v18u2 not installing open-vm-tools

[ak_hepcat]

recently installed v18u2 via the debian installer, onto my ESXi 7.0u2 server.

after restarting, everything seems to be working, but I've notice that vSphere reports back that the VM tools package is not installed.

This seems to be a problem with the default installer not detecting the virtual environment and adding open-vm-tools to the list of packages to be installed.

And without CLI access, we can add this after-the-fact.

This means that external shutdowns (UPS-driven to the hypervisor) are "cold/hard" instead of ACPI-based smooth shutdowns.

And, of course, drivers aren't optimized.

T'would be great to get the vm tools installed by default!

 

[VasilisV_3CX]

Hi @ak_hepcat,

While Open VM tools is bundles with certain distros of Linux, on Debian, usually people have to install it manually: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-T...UID-8B6EA5B7-453B-48AA-92E5-DB7F061341D1.html

Therefore to answer your question - you'll need to install it manually.

 

[ak_hepcat]

[...]Therefore to answer your question - you'll need to install it manually.

See, that's completely contrary to the text here:
https://www.3cx.com/docs/manual/installing-debian-linux-pbx/

** Do not install other packages or change the configuration. **

Further down the page, it even states that the VMtools packages should be installed.

But as an admin, if I'm told not to install other packages, and 3CX is not doing it by default in the ISO provided... How does it get installed?

Sure, I can shut down the system, boot up a liveCD, log in and install it via the back door, but that violates what's been set out.

Therefore there needs to be an official method of doing this, and that pretty much either means a way to do it via the portal (which i don't see) or

$ dmesg|grep -i vmware | grep -E 'hypervisor|vmxnet|cd-rom|mouse'
[ 0.000000] vmware: TSC freq read from hypervisor : 2499.999 MHz
[ 0.000000] vmware: Host bus clock speed read from hypervisor : 66000000 Hz
[ 0.109036] Booting paravirtualized kernel on VMware hypervisor
[ 1.152476] VMware vmxnet3 virtual NIC driver - version 1.5.0.0-k-NAPI

if VMware is detected during install... install the vmtools along side the 3cx packages.

 

[ChrisC_3CX]

I see your point and yes, we do specifically say "Do not install other packages..." but this is more of a general rule. There is a reason we have different guides depending on things such as what Virtualization platform is being used, one of them being that they have different requirements that are explicitly mentioned in each guide such as the ntp client requirement for a Debian machine running on Hyper-V.

That said I do not think automating this is impossible but for the time being what we recommend is to simply abide by the guides. If anything changes the guides will of course be updated to reflect the new requirements/changes.

 

[ak_hepcat]

The v18 installer didn't ask me for a root password (that i remember, and it's definitely not one i would have used) so... i guess i'm off to boot up a rescue-CD, reset the root passwd, and manually install the package that way.

thanks.