The RPM installer for installing VMware Tools on Linux Virtual Machines on ESXi 4.1 and 5.x is no longer bundled with the hypervisor.
To install VMware Tools in a Linux guest operating system using RPM:
Ensure that your Linux virtual machine is powered on.
If you are running a GUI interface, open a command shell.
Click VM in the virtual machine menu, then click Guest > Install/Upgrade VMware Tools and click OK.
To create a mount point, run this command:
mkdir /mnt/cdrom
To mount the CDROM, run this command:
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
To install VMware Tools using RPM, run this command:
rpm -ivh /mnt/cdrom/VMwareTools-version.rpm
Where version is the version of VMware Tools you want to install
To check the existing version of VMware Tools, use the cd command to go to the /mnt/cdrom/ directory and list the contents of the directory with the command # ls.
Note: You can only perform the install as a root user or by using the sudo command.
Note: If the contents are compressed,please extract the "VmwareTools-version.tgz".
To configure VMware Tools for your running kernel, run this command:
/usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl
To unmount the CDROM, run this command:
umount /mnt/cdrom
To end the VMware Tools install, click VM in the virtual machine menu, then click Guest > End VMware Tools Install.