On Experts Exchange this morning someone asked about how to upgrade the VMware Tools as a result of a security advisory that advocated updating Windows VMware Tools to version 10.3
So here’s how to replace / upgrade the VMware Tools distribution ISOs, that live inside ESX.
Solution
Firstly, you need to download the tools! It’s easier if you simply get them in .zip format.
Download and extract them, Note: There is also a floppy images section, I’m not bothering with them, but you will see where they go as we progress, if you want to do those as well.
Use WinSCP to connect to your ESX host, and navigate to /vmimages/tools-isoimages
Note: There’s your floppies directory!
WARNING: To be on the safe side copy away any files you are going to over-write with the new ones, I’ve moved them to another folder in case there’s a drama, and I need to put them back! Then upload the new files you downloaded earlier.
You will see your VMs now know there’s a newer version.
You can now successfully update them to the newest version.
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If you want to get hold of the actual drivers from VMware tools, e.g. to have them in a machine that you will be deploying into VMware ESX/Workstation etc, then this is how to do it.
Solution
I’m using WinSCP to connect to one of my ESXi servers, (it’s free, and just works!) From the root directory locate vminages and open that.
Tools-isoimages, (this might seem long-winded, but if you keep an eye on the path, you will see we are actually going to a Linux symlink directory).
Here’s the VMtools ISO files, I want the Windows one. (Note: theres a Windows (pre-vista) one, for older versions of Windows and a Linux one also). Simply use WinSCP to download it.
I’ve opened the ISO with 7-Zip, (again free and it just works!) You can simply mount the ISO and copy the files out if you wish.
Run the following commands, (if running from command line, you wont need the dot slash!);
[box]
cd {Your-Directory}
./Setup64.exe /a /p {Your-Directory}
[/box]
When prompted select your directory, (again!)
Navigate to {Your-Directory}\VMware\VMware Tools\VMware\Drivers, here are all the divers extracted.
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Seen on Windows Server 2008 R2 running on VMware ESX/ESXi 4.0 and 4.1
Solution
Firstly, I’m assuming you are running the latest version of VMware tools on the machine in question, this procedure was carried out with VMware tools version 8.3.2 and cures the problem.
1. On the affected VM Click Start > In the search run box type > devmgmt.msc {enter}
2. Expand “Display adapters” Right click the one in use > “Update Driver Software.”
3. Browse to ” C:/Program Files/Common Files/VMware/Drivers/wddm_video” > Next.
4. When finished it should say “VMware SVGA 3D” Drivers have installed successfully. > Close
5. You will be prompted for a reboot, do so.
Note: Also ensure that you have allowed at least 8MB RAM for the graphics card (machine needs to be powered off before you can edit this).
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ES! it is, if in doubt see the compatibility matrix. But you have tried to install it and seen an error?
Error: This product can only be installed on the following 64-bit operating systems: Windows XP SP2 or above Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2008
Solution
Essentially this just a bad error message that bears no resemblance the the actual problem!
The REAL REASON you are seeing this error is because you re trying to install vCenter on a domain controller.
This happens because, as part of the vCenter 4.1 setup the following takes place,
And if the server is a Domain controller, ADLDS cannot be installed. You will notice that if you watch the “Roles” section during the install of vCenter, that a role drops onto the list.
Final Thoughts
For anyone who thinks “Well Ill put vCenter on first then make the server a domain controller”. That won’t work either, if you try that you will see this error,
Error: The TCP ports shown below are required by Active Directory Domain Services, but are already in use on this computer. 389 ldap
To be honest a more descriptive error message would help. (Cheers VMware!). It’s not as if you cant do it…
Same thing on Server 2008
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This article is primarily geared towards making your guest virtual machines hard drives LARGER, If you want to SHRINK or make the drive smaller then see the following article.
1. On the properties of the VM select the hard disk in question and locate its size.
2. Enter the new size and hit OK. Note: Making the drive size smaller, will have no affect, if you want to do that clone the drive. If the option is “Greyed out” then make sure you DO NOT have any snapshots for this machine.
Re-sizing the guests “Volume” Option 1 – Graphically
Note: To do this using diskpart skip forward to number 10.
3. On the guest > Right click “My Computer” > Manage > Locate “Disk Management”. You will see there’s some free space that’s appeared on the end of the drive, (Click action > Re-scan if you can’t see it).
4. Simply right click the existing volume and select “Extend Volume”.
5. Next.
6. Copy in the extra space you want to assign (all of it probably) > Next.
7. Finish.
8. All the physical drive should now be committed.
9. And just to be sure, look in “My Computer” the drive is now 300 GB.
Re-sizing the guests “Volume” Option 2 – From Command Line with diskpart
10. Start > run > cmd{enter}
[box]diskpart list volume< select volume x –Where x is the volume number of the volume to be re sized[/box]
11. The final command is simply extend (This uses ALL the available free space.) Note the volume size in the picture below has jumped up by 40 GB.
Resizing a System (boot) Partition.
Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 can do this quite happily. Older versions of Windows do not like having their system drive re sized, you see the following error if you try,
Error: The volume you have selected may not be extended. Please select another volume and try again.
