Upgrading VMware Tools
You can upgrade VMware Tools manually
or you can configure virtual machines to check for newer versions of VMware Tools and
install them.
The guest operating system
checks the version of VMware Tools when you power on a virtual machine. The
status bar of your virtual machine displays a message when a new version is
available.
For vSphere virtual machines, when the installed
version of VMware Tools is outdated, the status bar displays the
message:
A newer version of Tools is available for this VM
In Windows virtual machines,
you can set VMware Tools to notify you when an upgrade is available. If this
notification option is enabled, the VMware Tools icon in the Windows taskbar
includes a yellow caution icon when a VMware Tools upgrade is available.
To install a VMware Tools
upgrade, you can use the same procedure that you used for installing VMware
Tools the first time. Upgrading VMware Tools means installing a new version.
For Windows and Linux guest operating systems, you can
configure the virtual machine to automatically upgrade VMware Tools. Although the
version check is performed when you power on the virtual machine, in case of Windows
guest operating systems, the automatic upgrade occurs when you power off or restart the
virtual machine. The status bar displays the message
Installing VMware Tools
...
when an upgrade is in progress. The procedure is mentioned below. Upgrading VMware Tools on Windows guest operation
systems automatically installs the SVGA graphics drivers. The SVGA graphics driver
allows the sleep mode available in guest OS power settings to adjust the sleep
options. For example, you can use the sleep mode setting
Change when the computer
sleeps
to configure your guest OS to automatically go to sleep mode
after a certain time or prevent your guest OS from automatically switching to sleep
mode after being idle for some time. For vSphere virtual machines, you can use one
of the following processes to upgrade multiple virtual machines at the same
time.
- Log in to vCenter Server, select a host or cluster, and on theVirtual Machinestab specify the virtual machines on which to perform a VMware Tools upgrade.
- UsevSphere Lifecycle Managerto perform an orchestrated upgrade of virtual machines at the folder or data center level.
Some
features in a particular release of a VMware product might depend on installing
or upgrading to the version of VMware Tools included in that release. Upgrading
to the latest version of VMware Tools is not always necessary. Newer versions
of VMware Tools are compatible with several host versions. To avoid unnecessary
upgrades, evaluate whether the added features and capabilities are necessary
for your environment.
Compatibility
| Description
|
|---|---|
ESXi 8.0
Update 3 | This virtual machine (hardware version 21) is
compatible with ESXi 8.0
Update 3 and later. |
ESXi 8.0
Update 2 | This virtual machine (hardware version 21) is
compatible with ESXi 8.0
Update 2 and later. |
ESXi 8.0 Update 1 | This virtual machine (hardware version 20) is compatible with
ESXi 8.0 Update 1,
ESXi 8.0 Update 2, and
ESXi 8.0 Update
3. |
ESXi 8.0 | This virtual machine (hardware version 20) is compatible with
ESXi 8.0, ESXi 8.0 Update 1, ESXi 8.0 Update 2, and ESXi 8.0 Update 3. |
ESXi 7.0 Update 3 | This virtual machine (hardware version 19) is compatible with
ESXi 7.0 Update 3,
ESXi 8.0, ESXi 8.0 Update 1, ESXi 8.0 Update 2, and ESXi 8.0 Update 3. |
ESXi 7.0 Update 2 | This virtual machine (hardware version 19) is compatible with
ESXi 7.0 Update 2,
ESXi 7.0 Update 3,
ESXi 8.0, ESXi 8.0 Update 1, ESXi 8.0 Update 2, and ESXi 8.0 Update 3. |
ESXi 7.0 Update 1 and
later | This virtual machine (hardware version 18) is compatible with
ESXi 7.0 Update 1,
ESXi 7.0 Update 2,
ESXi 7.0 Update 3,
ESXi 8.0, ESXi 8.0 Update 1, ESXi 8.0 Update 2, and ESXi 8.0 Update 3. |
ESXi 7.0 | This virtual machine (hardware version 17) is compatible with
ESXi 7.0, ESXi 7.0 Update 1, ESXi 7.0 Update 2, ESXi 7.0 Update 3, ESXi 8.0, ESXi 8.0 Update 1, ESXi 8.0 Update 2, and ESXi 8.0 Update 3. |
ESXi 6.7 Update 2 | This virtual machine (hardware version 15) is compatible with ESXi 6.7 Update 2, ESXi 6.7 Update 3, ESXi 7.0, ESXi 7.0 Update 1, ESXi 7.0 Update 2, ESXi 7.0 Update 3, ESXi 8.0, ESXi 8.0 Update 1, ESXi 8.0 Update 2, and ESXi 8.0 Update 3. |
ESXi 6.7 | This virtual machine (hardware version 14) is compatible with ESXi 6.7, ESXi 6.7 Update 2, ESXi 6.7 Update 3, ESXi 7.0, ESXi 7.0 Update 1, ESXi 7.0 Update 2, ESXi 7.0 Update 3, ESXi 8.0, ESXi 8.0 Update 1, ESXi 8.0 Update 2, and ESXi 8.0 Update 3. |
ESXi 6.5 | This virtual machine (hardware version 13) is compatible with
ESXi 6.5, ESXi 6.7, ESXi 6.7 Update 2, ESXi 6.7 Update 3, ESXi 7.0, ESXi 7.0 Update 1, ESXi 7.0 Update 2, ESXi 7.0 Update 3, ESXi 8.0, ESXi 8.0 Update 1, ESXi 8.0 Update 2, and ESXi 8.0 Update 3. |
For more information, see the VMware Compatibility Guide at http://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility.