   umount /mnt/cdrom
    
3. To end the VMware Tools install, click VM in the virtual machine menu, then click Guest > End VMware Tools Install.

Additional Information