It is recommended to install VMware Tools in the guest operating system. Although the guest operating system can run without VMware Tools, you lose important functionality, convenience and performance improvement.
When you install VMware Tools, you install the following components:
a) The VMware Tools service (vmtoolsd.exe on Windows guests or vmtoolsd on Linux and Solaris guests). This service synchronizes the time in the guest operating system with the time in the host operating system. On Windows guests, it also controls grabbing and releasing the mouse cursor.
b) A set of VMware device drivers, including an SVGA display driver, the vmxnet networking driver for some guest operating systems, the BusLogic SCSI driver for some guest operating systems, the memory control driver for efficient memory allocation between virtual machines, the sync driver to quiesce I/O for Consolidated Backup, and the VMware mouse driver.
c) The VMware Tools control panel, which lets you modify settings, shrink virtual disks, and connect and disconnect virtual devices.
d) You can also use the command-line interface of the VMware Tools configuration utility in the guest operating system to perform these tasks. See the VMware Tools Configuration Utility User’s Guide.
e) A set of scripts that helps you to automate guest operating system operations. The scripts run when the virtual machine’s power state changes if you configure them to do so.
f) The VMware user process (VMwareUser.exe on Windows guests or vmware-user on Linux and Solaris guests), which enables you to copy and paste text between the guest and managed host operating systems.
To install VMware Tools in a Solaris guest operating system, follow the following steps :
1. Ensure that your Solaris virtual machine is powered on. In the vSphere Client inventory, right-click the virtual machine and select Power > Power On.
2. Click VM in the virtual machine menu, then click Guest > Install/Upgrade VMware Tools and click OK.
3. Copy vmware-solaris-tools.tar.gz from /cdrom/vmwaretools to a temporary directory (/tmp/).
[root@solaris ~]# cp /cdrom/vmwaretools/vmware-solaris-tools.tar.gz /tmp [root@solaris ~]# cd /tmp
4. Decompress the file using gunzip command.
[root@solaris tmp]# gunzip vmware-solaris-tools.tar.gz
5. Extract the contents of the tar file with the command:
[root@solaris tmp]# tar xvf vmware-solaris-tools.tar
6. Change directory using the command:
[root@solaris tmp]# cd vmware-tools-distrib
7. To install VMware Tools, run this command from the directory vmware-tools-distrib :
[root@solaris vmware-tools-distrib]# ./vmware-install.pl
Important Note :It is recommended to respond to the configuration questions and press “Enter” to accept all of the default values. Reboot the virtual machine for changes to take effect.
8. Check if VMware tools service is running with the command:
[root@solaris ~]# /etc/init.d/vmware-tools status
The output is similar to:
vmware-guestd is running vmware-memctld is running
