The VMware Tools services start when the guest operating system starts. The service passes information between host and guest operating systems.
- VMware Alias Manager and Ticket Service or VGAuthService: VGAuthService in taskmgr provides support for SAML based authentication for vSphere Guest Operations, see guest.SAMLTokenAuthentication and vim.vm.guest.GuestOperationsManager.
- VMware Snapshot Provider Service: VMware Snapshot Provider Service provides support for freezing or thawing file systems for VSS (Volume Shadow Copy Service).
Note: This is applicable for Windows guest operating systems only.
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VMware Tools Daemon Service: This application runs in the background. It is called vmtoolsd.exe on Windows guest operating systems, vmware-tools-daemon on Mac OS X guest operating systems, and vmtoolsd on Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris guest operating systems. The VMware Tools service performs the following tasks using the plug-ins:
autohidpi
- Set guest screen resolution for Mac OS X guest operating systems.autoLogon
- Bypasses the guest operating system login when powering on a VM.autoUpgrade
- Handles VMware Tools upgrade operations.bitMapper
- Creates a bit map of disk blocks used by the guest operating system, used in vMotion.deployPkg
- Handles guest customization operations.desktopEvents
- Starting or stopping VMware Tools user service based on screen/X11 changes.Note: This is a VMware Tools user service plugin.disableGuestHibernate
- Disables option for hibernation in guest operating system.diskWiper
- Releases unused guest disk blocks so they can be reclaimed by the hypervisor.dndcp
- Drag and drop, copy and paste operations. Enables copying and pasting of text, graphics, and files between guest operating systems and hosts or client desktops. This is a VMware Tools user service plugin.appInfo
- Collects the information about running applications inside the guest and publishes the information to a guest variable.guestInfo
- Collects and reports guest information and statistics to hypervisor.hgfsServer
- HGFS server for transferring files, drag and drop and VMware Tools upgrade operations.hgfsUsability
- Handles mapping HGFS folders to special user folders, adds HGFS links to the desktop.hwUpgradeHelper
- Handles changes due to virtual hardware upgrade.powerOps
- Handles graceful shutdown and reboot of the guest, and execution of scripts for a power operation.resolutionKMS
- Handles communicating guest user interface topology to the vmwgfx drm (direct rendering manager) driver.Note: This plugin is for Linux only.resolutionSet
- Handles guest screen re-sizing whenvmwgfx drm
(direct rendering manager) driver is not available.-
timeSync
- Synchronizes guest clock with host clock at power on or resume. vmbackup
- Handles freezing and thawing file systems during a quiesced snapshot operation.vmtray
- Provides VMware Tools tray icon and pop-up menu.Note: This is a VMware Tools user service plugin.vsep
- Manages NSX file and network introspection.vix
- Handles guest operations related to files, processes and registry.