Vmware tools 5.1 compatibility

As we aware that vSphere upgrades can be performed seamlessly without disturbing the production workloads running inside the virtual machines. Where does the real downtime starts during the vSphere Upgrades? Yes, You are right!!. Drivers provides smooth mouse operations, Improve sound, Graphic and performance of the virtual machine. Improves Screen resolution. In vSphere 5. However, this statement is Partially accurate and has caused some confusion with customers.

VMware Tools upgrades has always required an operating system reboot as new device drivers and kernel modules will not go into effect until the next reboot. In both case, you can continue to run your virtual machine in a partially upgraded state for a limited amount of time until your next maintenance window, but it is recommended that you reboot as soon as possible.

It depends. If one or more components have been updated since the last VMware Tools upgrade or one of the VMware Tools components requests a system reboot, then a reboot will be required.

A reboot would not be require if only the base components of VMware Tools have been upgraded e. It is always recommended that you run the latest version of VM Tools for better performance and manageability of virtual machine. Even though it is recommended, It is not mandatory to upgrade to the latest version of tools after the vSphere Upgrade. VMware Understands that performing VM Tools upgrade across a large number of virtual machines is difficult for the large vSphere environments.

That may sound like a lot, but after seeing each of the various options, it is clear that the intention is to accommodate nearly any workflow customers require for flexible datacenter operations. VM Tools status for any given VM is always in the context of the underlying host. When certain virtual machine events occur, such as power-on or vMotion, the version of VM Tools running on that guest is compared to the version associated with the underlying ESXi host.

Note that there is no mechanism for VMs running on vSphere to contact the mother ship and learn about new versions of VM Tools — only the VM to host relationship is relevant. This explains why a VM may suddenly complain about having out of date VM Tools after migrating from one host to another — the destination host has a more recent version in the product locker.

Recall from the previous post that there are three types of VM Tools — the familiar Tools ISOs for all supported operating systems, plus two additional offerings in the form of binary packages for Linux.

The simplest way to keep VM Tools up to date is to check a box and forget about managing this element of infrastructure. In many cases, this will result in one additional reboot after VM Tools installation completes.

There is currently no automatic Tools update for these guests. This patch is then pushed out to all managed hosts according to baselines established by administrators. Once this occurs, individual VMs will begin to detect that a new version of VM Tools is available and will be eligible for update. In one mode, VUM can be used to make a bulk configuration change to multiple VMs so that a Tools update is checked and performed as necessary on each guest reboot, just like an administrator can do using the technique shown in 1 above.

Enable guest-initiated updates by modifying the isolation. In very large environments or for those that have established more mature operational processes, PowerCLI provides a powerful option for updating VM Tools. This allows administrators to leverage existing Linux package managers or broader patch management and monitoring solutions without need to coordinate with vSphere administrators. Upgrading these both have different requirements so we will cover when and how you should upgrade your VMware Tools and VM compatibility in the below post.

When it comes to keeping your VMware Tools up to date we have a few options but I will focus on two of my favorite methods. Before we can start to update our VMware Tools it might be a good idea to understand which VMs in our environment are currently out of compliance, the easiest way to check if a VM if out of compliance is to view it via the vSphere Client and it will show you details such as the version and compliance.

Using this PowerCLI one-liner we are able to see more information at scale, we can see that within our folder we actually have 3 VMs that are out of compliance. To remediate these to the latest version its actually quite simple with PowerCLI as well. To make the information clearer on what needs an update we will use the same search only looking for VMs where ToolStatus is guestToolsNeedUpgrade.

To do that we will use the following one-liner. Now that we know which VMs need tools update we can actually go forth and upgrade tools. Using our existing one-liner from above we will just append Update-Tools to update the VMs with tools currently out of compliance.

You may have noticed that all the VMs had their updates kicked off at the same time and this may not be ideal, this is one way that the Update-Tools cmdlet works, however we can get around this by storing the VMs within a variable and then using a loop process them one at a time. This is definitely preferable as it will limit the impact to the environment. Keep in mind that with Windows Server VMware Tools no longer need a reboot on upgrade , it can be safe to enable this setting and have VMs stay up to date on every reboot.

However this may not be applicable to all situations, so another recommendation would be to enable this for a lab environment or non-critical workloads. The easy way to enable this option is to log into the vSphere Client, edit the VM settings and enable the setting. Here we can see which VMs have the automatic upgrade set and which ones are configured for manual.

Utilizing a filter we can look for objects that are set for manual and then configure them to be set for upgradeAtPowerCycle. When it comes to upgrading your VM Compatibility this is something that should be done with caution.

Upgrading VM Compatibility aka VM Hardware is like pulling out the motherboard and replacing it with a new one, so this should only be done when features and functionality in a higher level are needed.

Our current recommended level is Hardware Version 11 as it handles remediation from current security threats. Prior to upgrading your VM Compatibility you should always make sure VMware Tools are up to date first as new drivers can be required for the new virtual hardware. As I mentioned previously prior to upgrading your VM Compatibility I recommend taking a snapshot or a backup of the virtual machine in case a rollback is needed.

