How-to Install Open VMware Tools (open-vm-tools) on *nix Guest Operating Systems

According to VMware KB Article 2073803, some of the benefits of bundling open-vm-tools are:

• End users get the best out-of-box experience to efficiently deploy virtual machines on VMware virtual infrastructure.

• 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.

• Reduces operational expenses and virtual machine downtime, because updates to open-vm-tools packages are provided with operating system maintenance updates and patches. This eliminates separate maintenance cycles for VMware Tools updates.

• No compatibility matrix check is required for open-vm-tools.  

Also, open-vm-tools is available with these operating systems:

• Fedora 19 and later releases

• Debian 7.x and later releases

• openSUSE 11.x and later releases

• Recent Ubuntu releases (12.04 LTS, 13.10 and later)

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.0 and later releases

• CentOS 7.0 and later releases

• Oracle Linux 7.0 and later releases

• SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 and later releases

• FreeBSD 10.0 and later releases

Step-by-step guide

1. Uninstall current version of VMware Tools. For instructions follow this VMware KB Article 

2. Install Open VM Tools (open-vm-tools) via the OS package manager or by following Guest Operating System Installation Guide. Examples:

   1. Ubuntu/Debian

      apt install open-vm-tools

   2. FreeBSD

      pkg install open-vm-tools-nox11

   3. PhotonOS

      tdnf install -y open-vm-tools

   4. RedHat/CentOS/AlmaLinux/RockyLinux

       

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