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What is the difference between the Open-VM-Tools package and the tool that come with VMware ESX/ESXi?
The wondering this because the ones from VMware are not compiled for anything but RPM and I use Debian. In the past I just compiled them on each machine as per VMware instructions.
But there are a few things I was messing with, like a UTM software called Untangle. And to avoid issues related to opening Untangle up to the vanilla repos I was wanting to try a stab at the Open-VM tools.
Any help would be appreciated.
1It's a great bonus of having open-vm-tools package managed and updated by your distro if you manage over 90 virtual machines... You can just upgrade the tools with rest of the the system, instead of mounting custom vmware tools ISO (or downloading it, for that matter) each update. – Dalibor Filus – 2015-10-21T08:29:31.760
I see, so something like the VMCI is most likely proprietary, while the e1000e driver might not be. Right? – ianc1215 – 2011-11-06T06:16:55.220
1@Solignis: In general, you should expect most drivers to be in Open VM Tools, including VMCI. The e1000 driver isn't provided by VMware. Presenting the virtual NIC as an e1000 was done because the real NIC is so common and every major OS already has a driver for it. – kbyrd – 2011-11-06T13:26:00.753
How can I find out which drivers/applications are included in vmware-tools but not in open-vm-tools? – netvope – 2011-11-12T04:06:02.487
@netvope: Ok, I've put up the information from the open-vm-tools FAQ. It's disappointing you all find this answer relevant enough to comment on but not good enough to upvote. – kbyrd – 2011-11-12T13:44:31.923
@kbyrd: I didn't upvote because I think your answer was too general. I've upvoted your new answer, which suggests the only differences between the two are that open-vm-tools lacks experimental drivers, may lag behind vmware-tools in new functionality, and does not include software that are not solely developed by VMware. – netvope – 2011-11-13T05:59:07.350