VMWare tools version dependency

[rowl]

I am getting mixed messages on the version of VMWare Tools that needs to be installed in each guest. In looking over the error log from last night I see two messages indicating the VMWare tools are out of date, yet the other 748 guests running the same version of VMWare tools backed up fine and made no mention of this. When I talk with Tivoli folks I am told I need to make sure we have the latest version, the documentation states "A current version.....must be installed", and the VMWare team I work with is of the opinion if any version is installed we are fine.

(I am not a VMWare admin) I am told that the effort required to assure the "latest version" is installed in every guest is unreasonable. What do I really need?

Thanks,
-Rowl

 

[DazRaz]

I'm surprised that a VMware environment of that size is not using automated tools to push out VMware Tools updates.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/mi...nguage=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1003966

The effort required isn't as bad as they are making out. Though it might depend on the percentage of machine which require a managed reboot.

 

[cividan]

Even simplier, they can check the box to update vmtool on the next power cycle. Require no scripting and the only impact is that the next time the VM reboot it will automatically instal the latest version of vmware tool and reboot. The whole install process takes around 2 min extra downtime. Most windows machine reboot every month to install update so this generally cover +90% of the VM machine.

http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-50/i...UID-6F8C3BEF-7269-471A-8536-D3F782226C30.html