Option 1 (Connect this drive to another machine)
In a virtual environment this is much simpler, but even if its a real physical hard drive, you can put it into another server and re size it. In an ESX environment simply do the following,
1. Shut down the machine that needs its drive re sizing, then go to another virtual machine’s properties and select add.
2. Hard Disk > Next.
3. Select “Use existing virtual disk” > Next.
4. Browse to the the drive we want to re size > Next.
5. Next.
6. Finish.
7. Now on the VM (Action > Re-scan disks). You will see the drive, and it’s not listed as a system drive, so you can extend it using any of the methods listed above.
8. For example, heres the drive re sized using disport.
9. when you have re sized the drive go back to the properties of the machine you have connected it to, and remove it.
10. OK.
11. Now power on the original VM and drive will be re sized.
Option 2 (Re size the Windows volume with GParted)
Note: This will work for a physical server as well.
1. Here’s our system drive with some nice shiny free space.
2. Make sure the server in question can boot from CD, in VMware do the following to boot to the machines BIOS, for a real server watch the screen as the server boots for instructions (Usually F10, F1 or Esc but differs depending on vendor).
3. Locate the boot order and make sure CD/DVD is at the top of the list.
4. Download GParted burn the image to CD, if you are working on a real server (use ImgBurn if your stuck). Or simply point the VM to the iso image, and boot the machine in question from it. At the welcome screen press Enter.
5. Use your arrow and tab keys to select Don’t touch the keymap > OK.
6. Pick a language.
7. We want to launch the GUI (X Windows), so select 0 (Zero).
8. Select Re size/Move > Drag the arrow to include the free space > Re size/Move.
9. Apply
10. Apply.
11. Close.
12. Click GParted > Quit.
13. Exit > Reboot/Shutdown > OK.
14. Remove the CD/ISO and press Enter.
15. The guest will run chkdsk the firs time it boots. This is normal don’t panic.
16. Once booted the volume will be re sized.
Shrink a Windows Partition with diskpart
1. To actually make the volume smaller with diskpart, the initial commands are the same.
2. If you use “shrink” on its own is will shrink the drive as much as it can (I cannot think of any situation where you would do this!). So to shrink the volume by 10 GB simply issue a “shrink minimum 10240”. (The figure in in MB).
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Having your ESX Server running the correct time is quite important, and before you visit this subject, I would suggest you MAKE SURE the time is set in the ESX Servers BIOS, ie the internal clock is set correctly first. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve seen Windows domains fall over because the ESX host has reverted to its BIOS time and replicated that time to its guests, suddenly your domain clocks are two years apart and carnage ensues!
Solution
Note: For this to work the hosts need to be able to communicate with public time servers over NTP (UDP Port 123), ensure your firewall has this port open or time sync will fail.
1. Connect to the host (or vCenter and drill down to the host(s)). Select the host in question > Configuration > Time Configuration > Properties > Tick NTP Client Enabled > Options > Add > Add in your public time server IPs > Tick ‘Restart NTP Service to apply changes’ > OK > OK.
Note: I’m in the UK so I’m using two time servers in this country, you may want to use one closer to home.
Note: If all these details are IN RED, then it has failed to sync, either be patient, try putting the host into and out of maintenance mode, or reboot it, if it continues to fail check it can see the public time servers on UDP port 123.
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I’ve seen this on both the Windows 8 (Consumer Preview), and the Windows Server 8 (Beta), whilst running them in VMware Workstation 8. They install fine, but if you install the VMware tools all you get is a black screen.
This is because the SVGA Driver than VMware Tools installs Windows 8 does NOT Like.
Note: This does not hppen on ESXi 5.
Solution
I knew this was going to happen, so I took a snapshot before I installed VMware tools, Then I had the luxury of reverting back. If you are reading this you probably didn’t! If that IS the case, then press F8 as the Virtual Machine starts to boot to launch Automatic Repair (be quick on the keys).
Installing VMware Tools in Windows 8
1. To stop this happening, when you install VMware tools select > Custom > Remove the SVGA Driver > Next > Finish > Yes (to reboot).
2. You will notice that the display driver that is uses, is the “Microsoft Basic Display Adaptor”.
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This was a much more complicated job than I expected it to be! The following procedure is done on CentOS 6, so will be the same for Red Hat Enterprise 6.
Solution
1. Connect to the server via SSH, (or open a terminal session). Logon as, (or su to) root.
2. Execute the following commands;
[box]yum install make gcc kernel-devel kernel-headers glibc-headers perl
mkdir /mnt/cdrom[/box]
3. Then present the VMware tools CD to the virtual machine, by connecting to the VI client > right click the VM > Guest > Install/Upgrade VMware tools.
4. Execute the following commands;
[box]mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom/ /mnt/cdrom
cp /mnt/cdrom/VMware-Tools*.tar.gz /tmp/
cd /tmp/
tar xvfz VMwareTools*.tar.gz
cd /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib
./vmware-install.pl -d[/box]
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