Release Date: AUG 20, 2019
Jan 21, 2020 Update: VMware has released an independent package VMware Tools 11.0.5. Since several releases, VMware tools are released independently from ESXi hypervisor images. VMware Tools are important to vSphere infrastructure as they are tightly integrated and part of a vSphere environment. VMware Tools enhance the performance of virtual machines.
In the previous article, we installed macOS with ESXi and then installed the VMware Tools using the darwin file. In this article, we share the VMware Tools software for Apple Mac OS X virtual systems. Download Darwin.iso for macOS High Sierra. This repository tracks patches needed to build VMware (Player and Workstation) host modules against recent kernels. As it focuses on recent kernels (older ones do not need patching), only vmmon and vmnet modules are currently handled as the rest has been upstreamed for some time.
Build Details
Download Filename: | ESXi650-201908001.zip |
Build: | 14320405 |
Download Size: | 320.9 MB |
md5sum: | f2831247a52f05e71a493ccb23456af1 |
sha1checksum: | 98393794e1520f768660851c153ef1f8b0bf11fd |
Host Reboot Required: | Yes |
Virtual Machine Migration or Shutdown Required: | Yes |
Bulletins
Bulletin ID | Category | Severity |
ESXi650-201908401-BG | Bugfix | Important |
Rollup Bulletin
This rollup bulletin contains the latest VIBs with all the fixes since the initial release of ESXi 6.5.
Bulletin ID | Category | Severity |
ESXi650-201908001 | Bugfix | Important |
Image Profiles
VMware patch and update releases contain general and critical image profiles. Application of the general release image profile applies to new bug fixes.
Image Profile Name |
ESXi-6.5.0-20190804001-standard |
ESXi-6.5.0-20190804001-no-tools |
For more information about the individual bulletins, see the Download Patches page and the Resolved Issues section.
Patch Download and Installation
The typical way to apply patches to ESXi hosts is through the VMware vSphere Update Manager. For details, see the About Installing and Administering VMware vSphere Update Manager.
ESXi hosts can be updated by manually downloading the patch ZIP file from the VMware download page and installing the VIB by using the esxcli software vib command. Additionally, the system can be updated using the image profile and the esxcli software profile command.
For more information, see the vSphere Command-Line Interface Concepts and Examples and the vSphere Upgrade Guide.
Resolved Issues
The resolved issues are grouped as follows.
ESXi650-201908401-BGPatch Category | Bugfix |
Patch Severity | Important |
Host Reboot Required | Yes |
Virtual Machine Migration or Shutdown Required | Yes |
Affected Hardware | N/A |
Affected Software | N/A |
VIBs Included |
|
PRs Fixed | 2379650 |
Related CVE numbers | N/A |
This patch updates the esx-base, esx-tboot, vsan
and vsanhealth
VIBs to resolve the following issue:
- PR 2379650: An API call to configure the number of queues and worlds of a driver might cause an ESXi hosts to fail with a purple diagnostic screen
You can use the
SCSIBindCompletionWorlds()
method to set the the number of queues and worlds of a driver. However, if you set thenumQueues
parameter to higher than 1 and thenumWorlds
parameter to equal or lower than 1, the API call might return without releasing the lock held. This results in a deadlock and the ESXi host might fail with a purple diagnostic screen.This issue is resolved in this release.
Profile Name | ESXi-6.5.0-20190804001-standard |
Build | For build information, see the top of the page. |
Vendor | VMware, Inc. |
Release Date | August 20, 2019 |
Acceptance Level | PartnerSupported |
Affected Hardware | N/A |
Affected Software | N/A |
Affected VIBs |
|
PRs Fixed | 2379650 |
Related CVE numbers | N/A |
- This patch updates the following issues:
You can use the
SCSIBindCompletionWorlds()
method to set the the number of queues and worlds of a driver. However, if you set thenumQueues
parameter to higher than 1 and thenumWorlds
parameter to equal or lower than 1, the API call might return without releasing the lock held. This results in a deadlock and the ESXi host might fail with a purple diagnostic screen.
