VMware Tools enables Carbon Black Sensor feature to provide intrinsic security in the virtual machine. VMware Tools Carbon Black feature comprises of a lightweight VMware Tools system service Carbon Black Helper (CBHelper) plugin and a Carbon Black launcher (CBLauncher) application. The CBHelper plugin runs as part of VMware Tools service. When the administrator enables security in a virtual machine, this CBHelper plugin triggers the CBLauncher, which downloads the Carbon Black Sensor install package, performs installation, and exits.

VMware Tools enables only the new installation, upgrade, or uninstallation of the CBHelper plugin and CBLauncher application. For any following VMware Tools uninstall or upgrade, it only upgrades or removes the VMware Tools system service CBHelper plugin and CBLauncher. It does not uninstall the Carbon Black installer or Sensor.
Note: Carbon Black Sensor is a separate product install from VMware Tools. VMware Tools does not install the Carbon Black Sensor, but provides support to enable this feature by installing the CBHelper plugin and CBLauncher application.

Prerequisites

Ensure the following before using this feature:

  • vCenter version: 6.7U1 and higher
  • VMTools version: 11.2
  • Only 64 bit platforms are supported. List of supported platforms:
    • Desktop Platforms: Windows 7-SP1, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10
    • Server Platforms: Windows Server 2008R2, 2012, 2012R2, 2016, 2019

Procedure

  1. Installing VMware Carbon Black Sensor on a virtual machine
    • Enable the CBHelper plugin
      • VMware Tools Installer:

        The VMware CBHelper plugin is present as as part of the default installation setup of VMware Tools. By default, this plugin is enabled.

      • Silent installation:

        To add the CBHelper plugin after installation is complete, run the following command:

        setup.exe /S /v "/qn REBOOT=R ADDLOCAL=CBHelper"

    • Disable the CBHelper plugin:
      • VMware Tools Installer:

        To disable the CBHelper plugin, select CUSTOM option in the VMware Tools Installer Setup and remove the the Carbon Black Helper feature from the default settings list.

      • Silent installation:

        To install of VMware Tools without the CBHelper plugin using silent installation, run the following command:

        setup.exe /S /v "/qn REBOOT=R ADDLOCAL=ALL REMOVE=CBHelper"

  2. Overriding the installation of VMware Carbon Black Sensor on a virtual machine
    There are two ways to turn off installation of Carbon Black Sensors:
    • VMware Tools Configuration File:

      The VI administrator can set the CBHelper plugin's poll interval to 0 by updating the tools.conf. By default, the poll interval value is 180sec.

    • Registry Setting:

      When a VM administrator (other than the VI administrator) wants to block the Carbon Black Sensor installation even if the VMware Tools is installed with the Carbon Black feature, the CBLauncher provide a configuration to override this feature. When this configuration is set, CBLauncher skips the installation of the Carbon Black Sensor. This override mechanism provides an ‘opt-out” for VM administrators.

      For Windows, this registry setting is as follows,

      Registry Path: HKLM\SOFTWARE\VMware Inc.\CbLauncher
      • Value Name: DisableCBInstall
      • Value Name: DisableCBInstall
      • Value Type: REG_DWORD
      • Value Data: 1
      Operation Result
      • 1 – Disable installation: The Carbon Black Sensor will not be installed.
      • Any other value/no value/error: Ignored. The Carbon Black Sensor will be installed.
    Note:

    A Carbon Black Cloud Workload Plug-in is provided for vCenter Server to secure your workloads. For more information on how to install, configure, and use this plugin, see VMware Carbon Black Cloud Workload Guide.