Installing VMware Tools in Linux after ESX 4.1
Tried to install VMware-Tools lately? Not sure how it goes on Windows, but on Linux it's a bit more challenging than it used to be. Used to be there was an RPM on the ISO that popped into the Linux machine's vCDROM drive when the option to install VMware Tools was chosen.
No more. Like ESXi4.0 before it, ESX4.1 seems to ship with an ISO containing, for Linux, a little tarball with the stuff.
Those who've worked for a distro or packaged anything will know that shipping and installing bare tarballs is really not the best way to go. Sure, it's fine for the cowboys who maintain 1-2 machines at the home or home-office, but for anyone who has to maintain more than one, has to roll back or verify a package level, or who just wants a clean system, a good package is the only way to go.
The great news? VMware seem to have a few packages for us. In fact, they come in 4 flavours of RedHat and some even for the you-bunt-you crowd. Seems all you have to do is mark up the apt config ...
... or yum config if you don't build your own packages and know where apt excels ...
and after refreshing, just install the package:
That, my friends, may be it. It seems convoluted but, really, once you ship a metapackage out with a proper apt+yum config, and your Linux VMs upgrade themselves overnight (well, maybe the test ones get the new metaRPMs first) then you'll be so much more pleased at the ability to do all that automatically. Add in Spacewalk and/or cobbler and stir for best results.
No more. Like ESXi4.0 before it, ESX4.1 seems to ship with an ISO containing, for Linux, a little tarball with the stuff.
Those who've worked for a distro or packaged anything will know that shipping and installing bare tarballs is really not the best way to go. Sure, it's fine for the cowboys who maintain 1-2 machines at the home or home-office, but for anyone who has to maintain more than one, has to roll back or verify a package level, or who just wants a clean system, a good package is the only way to go.
Note that I said good package. If you hear anyone mention "dependency hell" or anything like that, they weren't paying attention. Stop using bad packages! Stop mixing repositories. The pathetic blunt object that pass for packages is the topic of many blogwails past and many blogwails to come.
The great news? VMware seem to have a few packages for us. In fact, they come in 4 flavours of RedHat and some even for the you-bunt-you crowd. Seems all you have to do is mark up the apt config ...
cat <<EOF>repomd http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel$(VERSION)/$(ARCH)/etc/apt/sources.list.d/esx.list
EOF
apt-get update
... or yum config if you don't build your own packages and know where apt excels ...
cat <<EOF>/etc/yum.repos.d/esx.repo [esx]
name=VMware-tools for RHEL\$releasever - \$basearchbaseurl=http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/4.1/rhel\$releasever/\$basearch
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://packages.vmware.com/tools/VMWARE-PACKAGING-GPG-KEY.pubEOFyum update
and after refreshing, just install the package:
apt-get install vmware-toolsWhile I avoid Yum, it should look like this:
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
vmware-open-vm-tools (8.3.2-257589.el5)
vmware-open-vm-tools-common (8.3.2-257589.el5)
vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod (8.3.2-257589.el5)
vmware-open-vm-tools-nox (8.3.2-257589.el5)
vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-display (10.16.7.0-0.257589.el5)
vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-mouse (12.6.4.0-0.257589.el5)
vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-utilities (8.3.2-257589.el5)
vmware-tools-common (8.3.2-257589.el5)
vmware-tools-nox (8.3.2-257589.el5)
The following packages will be REPLACED:
xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse (12.4.0-2.1)
(by (10.13.0-2.1)
vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-mouse) ()
(12.4.0-2.1)
xorg-x11-drv-vmware (10.13.0-2.1)
(by ()
vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-display) (12.4.0-2.1)
The following NEW packages will be installed:
vmware-open-vm-tools (8.3.2-257589.el5)
vmware-open-vm-tools-common (8.3.2-257589.el5)
vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod (8.3.2-257589.el5)
vmware-open-vm-tools-nox (8.3.2-257589.el5)
vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-display (10.16.7.0-0.257589.el5)
vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-mouse (12.6.4.0-0.257589.el5)
vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-utilities (8.3.2-257589.el5)
vmware-tools (8.3.2-257589.el5)
vmware-tools-common (8.3.2-257589.el5)
vmware-tools-nox (8.3.2-257589.el5)
0 upgraded, 10 newly installed, 2 replaced, 0 removed and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 44.8kB/13.7MB of archives.
After unpacking 41.1MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Get:1 http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel5/x86_64/ vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod 8.3.2-257589.el5 [524kB]
Get:2 http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel5/x86_64/ vmware-open-vm-tools-common 8.3.2-257589.el5 [5283kB]
Get:3 http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel5/x86_64/ vmware-open-vm-tools-nox 8.3.2-257589.el5 [2631B]
Get:4 http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel5/x86_64/ vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-mouse 12.6.4.0-0.257589.el5 [17.5kB]
Get:5 http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel5/x86_64/ vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-display 10.16.7.0-0.257589.el5 [33.4kB]
Get:6 http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel5/x86_64/ vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-utilities 8.3.2-257589.el5 [7828kB]
Get:7 http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel5/x86_64/ vmware-open-vm-tools 8.3.2-257589.el5 [2811B]
Get:8 http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel5/x86_64/ vmware-tools-common 8.3.2-257589.el5 [39.4kB]
Get:9 http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel5/x86_64/ vmware-tools-nox 8.3.2-257589.el5 [2635B]
Get:10 http://packages.vmware.com tools/esx/4.1/rhel5/x86_64/ vmware-tools 8.3.2-257589.el5 [2763B]
Fetched 44.8kB in 0s (46.5kB/s)
Committing changes...
