Installing ESXi bundled tools-light VIB causes downgrade of VMware Tools ISO images on the host

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:
VMware Tools ISO images on the host might be downgraded during an ESXi host upgrade when following conditions are met:

• ESXi host is being upgraded between any two of the major versions 5.5, 6.0, 6.5 and 6.7
• A recently released version of tools-light VIB has been installed (from VMware Tools offline depot) on the ESXi host being upgraded
• The version ESXi host is being upgraded to is bundled with an older version of VMware Tools and the bundled tools-light VIB is being installed as part of upgrade

The ESXi host upgrade completes successfully with tools-light VIB upgraded to the bundled one. However, ESXi host ends up with older version of VMware Tools ISO images.

Resolution

This is a known issue affecting ESXi 6.0, 6.5, and 6.7. Currently, there is no resolution.

Workaround:
To work around this issue, use one of these options:

• Do not use the bundled tools-light VIB that contains older version of VMware Tools ISO images.
• Install the downloaded VMware Tools offline depot again so that ESXi host tools-light VIB be upgraded to the one for the new ESXi version.

OR

Download and install the latest VMware Tools offline depot from customerconnect.vmware.com.