My VMware support engineer forwarded on the current VMware knowledge base weekly digest, and one of the new KB article titles caught my eye:
Upgrading VMware Tools using PowerCLI or vSphere API (2147641)
Hey! That sounds like something to look over and possibly provide to my operations team to help them upgrade older VMs that were now running on newer VMware hosts! Clicking on the URL for that KB article (KB 2147641) brought up the usual Details and Solution sections, but they were strangely lacking.
The “Details” section usually explains the subject of the KB article in detail. This one just said:
VMware Tools can be upgraded using vSphere PowerCLI, vSphere API and other methods. For optimum performance, upgrade VMware Tools in not more than five virtual machines simultaneously.
And the “Solution” section was even less helpful:
None
Talking with my support engineer, he thinks that the article may have been posted to note that it is possible to upgrade the VMware tools using either of those methods, just the actual steps how to do this were not documented.
I know from a quick search there are plenty of examples from non-VMware.com sites on how to do this:
- http://notesofascripter.com/2016/04/05/using-powercli-set-ip-update-vmware-tools/
- https://ryanmangansitblog.com/2014/06/04/upgrading-vmware-tools-in-batch-using-powercli/
- http://www.vmspot.com/using-powershell-to-update-vmware-tools-on-vms-2/
- http://virtualize-automate.com/wp/index.php/2015/07/15/mass-upgrade-vmwaretools-in-vcenter-environment-using-powercli/
Ironically, there are some links to VMware.com pages addressing this:
- https://blogs.vmware.com/vsphere/2016/03/six-methods-for-keeping-vm-tools-up-to-date.html
- #5 and #7 discuss the PowerCLI and vSphere API methods
- http://pubs.vmware.com/vsphere-60/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.vmware.wssdk.apiref.doc%2Fvim.VirtualMachine.html&path=7_1_0_2_5_20_82
- The vSPhere 6.0 API call
- https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1028291
- The PowerCLI example
I’ve seen odd VMware KB articles in the past – hopefully the addition of a “Tip of the Week” flag or at least a sentence in the Solution field denoting the article is not fully fleshed out solution would save a lot of confusion.