In many cases, you notice that VMware tools are not installed on virtual machines at the level of your data center. Now, they may be frequently seen on Linux and sometimes Windows operating systems. Sometimes the question arises as to how and why we should install VMware tools! In the rest of this post, I have skipped some of the points mentioned in VMware’s resources so that you can install and use this service on your virtual machines with a better understanding of this service. Certainly, its installation has been mentioned in many of the company’s recommendations, as well as some errors. And in the final link, it is explained how to install and update it on different operating systems.
VMware Tools is a set of tools that accelerate and improve the performance and efficiency of virtual machine operating systems and improve the management of virtual machines.
For example, by installing it, you can solve the following problems.
- Low resolution graphics card
- Inappropriate color depth
- Incorrect display of network card speed
- Encapsulated Mouse Movement
- Inability to copy and drag – drop files
- Sound loss and sound card issues
- Ability to take snapshots of virtual operating systems
The VMware Tools package includes the following components:
- VMware Tools service
- VMware device drivers
- VMware user process
- VMware Tools control panel
VMware Tools Service
This service starts when the virtual machine operating system boots. This service rejects the information between the virtual machine and the hypervisor on the host, and this process runs in the Windows background of the virtual machine called vmtoolsd.exe in the list of processes, which is called vmware-tool-deamon in Mac operating systems and vmtoolsd in Linux. This service is able to do the following
- Messages pass from the physical host to the virtual machine operating system except Mac OS
- Running scripts that help automate some tasks in the virtual machine operating system
- Synchronize time on virtual operating systems with hosting clocks except Mac OS
- Ability to move the mouse freely between virtual machines and the main operating system, e.g. vmware workstation or vSphere client (exit from VM environment)
- When a virtual machine is running under vSphere or vmware Server, heartbeat messages indicating that the virtual machine is running are sent by the service to VMware products.
VMware Tools Device Drivers
Improving mouse movement performance, folder sharing, improving audio, graphics, and network performance are other capabilities of this service that can be achieved with the help of Device drivers. At the time of installing VMware Tools you can specify what driver to install depending on the type of guest operating system you are doing. The following are supported with Device Drivers:
- SVGA driver
- SCSI driver
- Paravirtual SCSI driver
- VMXNet NIC drivers
- Mouse driver
- Audio driver
- Kernel module for sharing folders
- vmblock Module
- vShield Endpoin
- ThinPrint driver
- Memory control driver
- VMCI and VMCI Sockets drivers
- Modules and drivers to support automatic backups of VMs
VMware User Process
With User Process, you can support some features such as copy/paste, drag/drop, and unity in VMware products. When the user logs in to the virtual machine operating system, this processing begins. The file involved in processing it is known as vmtoolsd.exe in Windows and in Linux as vmusr.
VMware Tools 12.5.0 download link
Download – Download VMware-Tools-windows-arm-12.5.0-24276846.tar.gz