About VMware Tools

VMware Tools is a suite of utilities that enhances the performance of the virtual machine's guest operating system and improves management of the virtual machine by VMware GSX Server. It is very important that you install VMware Tools in the guest operating system. Although GSX Server can run a guest operating system without VMware Tools, you lose important functionality and convenience.

A set of VMware device drivers, including an SVGA display driver, the vmxnet networking driver for some guest operating systems, the BusLogic SCSI driver for some guest operating systems and the VMware mouse driver.

The VMware Tools control panel that lets you modify settings, shrink virtual disks, and connect and disconnect virtual devices.

A set of scripts that help automate guest operating system operations; the scripts run when the virtual machine's power state changes.

A component that supports copying and pasting text between the guest and host operating systems.

VMware Tools performs various duties within the guest operating system, such as passing messages from the host operating system to the guest operating system, sending a heartbeat to GSX Server, grabbing and releasing the mouse cursor, and synchronizing the time in the guest operating system with the time in the host operating system. The service starts automatically when the guest operating system boots. For more information, see About the VMware Tools Service.

With the VMware SVGA driver installed, GSX Server supports up to 32-bit displays and high display resolution, with significantly faster overall graphics performance. If you run a guest operating system without VMware Tools, the graphics environment within the virtual machine is limited to VGA mode graphics (640x480, 16 color) and display performance may be unsatisfactory.

The VMware virtual SCSI driver is a BusLogic driver. Note that some recent guest operating systems contain LSI Logic drivers and can take advantage of the virtual LSI Logic adapter for better device performance.

The VMware mouse driver improves mouse performance in some guest operating systems. It is necessary for use with third party tools like Microsoft's Terminal Services.

In a Windows guest, you can access the VMware Tools control panel through the Windows Control Panel (choose Start > Settings > Control Panel > VMware Tools) or via the VMware Tools icon, which appears by default in the system tray.

In a Linux or FreeBSD guest operating system, the VMware Tools control panel is called vmware-toolbox. You can launch it manually as a background process from a terminal using
vmware-toolbox &

Note: To get the greatest benefit from the features of VMware Tools, always run vmware-toolbox in the guest operating system.

In a NetWare 5.1 or higher guest operating system, you can access the VMware Tools control panel by choosing Novell > Settings > VMware Tools for NetWare.

In a NetWare 4.2 guest operating system, you can use VMware Tools commands in the system console. The VMware Tools program is called vmwtool. For information about using this command, see Configuring VMware Tools for NetWare Guests in the System Console.

With some window managers, you can place the command to start VMware Tools in a startup configuration so VMware Tools starts automatically when you start your graphical environment. Consult your window manager's documentation for details.

Installation files for VMware Tools for all supported Windows, Linux, NetWare and FreeBSD guest operating systems are built into GSX Server.