VMware tools is the utility that is used to improve the performance of the guest virtual machine and its necessary to keep the VMware tools up to date in order for the guest VM to function without any issues.

Updating VMware tools is simple and it would require restart of the virtual machine to complete the update successfully.

How to upgrade VMware tools:

Choose the virtual machine and right click on the VM
Choose Guest à Install/Upgrade VMware Tools
Install/Upgrade prompt will ask you to choose Interactive or Automatic installation.

Choose the appropriate way that is suitable for you and click OK to install/upgrade VMware tools on the guest virtual machine

How to upgrade VMware tools automatically?

The above mentioned steps will consume more time to complete the process were as we have one more option to install/upgrade VMware tools automatically during power cycle.

By configuring the VM to check and upgrade VMware tools during power cycling help us in reducing the manual efforts and time that’s being consumed.

Steps:

Login to the vCenter server either via vSphere client or via web console
Choose the virtual machine and power-off the machine, right click on the virtual machine and select “Edit Settings”
Go to Options tab and select VMware tools

Under VMware tools selection find “Advanced” and select “Check and upgrade tools during power cycling” check box and click OK to save the settings

We have configured the VM to check and upgrade VMware tools during power cycle hence the virtual machine will be upgraded to newer VMware tools version automatically if newer VMware tools version is available.