You can automate the process of upgrading VMware Tools for the virtual machines in your inventory.

You can set up vSphere Lifecycle Manager to check the VMware Tools version of a virtual machine when the virtual machine is rebooted. If necessary, vSphere Lifecycle Manager upgrades VMware Tools to the latest version supported by the host on which the virtual machine runs.

Note:

When you perform a VMware Tools upgrade on power cycle, vSphere Lifecycle Manager does not take a snapshot of the virtual machine and you cannot roll back to the previous version of the virtual machine.

Prerequisites

Verify that you have the VcIntegrity.Updates.com.vmware.vcIntegrity.Remediate privilege.

Procedure

  1. In the vSphere Client, navigate to a single virtual machine or an inventory object that contains virtual machines.
  2. Configure vSphere Lifecycle Manager to automatically upgrade VMware Tools on reboot.
    Inventory Object Steps
    Virtual machine
    1. Click the Updates tab.
    2. In the VMware Tools panel, click Turn On.
    Container Object, Host, cluster, data center, or vCenter Server instance
    1. Click the Updates tab.
    2. Select Hosts > VMware Tools.
    3. If the selected inventory object is a data center or a vCenter Server instance, select a cluster from the list.

      A list of all virtual machines in the cluster appears in the bottom pane.

    4. In the VMs in cluster pane, select the virtual machines for which you want to enable the automatic upgrade of VMware Tools.
    5. Click Set Auto Update and select On.

      The new status is visible in the Auto Update column.

Results

The next time you power on or restart a virtual machine, vSphere Lifecycle Manager checks the version of VMware Tools installed on the virtual machines and performs an upgrade, if necessary.