In this guide, I will show you how to upgrade VMware tools with SCCM. By patching the VMware tools to the latest version, you can ensure the virtual machines are secure and offer better performance overall.
Upon powering on my Configuration Manager lab virtual machines, I got a notification that there was an update available for the VM tools. The notification “The installed version of VMware Tools is not up-to-date. Log in to the guest OS and click update tools” was seen on powering every VM.
Rather than manually updating the tools on each virtual machine, you can streamline the process using SCCM, which proves to be highly effective. By leveraging Patch My PC integrated with SCCM, you can easily access the latest VMware Tools updates directly within the console and deploy them to Windows virtual machines. This approach significantly reduces the time and effort compared to manually packaging and updating VMware Tools.
TIP: Consider creating a device collection for all virtual machines that require a VMware Tools upgrade. This allows you to efficiently assign the upgrade package to these devices simultaneously.
Enable VMware Tools in Patch My PC
To access the VMware Tools application and its updates in the SCCM console, you need to enable this product in Patch My PC. To proceed, open the Patch My PC Publishing Service and navigate to the ConfigMgr Apps tab. Here, scroll down and expand the VMware Inc category and enable VMware Tools. Click Apply to save the changes.
Next, switch to the Updates tab and expand the VMware Inc category and enable VMware Tools. Click Apply to save the changes. This will ensure the latest VMware updates are shown in the console.
Upgrading VMware Tools with SCCM
To deploy the VMware Tools upgrade application in SCCM console, go to Software Library > Application Management > Application. Right-click VMware Tools application and select Deploy.
On the General page of Deploy Software Wizard, click Browse and select a device collection to which you want to deploy the VMware tools upgrade package. Click Next.
On the Deployment Settings tab, configure how you would like to deploy the upgrade package. Choose required to install it silently on the end devices without requiring user input. Click Next.
Configure the remaining options and on the Completion window, click Close.
On the end-user’s device, launch the Software Center and you should see the VMware tools upgrade files being downloaded from installation. Wait for the upgrade to complete. You should now be running the latest version of VMware Tools.
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