After rebooting guest OS, VMware Tools was automatically updated

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

After rebooting guest OS, VMware Tools was automatically updated.

You might see logs like this in vmware.log.

YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.###Z In(05) vcpu-0 - Chipset: The guest has requested that the virtual machine be hard reset.
:::
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.###Z In(05) vmx - TOOLS can be autoupgraded.
:::
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.###Z In(05) vcpu-0 - Guest: Command line: /mg /s /v"/qb- REBOOT=R VMREBOOTPROMPT=Y" /L "C:\Windows\TEMP\vmware-SYSTEM\vmupgrader_msi.log_########_######.log" 
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.###Z In(05) vcpu-0 - Guest: Installing VMware Tools ##.#.#.##### (build-########)

Environment

VMware ESXi
VMware ESX

Cause

When VM is rebooting, ESXi automatically update vmware tools based on the bundled vmware tools if VM is configured vmware tools auto update.

We could check the configuration from VM's [Updates] Tab.

We could also configure this setting from VM's [Edit Settings] > [VM Options] > [VMware Tools] > [Tools Upgrades].

In the vmx file, we could see a below entry.

tools.upgrade.policy = "upgradeAtPowerCycle"

Resolution

This is an expected product behavior. If you need to keep vmware tools version, disable vmware tools auto update.

Additional Information

Automatically Upgrade VMware Tools on Reboot