Easy Step To Install Open VMWare Tools on Centos 7

This tutorial, brought to you by Orcacore, aims to guide you through the process of how to Install Open VMWare Tools on Centos 7. As you likely know, Open VM Tools (OVT) is an open-source implementation of VMware Tools designed to enhance the performance and manageability of virtual machines. Let’s begin with a brief introduction to Open-VM-Tools (OVT) before proceeding with its installation on CentOS 7.

What are Open-VM-Tools (OVT)?

Open-VM-tools ( OVT) represents the open-source equivalent of VMware Tools. Functioning similarly to VMware Tools, OVT constitutes a collection of virtualization utilities crafted to improve the performance, functionality, administration, and overall management of virtual machines (VMs) operating within the VMware vSphere environment.

It comprises kernel modules designed to optimize the performance of VMs running Linux or other VMware-supported Unix-like guest operating systems.

With OVT, you gain the ability to perform graceful shutdowns, facilitate authentication for guest OS operations, and generate heartbeat signals from the guest to the host. This heartbeat is crucial for VMware High Availability, enabling it to determine whether the guest OS is operational.

Furthermore, Open VMWare Tools handle clock synchronization between the guest and host systems and the quiescing of guest file systems, a prerequisite for filesystem-consistent guest snapshots.

VMware Tools, as you’re probably aware, is VMware’s proprietary suite of tools that offer the same (or enhanced) functionalities essential for managing your VMs.

The benefits of Open-VM Tools:

• Improved VM performance
• Enhanced guest OS management
• Seamless integration with VMware vSphere
• Open-source and freely available
• Automated guest operating system installation and customization
• Shared folders

To effectively follow this guide, you must be logged into your CentOS 7 server as either the root user or a non-root user with sudo privileges. If you need assistance with this, you can refer to our guide on Initial Server Setup with Centos 7.

Now, you can use the following single command to install Open-VM Tools:

yum install open-vm-tools -y

After the installation is complete, reboot your Centos 7 server:

reboot

And that’s all there is to it!

For more detailed information, you can consult the official VMWare Docs.

Conclusion

At this point, you have successfully learned how to Install Open VMWare (Open-VM) Tools (OVT) on Centos 7.

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Alternative Methods for Installing Open VMWare Tools on CentOS 7

While the yum install open-vm-tools -y command provides a straightforward approach, let’s explore alternative ways to achieve the same goal of installing Open VMWare Tools on CentOS 7. These methods might be useful in specific scenarios, such as when yum is unavailable or when you need to customize the installation process.

Method 1: Using the dnf Package Manager (If Available)

CentOS 7 primarily uses yum as its package manager. However, dnf is the successor to yum and might be available on some CentOS 7 systems, especially if you’ve performed upgrades. If dnf is present, it offers some performance and dependency resolution improvements.

To check if dnf is installed, run:

dnf --version

If it’s installed, you can use it to install Open VMWare Tools:

dnf install open-vm-tools -y

This command functions identically to the yum command but utilizes dnf for package management. After the installation, remember to reboot the server.

reboot

The advantage of using dnf, if available, lies in its potentially faster dependency resolution and overall performance compared to yum. However, for basic installation, the result is the same.

Method 2: Manual Installation from RPM Package (Advanced)

This method is more involved and is generally recommended only when yum or dnf are unavailable or when you require very specific control over the installation process. It involves downloading the RPM package directly and installing it using rpm.

Step 1: Determine the Architecture

First, determine your system’s architecture (e.g., x86_64, i386). You can do this using the following command:

uname -m

This will output your architecture. For example, it might output x86_64.

Step 2: Download the RPM Package

You’ll need to find the appropriate RPM package for Open VMWare Tools that matches your architecture and CentOS 7. A reliable source is often the CentOS repositories themselves, accessible via a web browser. Navigate to a mirror of the CentOS repository. A common path would be something like http://mirror.centos.org/centos/7/os/x86_64/Packages/. (Replace x86_64 with your actual architecture if it’s different.)

Search for packages containing "open-vm-tools". Download the correct RPM file (e.g., open-vm-tools-<version>.el7.<arch>.rpm). You might need to use wget or curl to download the package directly from the command line if you don’t have a graphical interface. For example:

wget http://mirror.centos.org/centos/7/os/x86_64/Packages/open-vm-tools-9.4.0-12805209.el7.x86_64.rpm

Note: Replace the URL with the actual URL of the RPM package you found in the repository. The version number will vary.

Step 3: Install the RPM Package

Once you have the RPM package downloaded, use the rpm command to install it:

rpm -ivh open-vm-tools-<version>.el7.<arch>.rpm

Replace <version> and <arch> with the actual version and architecture from the filename. The -ivh options mean:

• -i: Install
• -v: Verbose (show more output)
• -h: Display hash marks during installation

Step 4: Resolve Dependencies (If Necessary)

The rpm command might complain about missing dependencies. If this happens, you’ll need to download and install those dependencies manually as well. This can be a tedious process. yum and dnf handle dependencies automatically, which is a major advantage. If dependencies are an issue, consider temporarily enabling a repository with the missing dependencies, installing them with yum, and then disabling the repository again.

Step 5: Reboot

Finally, after successful installation, reboot your CentOS 7 server:

reboot

Important Considerations for Manual Installation:

• Complexity: Manual installation is more complex and error-prone than using yum or dnf.
• Dependencies: Managing dependencies manually can be challenging.
• Updates: You will be responsible for manually updating the Open VMWare Tools package in the future. The package manager will not handle this.
• Security: Ensure you download the RPM package from a trusted source (e.g., the official CentOS repositories) to avoid security risks.

This article has shown you how to Install Open VMWare Tools on Centos 7, offering both the easiest method using yum and more advanced methods to provide flexibility in different environments. Knowing alternative methods can be invaluable for troubleshooting and adapting to various system configurations when you Install Open VMWare Tools on Centos 7. The most important point to remember is to Install Open VMWare Tools on Centos 7 to improve the performance and management of your virtual machines.