Profile Name | ESXi-6.5.0-20190804001-no-tools |
Build | For build information, see the top of the page. |
Vendor | VMware, Inc. |
Release Date | August 20, 2019 |
Acceptance Level | PartnerSupported |
Affected Hardware | N/A |
Affected Software | N/A |
Affected VIBs |
|
PRs Fixed | 2379650 |
Related CVE numbers | N/A |
- This patch updates the following issues:
You can use the
SCSIBindCompletionWorlds()
method to set the the number of queues and worlds of a driver. However, if you set thenumQueues
parameter to higher than 1 and thenumWorlds
parameter to equal or lower than 1, the API call might return without releasing the lock held. This results in a deadlock and the ESXi host might fail with a purple diagnostic screen.
Known Issues
Vmware Tools Darwin.iso
The known issues are grouped as follows.
Miscellaneous Issues- A virtual machine that has a PCI passthrough device assigned to it might fail to power on in a vCenter Server system with an AMD EPYC 7002 series processor
In specific vCenter Server system configurations and devices, such as AMD EPYC 7002 series processors, a virtual machine that has a PCI passthrough device assigned to it might fail to power on. In the vmkernel log, you can see a similar message:
4512 2019-08-06T06:09:55.058Z cpu24:1001397137)AMDIOMMU: 611: IOMMU 0000:20:00.2: Failed to allocate IRTE for IOAPIC ID 243 vector 0x3f
4513 2019-08-06T06:09:55.058Z cpu24:1001397137)WARNING: IOAPIC: 1238: IOAPIC Id 243: Failed to allocate IRTE for vector 0x3fWorkaround: Disable the use of the interrupt remapper by setting the kernel boot option
iovDisableIR
toTRUE
:- Set
iovDisableIR=TRUE
by using this command:# esxcli system settings kernel set -s iovDisableIR -v TRUE
- Reboot the ESXi host.
- After the reboot, verify that
iovDisableIR
is set toTRUE
:# esxcli system settings kernel list |grep iovDisableIR.
Do not apply this workaround unless you need it to solve this specific problem.
- Set
- Мanually triggering a non-maskable interrupt (NMI) might not work оn a vCenter Server system with an AMD EPYC 7002 series processor
Requesting an NMI from the hardware management console (BMC) or by pressing a physical NMI button should cause ESXi hosts to fail with a purple diagnostic screen and dump core. Instead, nothing happens and ESXi continues running.
Workaround: Disable the use of the interrupt remapper by setting the kernel boot option
iovDisableIR
toTRUE
:- Set
iovDisableIR=TRUE
by using this command:# esxcli system settings kernel set -s iovDisableIR -v TRUE
- Reboot the ESXi host.
- After the reboot, verify that
iovDisableIR
is set toTRUE
:# esxcli system settings kernel list |grep iovDisableIR.
Do not apply this workaround unless you need it to solve this specific problem.
- Set
After publishing my recent article on automating the silent installation of VMware Tools for Linux guestOSes, I received a similar question regarding Mac OS X guests and whether the existing script would also apply. The answer is no since Mac OS X packages differ from the Linux installres, but it is possible to automate the installation of VMware Tools for Mac OS X guests.
After quickly looking into this, I realized there are actually several options that are available to customers and it would depend on how you would like to install VMware Tools and what platform you are running your Mac OS X guests on. I will share a couple of options which also includes existing solutions that have already been developed. At the end of the day, the choice will ultimately be up to the administrator on how he/she would like to proceed.
Option 1 - If you are a vSphere/ESXi customer running Mac OS X, you will probably want to mount the VMware Tools installer and then initiate an installation within the Guest. You can actually perform the entire operation within a single context by leveraging our vSphere API to issue the VMware Tools installer and then using the Guest Operations API to perform the installation.
