VMware Tools or open-vm-tools
In 2007, VMware released large partitions of the VMware Tools as open-source software under the name, open-vm-tools (open virtual machine tools). They are now included in many Linux distributions, such as Debian, and can thus be obtained directly from the distribution repository.
open-vm-tools
As stated at the beginning of this article the open-vm-tools are present in the software repositories of several Linux distributions. Therefore you can use the package management to install them.
Using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty) or Debian Wheezy apt-get/aptitude
is the preferred way, the package name is open-vm-tools-lts-trusty or simply open-vm-tools.[1][2]
- Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools-lts-trusty
- Debian
sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools
Currently there are no restrictions regarding support from VMware:[3]
Eliminates the need to separately install VMware Tools when open-vm-tools is bundled with the operating system because open-vm-tools is a fully-supported open source implementation of VMware Tools.
VMware Tools
The VMware Tools are usually bundled and provided via ISO files in VMware's products.:[4]
But currently there is even a hint on using the open-vm-tools when installing the VMware Tools:
Download options for VMware Tools:
- http://packages.vmware.com/tools/index.html[5][6]
- The VMware Tools CD image for Linux guest operating systems (ISO image, download from the VMware Download area for respective versions of vSphere)
References
- ↑ open-vm-tools-lts-trusty (packages.ubuntu.com)
- ↑ open-vm-tools (packages.debian.org)
- ↑ VMware support of open-vm-tools (kb.vmware.com)
- ↑ VMware Workstation 5.5 Installing VMware Tools (vmware.com)
- ↑ VMware Tools Installation Guide Operating System Specific Packages (ESX/ESXi 4.x and ESX/ESXi 3.5 Update 2 and later VMware Tools)
- ↑ Installing VMware Tools on Linux (searchvmware.techtarget.com)
Additional Information
- Open Virtual Machine Tools (sourceforge.net)
- Open Virtual Machine Tools FAQs (open-vm-tools.sourceforge.net)
- Open Virtual Machine Tools (blogs.vmware.com, 12.09.2007)
- Presentation of open-vm-tools at VMworld 2007 (PDF)
Author: Werner Fischer Werner Fischer, working in the Knowledge Transfer team at Thomas-Krenn, completed his studies of Computer and Media Security at FH Hagenberg in Austria. He is a regular speaker at many conferences like LinuxTag, OSMC, OSDC, LinuxCon, and author for various IT magazines. In his spare time he enjoys playing the piano and training for a good result at the annual Linz marathon relay.
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