Avamar: How to Upgrade VMware Tools on Avamar Proxy

Summary: How to upgrade VMware Tools on Avamar proxy.

This article applies to This article does not apply to This article is not tied to any specific product. Not all product versions are identified in this article.
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Symptoms

In VMware vSphere Client, there is a warning that a newer version of VMware Tools is available for the Avamar proxy virtual machine.
 
Newer version of VMware Tools is available message

The VMware toolbox and vmtoolsd commands report the version as 10.3.5.7752 (build-10430147) 
198proxy:/home/admin # vmware-toolbox-cmd -v
10.3.5.7752 (build-10430147)
198proxy:/home/admin # /usr/sbin/vmtoolsd.vami/vmtoolsd --version
VMware Tools daemon, version 10.3.5.7752 (build-10430147)

Cause

According to VMware Tools 10.3.25 Release Notes This hyperlink is taking you to a website outside of Dell Technologies., the most recent version of OCPs VMware tools is 10.3.25, which contains some security updates (as of January 2023). 

Resolution

Upgrade the VMware tools on an Avamar proxy using either the automatic or manual method.

The following these steps should be followed:

Method 1 (Automatic) 

Note: This method is only available when ESXi server is running hypervisor image that includes VMware tools.
  1. Open the vSphere client and select the Avamar Proxy.
  2. Choose Actions > Guest OS > Upgrade VMware Tools.
  3. Choose the Automatic option.
  4. Wait for the VMware tools to upgrade automatically.
Choose automatic option to upgrade
 
Confirmation that choosing automatic option

Method 2 (Manual):

  1. Download the latest OCP version of VMware Tools for Linux from VMware Product Download This hyperlink is taking you to a website outside of Dell Technologies. (the file name should be similar to VMware-Tools-core-10.3.25-20206839.tar.gz).
  2. Transfer the file to the /home/admin directory on the proxy using a tool like WinSCP.
  3. Log in to the proxy as the admin user and elevate to root using the command:
su -
  1. Extract the linux.iso file from the VMware-Tools-core-10.3.25-20206839.tar.gz archive and place it in the current directory using the below command:
tar -zxvf VMware-Tools-core-10.3.25-20206839.tar.gz VMware-Tools-core-10.3.25-20206839/vmtools/linux.iso --strip-components=2
  1. Create a new directory called vmtools-update and mount the linux.iso file to it using the below command:
mkdir vmtools-update && mount -o loop VMware-Tools-core-10.3.25-20206839/vmtools/linux.iso vmtools-update
  1. Extract the contents of vmtools-update/VMwareTools-10.3.25-20206839.tar.gz to the current working directory using the below command:
tar -zxf vmtools-update/VMwareTools-10.3.25-20206839.tar.gz
  1. Run the vmware-install.pl script to start the VMware tools upgrade. Answer "yes" to the first question and accept the default values for all other questions.
./vmware-tools-distrib/vmware-install.pl
  1. Unmount the linux.iso file and clean up the vmware-tools-distrib folder by running the following commands:
umount /home/admin/vmtools-update; rm -rf vmware-tools-distrib; rm linux.iso


Verify the VMware Tools version after upgrading.

Run the below command. The version should show as 10.3.25.1451 (build-20206839):

# vmware-toolbox-cmd -v
10.3.25.1451 (build-20206839)
Alternatively, check the version in the vSphere client, where it should show as 10360 (Current):
 
Check version in vSphere client 

Additional Information

Note: The Avamar proxy is packaged using VMware virtual provisioning software called VMware Studio. VMware Studio pre-installs the legacy VMware Tools Operating System Specific Packages (OCPs) version of VMware Tools. Other appliance packaging software uses the open-vm-tools version of tools instead. Open-vm-tools is now the recommended tools version for standard Linux distributions.

Affected Products

Avamar
Article Properties
Article Number: 000207041
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 29 May 2024
Version:  6
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