The raw RPC interface varies for one of the three OS types available.
Linux: vmtoolsd --cmd="guestlib.stat.get <encoding> <stat>" Mac: vmtoolsd --cmd="guestlib.stat.get <encoding> <stat>" Windows: vmtoolsd.exe --cmd="guestlib.stat.get <encoding> <stat>"
This is a raw form of the statistics API. Function calls or CLI are preferred.