Customizing VMware Tools for Automated Windows Installs: Setting Up a "Typical" Installation Profile

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0 VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Administrators attempting to automate VMware Tools installation or upgrades on Windows Virtual Machine's (e.g., via Ansible) require granular control over installed components, specifically to achieve a "Typical" installation or exclude certain features while using a "Complete" (ADDLOCAL=ALL) approach.

Symptoms:

Automated installations (e.g., via Ansible playbook using /S /v"/qn REBOOT=ReallySuppress ADDLOCAL=ALL") result in a "Complete" installation that includes more components than desired (e.g., more than a "Typical" manual install).
Manual installation of specific VMware Tools versions is time-consuming on multiple servers.

Resolution

To effectively manage VMware Tools components for Windows via Ansible, especially when "Typical" installation is desired or if specific components needs to be excluded, follow the steps outlined below:

Download VMware tools package:

The VMware Tools installer package for the desired version needs to be downloaded from the Broadcom support portal.
Install VMware tools with "Complete" option on a reference Virtual Machine:

On a test/reference Windows VM, install VMware Tools using the "Complete" option. You can do this either via the GUI or the command line.

-- To install via GUI: Mount the VMware Tools ISO and follow the wizard, selecting the "Complete" installation option.
-- To install via command line: Run the following command from the directory where the VMware Tools package is located:

/S /v"/qn REBOOT=ReallySuppress ADDLOCAL=ALL"
Note: This command must be run with elevated permissions from the directory where the setup.exe is located on the test Windows VM.
Perform "Typical" Installation on a different reference VM manually via the installer:

On a second test/reference Windows VM, mount the VMware Tools ISO and perform a manual installation through the user interface

During the installation wizard, explicitly select the "Typical" installation option.
Identify additional components Installed by "Complete":

After performing both installations on separate test VMs, use the following PowerShell command on each VM to list the installed files and folders:

Get-ChildItem "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools" | Select Name
By comparing the output from the "Complete" installation (from Step 2) against the output from the "Typical" manual installation (from Step 3), you can identify components that are present in "Complete" but not in "Typical."

Here is a sample of components identified as additional in a "Complete" install. Please note that actual results might vary depending on the specific VMware Tools version being installed:

vmwTimeProvider, hgfs.dll and VMwareHgfsClient.exe . These are the components you may wish to remove to achieve a "Typical" installation profile.
Automate removal of unwanted components via PowerShell:

These commands will specifically remove the folders/files associated with the components that you identified as additional or not needed.
Example PowerShell Commands to remove vmwTimeProvider and VMwareHgfsClient.exe (based on typical differences):

Remove-Item -Path "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\vmwTimeProvider"
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\VMwareHgfsClient.exe"

Additional Information

Specify VMware Tools Components in Silent Installation

Understanding the function of removed components

vmwTimeProvider: This component installs the time provider for the VMware virtual precision clock device. Removing this means the VM will rely on the guest OS's native time synchronization methods (e.g., NTP) or the less precise VMware time synchronization provided by the vmtoolsd service.

VMwareHgfsClient.exe (and its associated hgfs.dll): These components implement the VMware Shared Folders feature. Excluding these will prevent the use of shared folders between the VM and the host system (primarily relevant for VMware Workstation, Player, or Fusion environments). This component is dependent on the VMCI driver.