VMware Tools 11.2.6 Release Notes

Introduction

VMware Tools | 29 APR 2021 | 17901274

Check for additions and updates to these release notes.

What's New

Updated OpenSSL version to 1.1.1k.

VMware Tools package is available for upgrading VMware Tools using GuestStore.

Earlier Releases of VMware Tools

For earlier releases of VMware Tools, see the VMware Tools Documentation page.

Before You Begin

VMware Tools 11.2.6 supports the following guest operating systems:

windows.iso

supports Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.

Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable package is a prerequisite for installing VMware Tools for Windows 11.2.6 and ships with the VMware Tools 11.2.6 download package. While preparing a target Windows guest for installation, VMware Tools runs the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package installer which checks for the presence of a more recent version on the target guest. If the target guest has a more recent version already present, the package does not install.

For a 32-bit Windows guest, the prerequisite version is Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2019 Redistributable (x86) version 14.27.29016.0.For a 64-bit Windows guest, the prerequisite versions are Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2019 Redistributable (x86) version 14.27.29016.0 and Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2019 Redistributable (x64) version 14.27.29016.0.

VMware Tools 11.2.6 depends on and ships Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015, 2017, and 2019. While preparing the system for VMware Tools 11.2.6 installation, Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015, 2017, and 2019 is installed on the system as a prerequisite. Installing or upgrading to VMware Tools 11.2.6 is not supported for Windows versions that do not meet the prerequisites. You must continue to use VMware Tools 10.2.x or later until you can patch or update Windows OS to meet the prerequisites for VMware Tools 11.2.6. Refer to Microsoft's update KB2977003 for the latest supported Visual C++ downloads.

Windows OS level prerequisites

Windows Server 2019

Windows Server 2016

Windows 10

Windows Server 2012 R2 with Microsoft update. For more information, see KB2919355.

Windows 8.1 with Microsoft update. For more information, see KB2919355.

Windows Server 2012

Windows 8

Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) with Microsoft's update. For more information, see KB4474419.

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) with Microsoft's update. For more information, see KB4474419.

darwin.iso

supports Mac OS X versions 10.11 and later.

For more information about

linux.iso

, see VMware Tools 10.3.23 Release Notes.

For more information about

solaris.iso

, see VMware Tools 10.3.10 Release Notes.

VMware Tools ISO images are frozen for some end of life guest operating systems. Some ISO images are not included with ESXi in the

tools-light

VIB. For more details, see the VMware Tools Documentation page. All VMware Tools ISO images are available for download from https://support.broadcom.com.

VMware Tools for Windows
: 32-bit and 64-bit installer executable (.exe) files are available for download. These files are provided for easier access and installation of VMware Tools in Windows guest operating systems.

For the resolution on incompatibility and general guidelines, while upgrading ESXi hosts to ESXi 5.5 Update 3b or ESXi 6.0 Update 1 or later, and using earlier versions of Horizon View Agent, refer to the knowledge base articles:

Connecting to View desktops with Horizon View Agent 5.3.5 or earlier hosted on ESXi 5.5 Update 3b or later fails with a black screen.

Connecting to View desktops with Horizon View Agent 6.0.x or 6.1.x hosted on ESXi 5.5 Update 3b or later fails with a black screen.

Connecting to View desktops with Horizon View Agent 6.1.x hosted on ESXi 6.0 Update 1 or later fails with a black screen.

Internationalization

VMware Tools 11.2.6 is available in the following languages:

English

French

German

Spanish

Italian

Japanese

Korean

Simplified Chinese

Traditional Chinese

Product Support Notice

The Windows pre-Vista iso image for VMWare Tools is no longer packaged with ESXi. The Windows pre-Vista iso image is available for download by users who require it. For download information, see the Product Download page.

End of Feature Support Notice

Balloon driver has been removed from MacOs VMware Tools 11.1.0.

VMware Tools 10.3.5 release supports the tar tools (

linux.iso

) and OSPs. Releases after VMware Tools 10.3.5 include only critical and security fixes and do not support new features in VMware Tools tar tools and OSPs. Use open-vm-tools for those operating systems that support open-vm-tools. For more information on different types of VMware Tools, see https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2016/02/understanding-the-three-types-of-vm-tools.html.

Compatibility Notes

Starting with VMware Tools version 10.2.0, Perl script-based VMware Tools installation for FreeBSD has been discontinued. FreeBSD systems are supported only through the open-vm-tools packages directly available from FreeBSD package repositories. FreeBSD packages for open-vm-tools 10.1.0 and later are available from FreeBSD package repositories.

Guest Operating System Customization Support

The Guest OS Customization Support Matrix provides details about the guest operating systems supported for customization.

