iLO Amplifier Pack, why is VMWare Tools not installed?

[hendersond]

I just downloaded, installed, and configured iLO Amplifier Pack version 1.30 which is the newest. We want to use the Amplifer Pack to add our HPE servers into Infosight. This downloads as an OVA file that can be pulled into ESXi. I pulled it into ESXi 6.7 Update 1 and when completed it said that this VM did not have VMWare Tools installed.

VMWare's best practice is to have VMWare Tools installed on all VMs. I have loaded quite a few pre-made VMs into VMWare via OVA files. Typically the makers of the appliance (OVA) file install VMWare Tools before packaging up the VM. It appears there is no way for the end user to install VMWare Tools because you cannot get to the unix/linux command line for this product. