You have installed vmware tools provided by your ESXi host but you see this message on some servers: "VMware Tools is installed and supported, but a newer version is available on the host."
If you carefully read VMware documentation you will find out they recommend using open-vm-tools instead of VMware tools, as mentioned in the article (link at the end).
Improved stability, automatic updates, smaller footprint, package optimised for each distribution are some of the reason behind this recommendation.
So, without any delays, here is how it's done on Debian:
apt install open-vm-tools
In detail
11:32:57 root@eeny:~# apt install open-vm-tools
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
libmspack0 libxmlsec1-openssl zerofree
Suggested packages:
open-vm-tools-desktop cloud-init
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libmspack0 libxmlsec1-openssl open-vm-tools zerofree
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 13 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/789 kB of archives.
After this operation, 3,237 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Selecting previously unselected package libmspack0:amd64.
(Reading database ... 222651 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../libmspack0_0.10.1-2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libmspack0:amd64 (0.10.1-2) ...
Selecting previously unselected package libxmlsec1-openssl:amd64.
Preparing to unpack .../libxmlsec1-openssl_1.2.31-1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libxmlsec1-openssl:amd64 (1.2.31-1) ...
Selecting previously unselected package open-vm-tools.
Preparing to unpack .../open-vm-tools_2%3a11.2.5-2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking open-vm-tools (2:11.2.5-2) ...
Selecting previously unselected package zerofree.
Preparing to unpack .../zerofree_1.1.1-1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking zerofree (1.1.1-1) ...
Setting up zerofree (1.1.1-1) ...
Setting up libxmlsec1-openssl:amd64 (1.2.31-1) ...
Setting up libmspack0:amd64 (0.10.1-2) ...
Setting up open-vm-tools (2:11.2.5-2) ...
Configuration file '/etc/pam.d/vmtoolsd'
==> File on system created by you or by a script.
==> File also in package provided by package maintainer.
What would you like to do about it ? Your options are:
Y or I : install the package maintainer's version
N or O : keep your currently-installed version
D : show the differences between the versions
Z : start a shell to examine the situation
The default action is to keep your current version.
*** vmtoolsd (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ?
Configuration file '/etc/vmware-tools/poweroff-vm-default'
==> File on system created by you or by a script.
==> File also in package provided by package maintainer.
What would you like to do about it ? Your options are:
Y or I : install the package maintainer's version
N or O : keep your currently-installed version
D : show the differences between the versions
Z : start a shell to examine the situation
The default action is to keep your current version.
*** poweroff-vm-default (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ?
Configuration file '/etc/vmware-tools/poweron-vm-default'
==> File on system created by you or by a script.
==> File also in package provided by package maintainer.
What would you like to do about it ? Your options are:
Y or I : install the package maintainer's version
N or O : keep your currently-installed version
D : show the differences between the versions
Z : start a shell to examine the situation
The default action is to keep your current version.
*** poweron-vm-default (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ?
Configuration file '/etc/vmware-tools/resume-vm-default'
==> File on system created by you or by a script.
==> File also in package provided by package maintainer.
What would you like to do about it ? Your options are:
Y or I : install the package maintainer's version
N or O : keep your currently-installed version
D : show the differences between the versions
Z : start a shell to examine the situation
The default action is to keep your current version.
*** resume-vm-default (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ?
Configuration file '/etc/vmware-tools/scripts/vmware/network'
==> File on system created by you or by a script.
==> File also in package provided by package maintainer.
What would you like to do about it ? Your options are:
Y or I : install the package maintainer's version
N or O : keep your currently-installed version
D : show the differences between the versions
Z : start a shell to examine the situation
The default action is to keep your current version.
*** network (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ?
Configuration file '/etc/vmware-tools/statechange.subr'
==> File on system created by you or by a script.
==> File also in package provided by package maintainer.
What would you like to do about it ? Your options are:
Y or I : install the package maintainer's version
N or O : keep your currently-installed version
D : show the differences between the versions
Z : start a shell to examine the situation
The default action is to keep your current version.
*** statechange.subr (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ?
Configuration file '/etc/vmware-tools/suspend-vm-default'
==> File on system created by you or by a script.
==> File also in package provided by package maintainer.
What would you like to do about it ? Your options are:
Y or I : install the package maintainer's version
N or O : keep your currently-installed version
D : show the differences between the versions
Z : start a shell to examine the situation
The default action is to keep your current version.
*** suspend-vm-default (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ?
Configuration file '/etc/vmware-tools/vgauth.conf'
==> File on system created by you or by a script.
==> File also in package provided by package maintainer.
What would you like to do about it ? Your options are:
Y or I : install the package maintainer's version
N or O : keep your currently-installed version
D : show the differences between the versions
Z : start a shell to examine the situation
The default action is to keep your current version.
*** vgauth.conf (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ?
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/vmtoolsd.service → /lib/systemd/system/open-vm-tools.service.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/open-vm-tools.service → /lib/systemd/system/open-vm-tools.service.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/open-vm-tools.service.requires/vgauth.service → /lib/systemd/system/vgauth.service.
Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.4-2) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.31-13+deb11u3) ...Stop vmware-tools and start open-vm-tools:
11:34:10 root@eeny:~# /etc/init.d/vmware-tools stop Stopping VMware Tools services in the virtual machine: Guest operating system daemon: done VGAuthService: done VMware User Agent (vmware-user): done Unmounting HGFS shares: done Guest filesystem driver: done 11:34:18 root@eeny:~# /etc/init.d/open-vm-tools start Starting open-vm-tools (via systemctl): open-vm-tools.service.
After this, you will see in ESXi host the following message: "VMware Tools is not managed by vSphere".
Disable vmware-tools, enable open-vm-tools
You may want to uninstall the default vmware tools if you are satisfied with the new version but for now you can just disable vmware-tools and enable open-vm-tools from startup.
11:35:45 root@eeny:~# systemctl | grep -i tools open-vm-tools.service loaded active running Service for virtual machines hosted on VMware vmware-tools.service loaded active exited LSB: VMware Tools service 11:36:04 root@eeny:~# systemctl disable vmware-tools.service vmware-tools.service is not a native service, redirecting to systemd-sysv-install. Executing: /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install disable vmware-tools 11:36:21 root@eeny:~# systemctl enable open-vm-tools.service Synchronizing state of open-vm-tools.service with SysV service script with /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install. Executing: /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install enable open-vm-tools
Useful links
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2073803
