VMware Tools “Out of date” problem

VMware Tools “Out of date” problem

While doing a VMware tools check in my homelab I found a few Linux VMs with the message “Out of date“. These machines were from an old test and I recently started them again for some testing. My first idea on seeing the message was: ‘nothing wrong, I just run a PowerCLI script and everything will be updated‘. After running the script I noticed 3 test servers still being “Out of date” but in my task list the machines did receive the message “Initiated VMware Tools install or upgrade”. I ran the script again to see if it would fix the problem but the machines kept being “Out of date“. Time for a manual intervention!

I did a right click on the machine and noticed the following while running “Install/Upgrade VMware Tools“:

It gave me the idea that VMware tools had crashed or failed to run at boot so I logged on to the machines. Below is the output what happened after a status check and a stop and start.

server02:~# /etc/init.d/vmware-tools status
vmtoolsd is running
server02:~# /etc/init.d/vmware-tools stop
Stopping VMware Tools services in the virtual machine:
   Guest operating system daemon:                                      done
   Virtual Printing daemon:                                            done
   Unmounting HGFS shares:                                             done
   Guest filesystem driver:                                            done
   Guest memory manager:                                               done
   VM communication interface socket family:                           done
   VM communication interface:                                         done
server02:~# /etc/init.d/vmware-tools start
   Checking acpi hot plug                                              done
Starting VMware Tools services in the virtual machine:
   Switching to guest configuration:                                   done
   Guest memory manager:                                              failed
   VM communication interface:                                        failed
   VM communication interface socket family:                          failed
   Guest operating system daemon:                                      done
   Virtual Printing daemon:                                            done

As u can see, 3 services failed so I probably had to reinstall the whole package.

Another right click on the machine with the idea to run “Install/Upgrade VMware Tools” and suddenly I got the following screen:

I could select “Automatic Tools Upgrade” and after waiting for a few minutes for the installer the status changed from “Out of date” to “OK”.

Problem solved and everything is up to date again!

Niels Engelen on GithubNiels Engelen on Twitter
Niels Engelen
Working as a Principal Analyst in Product Management for Veeam Software with an interest in anything virtual and cloud with a strong focus on AWS, Azure and Microsoft 365. He is also a VMware Certified Professional, a Veeam Certified Architect and gained the VMware vExpert award (2012-2022).
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