VMware Labs released a new Fling called VMware Tools for Nested ESXi. The download is available as vib and is about 1.8MB.

This VIB package provides a VMware Tools service (vmtoolsd) for running inside a nested ESXi virtual machine. The following capabilities are exposed through VMware Tools:

• Provides guest OS information of the nested ESXi Hypervisor (eg. IP address, configured hostname, etc.).
• Allows the nested ESXi VM to be cleanly shut down or restarted when performing power operations with the vSphere Web/C# Client or vSphere APIs.
• Executes scripts that help automate ESXi guest OS operations when the guest’s power state changes.
• Supports the Guest Operations API (formally known as the VIX API).

Screenshot

(Screenshot by William Lam)

Requirements

• A VMware product on the host that is compatible with VMware Tools 9.7.
• Nested ESXi running vSphere 5.x

Installation

There are 2 methods to install the VIB:

1. Upload the VIB file to a datastore and run: esxcli software vib install -v /vmfs/volumes/[DATASTORE]/esx-tools-for-esxi-9.7.0-0.0.00000.i386.vib -f
2. Install from the internet: esxcli software vib install -v http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmw-tools/esxi_tools_for_guests/esx-tools-for-esxi-9.7.0-0.0.00000.i386.vib -f