Its quite easy to see the current version of VM Compatibility via the vSphere Client, however when checking the current levels across our entire vCenter Server we may want to automate this Below you will find a quick and easy one-liner to identify the VMs and their current VM Compatibility version. As we can see above a few VMs are currently running v14 which is compatible with vSphere 6. We can do this again quite easily with PowerCLI.

If you wish to do this via the vSphere Client my colleague Nigel Hickey covers this in his blog series here. However, we are talking automation here so lets jump into the quick script to accomplish this.

The next time the VM is rebooted it will be shutdown, the compatibility will be upgraded and then be powered back on. More information on upgrading VM Compatibility can be found here. Automating your VMware Tools and VM Compatibility upgrades do not need to be hard, we have quite a few ways to help you with this and help this blog has helped educate you on some additional methods. For more information on Automating your vSphere Upgrade be sure to check out the full series here.

Although both of these components hold much value for virtual machines VM when upgraded, caution should always be at the forefront of upgrading the VM Compatibility version. I mention caution because upgrading the VM Compatibility version may not always be necessary to perform unless specific features are needed. VMware Tools is a set of services and modules that enable several features in VMware products for better management of, and seamless user interactions with, guests operating systems.

Although a guest operating system can run without VMware Tools, we suggest to always run the latest version of VMware Tools in your guest operating systems to access the latest features and updates. The status bar of the VM displays a message when a new version is available.

In my vSphere 6. Step 2: Click More info to reveal additional information optional , then click Upgrade VMware Tools to begin the process.

Choose an upgrade type, click Upgrade to continue. In my scenario, I have selected an Automatic Upgrade. VMware Tools must be installed prior to updating it. After VMware Tools is updated, the virtual machine is restarted unless the NoReboot parameter is specified. An example usage is shown below that can update VMware Tools on a virtual machine specified by its guest operating system.

Now we will review Virtual Machine Compatibility. Virtual machine compatibility determines the virtual hardware available to the VM, which corresponds to the physical hardware available on the vSphere host. Upgrading the compatibility level will allow the VM to take advantage of additional hardware features available to the virtual machine. Note that when upgrading VM Compatibility some applications or the OS to may have issues working properly. I suggest only upgrading VM Compatibility if you require a feature that comes with the newer hardware version.

When ready, click Yes to continue. You may also choose to only upgrade after a normal OS shutdown versus when an OS crashes then reboots. Step 4: Next we can review the status of the upgrade. When VM Compatibility is scheduled to be upgraded, you will notice the status of the upgrade is viewable under the VM Hardware section of the virtual machine.

Step 5: Once a VM Compatibility upgrade has completed, it can be verified by checking the status under the VM Hardware section of the virtual machine. As you have witnessed updating VMware Tools or Virtual Machine Compatibility are not complex tasks, but absolutely include steps that will require consideration prior to execution. Also be sure to review the vSphere Upgrade Guide. Please do not hesitate to post questions in the comments section of this blog or reach out to me directly via Twitter vCenterNerd.

In part 2 we will cover the vCenter Server Upgrade to 6. I am also assuming here that you have a backup of the vCenter Server prior to upgrading.

Step 1: This is the introduction and an explanation of the two Stages of the Upgrade. Click Next to continue. Click Connect To Source to reveal the additional fields. Then click Next to continue. Review and click Yes to continue. Step 6: Select the deployment size for the vCenter Server. Storage size changes will be reflected in the table below the selection dropdown in the Storage GB column. Step 7: Select the datastore location for the vCenter Server Appliance.

The option to also Enable Thin Disk Mode is available, if you require it. Be sure to add at least 1 DNS server. Once all required fields are completed, click Next to continue.

Step 9: Review all settings of Stage 1 prior to Upgrade. Step 1: Review the details of the Stage 2 process and then Click Next to continue. Step 2: Once pre-checks have completed, results will be shown on screen. Review any warnings given, as well as the resolutions to these warnings. In my upgrade scenario I had a few warnings, one reminding me to change DRS which we did before we began, and others that I validated were ok to proceed in this situation. Step 3: Select the data that you will require to be imported.

This is offered to shorten the upgrade and migration of data into the new VCSA. Make the required choice, and then click Next to continue.

Joining this program is optional but when you do join, it helps VMware to improve our products and services, fix problems and advise you on how best to deploy and use our products. To understand this better, please review additional information regarding the CEIP and its purpose. Step 5: Review all setting choices here and once complete, click Finish to continue. The prompt here is a reminder that the source vCenter Server will be powered down once all network configuration is enabled on the destination VCSA.

When all data has been imported to the destination VCSA, the process is complete. Messages are presented at this step as informational, such as a notice about TLS changes in vSphere 6. Enter the administrator credentials SSO administrator or other administrator with access to vSphere and login to view the vCenter Server and hosts.