Option 2 - Similar to the above option, if you do not wish to use the vSphere API, you can simply copy the darwin.iso (VMware Tools) image onto your Mac OS X guests and then perform the automated install. This would be the most simplistic option and would apply to running Mac OS X guests on either vSphere/ESXi or Fusion.
Option 3 - You can also download VMware Tools using VMware's online repository (thanks to Rich Trouton for sharing this tidbit) and then performing the installation which is very similar to Option 2. The only downside is if you are running Mac OS X on vSphere/ESXi, the status of VMware Tools will show 'unsupported' as the version will differ from version distributed with vSphere/ESXi. In fact, Rich Trouton has an existing solution that he has published here which you can read more about.
If you are already familiar with using the vSphere API and are using vSphere/ESXi, I personally would go with Option 1 just because you can stay within a single context from an automation standpoint and not have to jump between different interfaces. If you not comfortable, want a quick solution or running just Fusion, then Option 2 and 3 would be ideal. Below is an example Gist demonstrating a simple shell script which implements Option 2 and Option 3 with a slight twist from what Rich has done which does not require Git.
Here's an example of running the script using Option 2:
Vmware Tools Darwin.iso 5.0.3 Free
I am sure there are probably other methods out there, but the great news is that it is indeed possible to automate VMware Tools for Mac OS X guests 🙂
#!/bin/bash |
# 1 = VMware Tools ISO is mounted from vSphere |
# 2 = Download VMware Tools (assumes you can connect to internet) |
INSTALL_METHOD=2 |
# Thanks to Rich Trouton for tip on Tools being available online |
VMWARE_TOOLS_DOWNLOAD_URL=http://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/fusion/7.1.2/2779224/packages/com.vmware.fusion.tools.darwin.zip.tar |
# DO NOT MODIFY BEYOND HERE # |
VMWARE_TOOLS_INSTALLER_DIR='/Volumes/VMware Tools/Install VMware Tools.app/Contents/Resources' |
VMWARE_TOOLS_INSTALLER_FILE='VMware Tools.pkg' |
if [ $EUID-ne 0 ];then |
echo'Please run the script with sudo ...' |
exit 1 |
fi |
if [ ${INSTALL_METHOD}'1' ];then |
if [ -d'${VMWARE_TOOLS_INSTALLER_DIR}' ];then |
/usr/sbin/installer -pkg '${VMWARE_TOOLS_INSTALLER_DIR}/${VMWARE_TOOLS_INSTALLER_FILE}' -target / |
echo'Please reboot the system for the installation to complete ...' |
fi |
elif [ ${INSTALL_METHOD}'2' ];then |
TMP_DIR=/tmp/osx-vmware-tools |
mkdir -p '${TMP_DIR}' |
VMWARE_TOOLS_TAR_FILE=com.vmware.fusion.tools.darwin.zip.tar |
VMWARE_TOOLS_ZIP_FILE=com.vmware.fusion.tools.darwin.zip |
VMWARE_TOOLS_ISO_FILE='payload/darwin.iso' |
cd${TMP_DIR} |
# Download VMware Tools from online repo |
curl -O '${VMWARE_TOOLS_DOWNLOAD_URL}' |
# Extract the VMware Tools tar file |
tar -xf '${VMWARE_TOOLS_TAR_FILE}' |
# Unzip the VMware Tools zip file |
unzip '${VMWARE_TOOLS_ZIP_FILE}' |
# Mount VMware Tools ISO (similiar to vSphere/ESXi) |
hdiutil attach '${VMWARE_TOOLS_ISO_FILE}' |
# Perform installation |
/usr/sbin/installer -pkg '${VMWARE_TOOLS_INSTALLER_DIR}/${VMWARE_TOOLS_INSTALLER_FILE}' -target / |
# Detach mount & clean up |
hdiutil detach '/Volumes/VMware Tools' |
rm -rf '${TMP_DIR}' |
echo'Please reboot the system for the installation to complete ...' |
else |
echo'Invalid Selection' |
fi |