Interoperability Matrix

The VMware Product Interoperability Matrix provides details about the compatibility of current and earlier versions of VMware Products. The VMware Product Interoperability Matrix of VMware Tools 11.2.5 can be applied to VMware Tools 11.2.6.

Installation and Upgrades for this release

VMware Tools can be downloaded from the Product Download page.

VMware Tools Operating System Specific Packages can be downloaded from http://packages.vmware.com/tools/releases/index.html. For more information on installing OSPs, see the VMware Tools Installation Guide for Operating System Specific Packages.

The steps to install VMware Tools vary depending on your VMware product and the guest operating system you have installed. For general steps to install VMware Tools in most VMware products, see General VMware Tools installation instructions (1014294).To set up productLocker to point to the shared datastore, see KB 2004018. For specific instructions to install, upgrade, and configure VMware Tools, see the VMware Tools Documentation page.

Note
: If you are using VMware Tools version earlier than 9.4, refer to VMware Tools 10.1.0 Release Notes for specific upgrade guidelines.

Windows Guest Drivers Installed by VMware Tools

VMware Tools 11.2.6 supports the following driver versions on a Windows guest operating system.

Drivers	VMware Tools 11.2.5
Hardware Drivers
efifwfromhost.bin	1.0.0.0
pvscsi.sys	1.3.15.0
vmaudio.sys	5.10.0.3506
vmci.sys	9.8.16.0
vmmouse.sys	12.5.10.0
vmusbmouse.sys	12.5.10.0
vmxnet2.sys	2.2.0.0
vmxnet3.sys	1.8.17.0
wddm.sys	8.17.02.0012
Software Drivers
giappdef.sys	2.3.1.0
glgxi.sys	2.3.0.0
vmhgfs.sys	11.0.42.0
vmmemctl.sys	7.5.5.0
vmrawdsk.sys	1.1.5.0
vnetWFP.sys	11.2.6.0
vsepflt.sys	11.2.5.0
vsock.sys	9.8.17.0
Security DLL
vmwsu.dll	2.5.0.0

Known Issues

VMware Tools Issues

Installing or upgrading versions earlier than VMware Tools 10.3.0 to VMware Tools 11.1.x might take longer and Windows OS might need a restart

The installation process might appear to be in progress and displays a message similar to the following:

"Preparing 'VMware Tools' for installation..."

During this process, you might be prompted to restart the operating system.

Workaround:

For more information, see KB 55798.

VMware Tools upgrade fails on Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 without SHA-2 code signing support

Microsoft has changed Windows driver signing to use SHA-2 algorithm exclusively starting December 3, 2019. Hence, legacy Windows systems without SHA-2 code signing support fail driver signature verification.

Workaround:

For more information, see KB 78708.

AppDefense driver glxgi logs an error in the event viewer

AppDefense driver

glxgi

logs an error in the event viewer similar to the following:

"

The glxgi service failed to start due to the following error: A device attached to the system is not functioning.

"

The events are observed when Guest Integrity is disabled.

Workaround:

These events do not impact the system and are safe to ignore.

After upgrading to a new VMware Tools version with installer parameter to remove the NetworkIntrospection feature, earlier version of vnetflt or vnetWFP driver service still runs

After the upgrade, the NetworkIntrospection feature is not present in the system's VMware Tools MSI database, but the feature's vnetflt or vnetWFP driver service still exists.

Workaround:

For more information, see KB 78016.

VMware Tools Issues in VMware Workstation or Fusion

Drag functionality fails to work in Ubuntu.

Drag functionality fails to work in Ubuntu 16.04.4 32-bit virtual machine installed using easy install. Also, failure of copy and paste functionality is observed in the same system.

Add the

modprobe.blacklist=vmwgfx

linux kernel boot option.

To gain access to larger resolutions, remove

svga.guestBackedPrimaryAware = "TRUE"

option from the VMX file.

Shared Folders mount is unavailable on Linux VM.

If the Shared Folders
feature is enabled on a Linux VM while it is powered off, shared folders mount is not available on restart.

Note: This issue is applicable for VMware Tools running on Workstation and Fusion.

Shared Folders
feature from the interface.For resolving the issue permanently, edit /etc/fstab
and add an entry to mount the Shared Folders automatically on boot.

For example, add the line:

vmhgfs-fuse /mnt/hgfs fuse defaults,allow_other 0 0

VMware Tools Issue in VMware Horizon

WDDM driver fails on Windows Update installation when Horizon Agent is installed on Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2008 R2

When Horizon Agent is installed on Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows Server 2008 R2, the WDDM driver fails on Windows Update installation.

WDDM driver is available through the Windows Update service when the driver publication process is completed.