VMware Tools upgraded fail while installing PVSCSI driver

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0
• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

In Windows system, VMware tools upgrade fails with error:

"Setup failed to install the paravirtual SCSI driver automatically.This driver will have to be installed manually."

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0.x

Resolution

Validate if the target version of PVSCSI driver is already installed in this Windows system.

• For example, it's plan to upgrade to VMware tools version 12.5.0.
  • In the release notes, it's confirm the version of PVSCSI driver is "1.3.28.0".
  • VMware Tools 12.5.0 Release Notes
https://techdocs.broadcom.com/us/en/vmware-cis/vsphere/tools/12-5-0/release-notes/vmware-tools-1250-release-notes.html
  pvscsi.sys    1.3.28.0
  • In the Windows "Device Manager", check and confirm the version of PVSCSI driver is "1.3.28.0".
  • Also, confirm if the installed PVSCSI driver version is the same as the one included in VMware Tools 12.5.0

If the version is the same, you can skip the driver installation.

As a workaround, please follow the below steps :

• Upgrade the VMware tools in "Custom Setup" mode and exclude the PVSCSI driver to proceed with the upgrade.
• Now the upgrade task will complete successfully .