Newer versions of our appliance (v7.4 and later) already have the required kernel modules pre-installed by default. This enables us to control which version of each module is installed at kernel build time to ensure optimum stability. Therefore it’s not a requirement to install VMware tools on the appliance. If other VMware tools features are required such as the ability to send a shutdown or restart signal to the loadbalancer’s Linux OS, the tools can be easily installed by following the steps in section A below.

For older versions of the appliance (v7.3.2 and earlier), these modules are not installed by default at kernel build time and therefore VMware Tools are required and are pre-installed. Appliance versions v7.1 and later running on ESX 4.0 and later use Vmxnet3 drivers. Therefore in this case it makes sense to upgrade the VMware tools to keep these drivers up to date. Older versions of the appliance and those running on ESX 3.5 and earlier use the E1000 driver, so keeping the tools up to date is not so important. If you do need to update the tools, this can be done by following the steps in section B below.

A – Installing VMware tools on v7.4 & later :

(N.B. these steps require at least VMware Tools v9.0.0 build-782409)

1] Prepare the VA & start the install:
- Check if the VA has a CD drive – If not, shutdown the VA and add one
- Restart the VA
- Log in as root
- From the VMware menu Select VM –> Guest –> Install/Upgrade VMware Tools- if prompted, select the Interactive Tools Upgrade option

2] Now mount the CD within the Linux guest:
$ mount /dev/cdrom /mnt
(N.B. on later VA’s you may to specify ‘cdrom2′ rather than ‘cdrom’)

3] Extract the VMware tools archive to the /tmp folder:
$ cd /tmp
$ tar xvf /mnt/VM (hit the tab key after typing ‘VM’ to auto-fill the file name)

4] On the console (i.e. not via an SSH session) run the installer:
$ cd /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib
$ ./vmware-install.pl

accept the defaults until the install completes.

5] Remove the temporary files used for the install:
$ rm -Rf /tmp/vmware*

B – Installing VMware tools on v7.3.2 & earlier :

To check which version of VMware tools your Appliance is currently running use the following command:
$ vmware-config-tools.pl -h

1] Prepare the VA & start the install:
- Check if the VA has a CD drive – If not, shutdown the VA and add one
- Restart the VA
- Log in as root
- From the VMware menu Select VM –> Guest –> Install/Upgrade VMWare Tools- if prompted, select the Interactive Tools Upgrade option

2] Now mount the CD within the Linux guest:
$ mount /dev/cdrom /mnt

3] Extract the VMware tools archive to the /tmp folder:
$ cd /tmp
$ tar xvf /mnt/VMware* (hit the tab key to get the name as it changes every update)

4] Create a folder for the header files:
$ mkdir /usr/src/headers/
$ cd /usr/src/headers/

5] Determine which kernel your VA is running:
$ uname -a

6] Download the appropriate header files:

for kernel version 2.6.25.11CS3 use the command:
wget http://downloads.loadbalancer.org/kernel-2.6.25.11CS3-headers.tar

for kernel version 2.6.34CS4 use the command:
wget http://downloads.loadbalancer.org/loadbalancer/kernel-2.6.34CS4-headers.tar

for kernel version 2.6.35sip4 use the command:
wget http://downloads.loadbalancer.org/loadbalancer/kernel-2.6.35-sip4.tar.bz2

7] Extract the archive – use the command relevant to your Kernel:

$ tar xvf kernel-2.6.25.11CS3-headers.tar
or
$ tar xvf kernel-2.6.34CS4-headers.tar
or
$ tar xvf kernel-2.6.35-sip4.tar.bz2

8] On the console (i.e. not via an SSH session) run the installer:
$ cd /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib
$ ./vmware-install.pl

accept the defaults until asked for the location of the C header files – here, depending on your Kernel version enter:

/usr/src/headers/kernel-2.6.25.11CS3/include
or
/usr/src/headers/kernel-2.6.34CS4/include
or
/usr/src/headers/kernel-2.6.35-sip4/include

Continue to accept defaults until the install completes.

NB. For the latest version of the tools, all modules are installed by default, for older versions it’s possible to selectively install each module.

9] Remove the temporary files:
$ rm -Rf /tmp/vmware*
$ rm -Rf /usr/src/headers

NB. You may want to leave the header files in case you need to update the tools again in the future.

10] Finally, re-boot the VM to activate cleanly.