Working with VMware Tools

Last update: May 30 2026

VMware Tools™ (open-vm-tools) is a set of services for managing guest OSes. Read more about VMware Tools in the About VMware Tools Administration section of the VMware documentation.

For Windows, the VMware Tools version must be at least 12288. For Linux, the actual version number depends on the OS.

Check the installed version in Cloud Director. If the version is not up to date, update VMware Tools.

Install VMware Tools

The latest version of VMware Tools is installed automatically during the initial installation.

Windows

1. From the control panel, open the Cloud Director panel: in the top menu, click Products → VMware-based Cloud → section Cloud Director.

2. Open the virtual data center page.

3. Go to the Compute → Virtual Machines.

4. In the ACTIONS menu of the virtual machine, select Install VMware Tools → Install.

5. Open the list of installed programs and check for VMware Tools.

6. Check if VMware Tools is working: open the Services application → VMware Tools and check the Status column. It should show Running, and the startup type should be Automatic.

Ubuntu/Debian

1. Update the information about the latest packages from all configured sources:

   sudo apt update

2. Install the open-vm-tools package:

   sudo apt install open-vm-tools

3. Enable the service to start automatically:

   sudo systemctl enable vmtoolsd

4. Restart the virtual machine:

   sudo reboot

RHEL/CentOS

1. Update the information about the latest packages from all configured sources:

   sudo dnf check-update

2. Install the open-vm-tools package:

   sudo dnf install open-vm-tools

3. Enable the service to start automatically:

   sudo systemctl enable vmtoolsd

4. Restart the virtual machine:

   sudo reboot

Check VMware Tools version

1. From the control panel, open the Cloud Director panel: in the top menu, click Products → VMware-based Cloud → section Cloud Director.
2. Open the virtual data center page.
3. Go to the Compute → Virtual Machines.
4. In the virtual machine card, click DETAILS.
5. In the General section, in the VMware Tools field, check the VMware Tools version. If it says Not installed, VMware Tools is not installed.

Update VMware Tools

We recommend always updating VMware Tools to the latest version.

Windows

1. Download the VMware Tools installer from the official VMware repository.
2. Run the installer and follow all the steps.
3. Restart the virtual machine.

Ubuntu/Debian

1. Update the information about the latest packages from all configured sources:

   sudo apt update

2. Check for available updates:

   sudo apt list —upgradable | grep open-vm-tools

3. If an update is available, install it:

   sudo apt install open-vm-tools

RHEL/CentOS

1. Update the information about the latest packages from all configured sources:

   sudo dnf check-update

2. Check for available updates:

   sudo dnf list available | grep open-vm-tools

3. If an update is available, install it:

   sudo dnf install open-vm-tools