Guest operation system actions are greyed out on the VM within the vSphere Web Client

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• The only options available for the virtual machine under Actions > All vCenter > Actions > Guest OS within the vSphere Web Client are:
  
  • Open Console
  • Install VMware Tools
• The Install/Upgrade Tools action is greyed out within the vSphere Web Client.
• The Install/Upgrade Tools action is available within the vSphere Client.

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 5.5.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5

Resolution

This is an expected behavior for the selected virtual machine within the vSphere Web Client when -

• VMware Tools is not installed.
• VMware Tools is running the current version.

Note: The Install/Upgrade tools option may still be displayed within the vSphere Client, even when you are running the current version of VMware. This is an expected behavior.

VMware Tools can only be upgraded when there is a newer version available. To see if a virtual machine is running the current version of VMware Tools:

1. Log in to the vSphere Web Client.
2. Select the required virtual machine.
3. Click the Summary tab.
4. Within the virtual machine summary pane, verify the version of VMware Tools installed on the virtual machine.

Note: If VMware Tools is not installed, you see this message -

Not running, not installed

Note: If the guest operation system actions are greyed out and the virtual machine otherwise does not line up with the symptoms of this article, please see if restarting the virtual machine resolves the issue. 

If the issue persists, file a Support Request with VMware Support and note this KB article ID (301292) in the problem description. For more information, see the KB - Creating and managing Broadcom support cases

 

Additional Information

Installing VMware Tools on a VMware vSphere virtual machine running Windows OS

Installing and Configuring VMware Tools (PDF)

客户机操作系统操作在 vSphere Web Client 中显示为灰色