[VMC] Upgrading VMware tools available in ESXi hosts on VMware Cloud on AWS

Products

• VMware Cloud on AWS

Issue/Introduction

• The VMware Tools ISO image available in the ESXi hosts of your VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC are not up-to-date (or is impacted by certain vulnerabilities).
• You are looking for ways to upgrade the VMware Tools available in the ESXi host of your VMware Cloud on AWS SDDC so that automatic bulk VMware Tools upgrades can be done.

Environment

VMware Cloud on AWS

Cause

• VMware Cloud on AWS is a SaaS product where management components like ESXi hosts are managed by Broadcom.
• Currently, VMware Cloud on AWS does not have the option for customers to upgrade to the latest VMware Tools available. Only the default VMware Tools build are available (as per the ESXi versions available in your SDDC version).

Resolution

• VMware Tools have been decoupled from ESXi versions since VMware Tools version 10, but can be upgraded by you to a version that is supported on your SDDC (Overview of VMware Tools).
• There is no plan to release the latest patches for VMware Tools via the standard VMware Cloud on AWS patch cycle. Please refer to the VMware Tools policy in VMware Cloud on AWS, on Page 89 of the FAQ document: VMware Cloud on AWS Frequently Asked Questions.
• In VMware Cloud on AWS, installations at the Guest OS level including VMware Tools are a customer responsibility. 
• You have the below options to upgrade VMware tools of your VMs to the latest versions that are not available in your VMware Cloud on AWS ESXi hosts:
  
  1. Manually upgrade VMware Tools versions of the VMs in your environment:
     • Downloading VMware Tools
     • Installing and upgrading VMware Tools in vSphere
  2. Automate the upgrade of VMware tools on the VMs in your environment. Some examples: 
     • Windows VMs can use SCCM to deploy tools in bulk: deploying-vmware-tools-using-sccm-user-guide
     • Linux VMs can use open-vm-tools: VMware support for open-vm-tools

Additional Information

• Some additional VMware Tools deployment options are listed here: Options for Updating VMware Tools at Scale - VMware Professional Services, but note that they are not available in VMware Cloud on AWS.
• This method to upgrade the VMware Tools version in ESXi hosts is also not available in VMware Cloud on AWS: Installing and upgrading the latest version of VMware Tools on existing hosts