VMware Tools version status is shown as .text

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

1. vSphere Client UI VM Summary page shows

2. Aria Operations report that the Windows VM has no VMware Tools installed.

VMware Tools is actually installed and running, UI is expected to show

VMware Tools: Running, version:12325 (Current)
or
VMware Tools: Running, version:12325 (Upgrade available)

12325 is a VMware Tools integer version number that represents string version 12.1.5. It can also be other VMware Tools version numbers listed in https://packages.vmware.com/tools/versions

Environment

VMware Tools 11.x
VMware Tools 11.2.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.2

Cause

GuestStore feature is enabled on the ESXi host, but the configured datastore repository directory is not accessible or no 'VMware Tools packages for GuestStore' is extracted into the repository directory. For example,
[root@esxi-host:~] esxcli system settings gueststore repository get
URL: ds:///vmfs/volumes/6282b7ba-422abc49-0e3e-246e964b5206/GuestStore
[root@esxi-host:~] ls -l /vmfs/volumes/6282b7ba-422abc49-0e3e-246e964b5206/GuestStore
ls: /vmfs/volumes/6282b7ba-422abc49-0e3e-246e964b5206/GuestStore: No such file or directory

/vmfs/volumes/6282b7ba-422abc49-0e3e-246e964b5206/GuestStore should be a valid directory that contains VMware Tools installers and related metadata files, like
[root@esxi-host:~] ls -l /vmfs/volumes/6282b7ba-422abc49-0e3e-246e964b5206/GuestStore/vmware/apps/vmtools/windows64/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 481 Apr 14 2023 metadata.json
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 73728 Apr 14 2023 vmtools-12.1.5
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 73728 Apr 14 2023 vmtools-12.2.0
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 73728 Apr 19 2023 vmtools-12.3.0

Resolution

Make sure the configured datastore repository directory remains valid after GuestStore feature is enabled on the host.

User needs to download desired versions of 'VMware Tools packages for GuestStore' from Broadcom Support site and extract the packages into the configured datastore repository directory, like
$ tar xzvf gueststore-vmtools-12.3.5-22544099-22545121.tar.gz

Note: Extract the lowest version package first and the highest version one last.

Windows VMs running VMware Tools version 11.2.5 or above on ESXi 7.0U2 or above will use GuestStore for future tools upgrade when the feature is enabled. For more information, refer to:
vSphere 7.0 Admin Guide
Distribute VMware Tools Upgrade on Windows

Note: When cluster configuration is managed using vSphere Configuration Profiles, all hosts in the cluster can be configured with a common esx.system.guest_store setting, make sure the datastore is mounted on all hosts in the cluster.