VMware Tools Upgrade with VIB file and Update Manager

I have a question from my friend how to upgrade all VM with the latest VMware tools 10.3, this blog post will walk through the steps, how to use vCenter Update Manager to do so. Screenshots are taken from vCenter 6.7 but this method applies to an earlier version as well (tested on 5.5).

First, we need to download the latest version of VMware tools from the myVMware portal, the file name is VMware Tools Offline VIB Bundle

Next, we need to login to vCenter and navigate to Update Manager page – Manage > Settings > Download Settings, there is a button called Import Patches, click it and browse to the location with downloaded VIB file. Selecting the file will trigger upload to the Update Manager repository.

Main Update Manager page

Uploading VIB to the repository

Upload completed

Next step is to create New Baseline under Hosts Baseline tab in Update Manager. Specify the name of the baseline and Host Patch as type, click next and select Fixed Patch option. Next, find newly uploaded VMware Tools patch and select it. Click next and finish to completed new baseline creation.

Creating a new Host baseline

Specify name and type of the baseline

Fixed patches option

Select VMware Tools patch

Ready to complete

After creating the baseline we can be procced to attach it to the vCenter cluster that will allow us to update all ESXi host with the same baseline. From Home select Hosts and Clusters and go to Update Manager tab, click Attach Baseline button, select desired baseline in our case VMware Tools Upgrade and click ok.

vCenter Cluster view

Select baseline to attach

After we attach the baseline, select it and you will see ESXi host, click Scan for Updates to scan ESXi. after that, the Compliance status will change to Non-compliant, we can proceed to stage the patch to host. Click Stage Patches and select baseline following by selecting host and patches to be a stage.

Non-compliant status for ESXi host

Select baseline to stage

Select ESXi host(s) to stage

Select patch to stage

Ready to complete

Next, we will Remediate the patches on the ESXi host. Click Remediate again select the baseline followed by Host and the patch. All other option can be left as default, as there will be no need to evacuate VM and put Host into maintaince mode. The remediation will start soon as we select Finish button, the VIB file will be installed on all selected ESXi hosts. After completed remediation host will move to Compliance state

Select baseline to remediate

Host selection

Patch selection

Ready to complete

Host in Compliance with baseline

The last step is to update VM with new VMware tools. After installing the new VMware tools on ESXi will take a while to VM start reporting that the VMware Tools are not up to date. Once the message will show, we can click Update VMware Tools and from new window select type of upgrade Interactive or Automatic. In most option Automatic will be ok, once clicking the Upgrade button, new VMware Tools will be sent to VM and updated.