Preparing ############################## [100%]
Updating / installing
vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-display- ############################## [100%]
vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-mouse-12 ############################## [100%]
vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod-8.3.2-257589 ############################## [100%]
vmware-open-vm-tools-common-8.3.2-2575 ############################## [100%]
vmware-open-vm-tools-nox-8.3.2-257589. ############################## [100%]
vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-utilities-8. ############################## [100%]
vmware-open-vm-tools-8.3.2-257589.el5. ############################## [100%]
vmware-tools-common-8.3.2-257589.el5.x ############################## [100%]
vmware-tools-nox-8.3.2-257589.el5.x86_ ############################## [100%]
vmware-tools-8.3.2-257589.el5.x86_64 ############################## [100%]
Cleaning up / removing
xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse-12.4.0-2.1.x86_64 ############################## [100%]
xorg-x11-drv-vmware-10.13.0-2.1.x86_64 ############################## [100%]
Done.
[root@0-50-56-bc-0-7 ~]# yum install vmware-toolsThe experience will be very similar -- if a bit more verbose.
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror
Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
* addons: mirror.raystedman.net
* base: mirror.skiplink.com
* extras: mirror.skiplink.com
* updates: styx.biochem.wfubmc.edu
Setting up Install Process
Resolving Dependencies
:
[blah blah]
:
Dependencies Resolved
==================================================================================================================================
Package Arch Version Repository Size
==================================================================================================================================
Installing:
vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-display x86_64 10.16.7.0-0.257589.el5 esx 33 k
replacing xorg-x11-drv-vmware.x86_64 10.13.0-2.1
vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-mouse x86_64 12.6.4.0-0.257589.el5 esx 17 k
replacing xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse.x86_64 12.4.0-2.1
vmware-tools x86_64 8.3.2-257589.el5 esx 2.7 k
Installing for dependencies:
vmware-open-vm-tools x86_64 8.3.2-257589.el5 esx 2.7 k
vmware-open-vm-tools-common x86_64 8.3.2-257589.el5 esx 5.0 M
vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod x86_64 8.3.2-257589.el5 esx 512 k
vmware-open-vm-tools-nox x86_64 8.3.2-257589.el5 esx 2.6 k
vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-utilities x86_64 8.3.2-257589.el5 esx 7.5 M
vmware-tools-common x86_64 8.3.2-257589.el5 esx 39 k
vmware-tools-nox x86_64 8.3.2-257589.el5 esx 2.6 k
Transaction Summary
==================================================================================================================================
Install 10 Package(s)
Upgrade 0 Package(s)
Total download size: 13 M
Is this ok [y/N]: y
Downloading Packages:
:
[ more blah blah ]
:
Running Transaction
Installing : vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-display 1/12
Installing : vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod 2/12
Installing : vmware-open-vm-tools-common 3/12
Installing : vmware-open-vm-tools-nox 4/12
Installing : vmware-tools-common 5/12
Installing : vmware-tools-nox 6/12
Installing : vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-mouse 7/12
Installing : vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-utilities 8/12
Installing : vmware-open-vm-tools 9/12
Installing : vmware-tools 10/12
Erasing : xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse 11/12
Erasing : xorg-x11-drv-vmware 12/12
Installed:
vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-display.x86_64 0:10.16.7.0-0.257589.el5
vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-drv-mouse.x86_64 0:12.6.4.0-0.257589.el5
vmware-tools.x86_64 0:8.3.2-257589.el5
Dependency Installed:
vmware-open-vm-tools.x86_64 0:8.3.2-257589.el5 vmware-open-vm-tools-common.x86_64 0:8.3.2-257589.el5
vmware-open-vm-tools-kmod.x86_64 0:8.3.2-257589.el5 vmware-open-vm-tools-nox.x86_64 0:8.3.2-257589.el5
vmware-open-vm-tools-xorg-utilities.x86_64 0:8.3.2-257589.el5 vmware-tools-common.x86_64 0:8.3.2-257589.el5
vmware-tools-nox.x86_64 0:8.3.2-257589.el5
Replaced:
xorg-x11-drv-vmmouse.x86_64 0:12.4.0-2.1 xorg-x11-drv-vmware.x86_64 0:10.13.0-2.1
Complete!
That, my friends, may be it. It seems convoluted but, really, once you ship a metapackage out with a proper apt+yum config, and your Linux VMs upgrade themselves overnight (well, maybe the test ones get the new metaRPMs first) then you'll be so much more pleased at the ability to do all that automatically. Add in Spacewalk and/or cobbler and stir for best results.
Labels: apt, automation, ESXi, genius, linux, RPM, vSphere, yum
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