How to Install VMware Tools in an Ubuntu-based VM?

Objective

This lab aims to guide you on how to install VMware tools in an Ubuntu-based VM.

Prerequisites

• Knowledge of Why VMware tools are required
• Basic understanding of vCenter Inventory
• Access of vCenter through vSphere Web Client
• Basic Linux commands to initiate the installation
• VMware Tools Source to be mounted

Lab Overview

After completing this lab, you will be able:
1. Check whether the installation of VMware tools is complete
2. Mount CD / DVD (Source of VMware Tools) to Ubuntu
3. Install VMware Tools on Ubuntu Guest OS
4. Check installed VMware Tools & its version

Step-by-Step Lab Guide

1. Open vCenter using vSphere Client. Open vCenter Inventory & Click on VM & Templates.
2. Go to the CloudThat-USA data center and sa-ESXi-02 host, Power on Ubuntu Server VM.
3. Check the installation status of VMware tools.
4. Launch the Web console of the VM, and through QTerminal, sign in as a Superuser using the sudo –i command.
5. Select Ubuntu Server VM from inventory, Go to Actions, Select Guest OS and then click Install VMware Tools.
6. This will prompt for mounting the CD/DVD for VMware tools in Ubuntu Server VM. Click on the Mount button to mount the virtual CD drive.
7. Alternatively, to install official VMware, you can click on the Virtual Machine menu option and click Install VMware Tools from Ubuntu Server itself like:
8. In the Terminal window, create a mounting directory to mount the source from Virtual Disk. root@UbuntuServer:~# mkdir /mnt/cdrom
9. Now, Mount /dev/cdrom to /mnt/cdromroot@UbuntuServer:~# mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
10. List all files from /mnt/cdrom; you can see source gz files for Vmware installation.
11. Copy all tar.gz files from /mnt/cdrom to the /tmp folder using the cp command.
12. Go to /tmp folder; you will see VMwareTools.tar.gz file there.
13. Using the tar command, extract all files here.
14. Once extracted, go to the “vmware-tools-distrib” directory to find the installer file.
15. Run the vmware-install.pl file from here.
16. For this step, there will be a series of questions. Follow the instructions carefully and answer all questions.
17. You will receive this message:  “Enjoy, –the VMware team.” Successful receiving of the message indicates the VMware Tools installation in the Ubuntu Server is complete.
18. Go to the summary tab of Ubuntu Server, and you can verify that now VMware tools are installed and running.

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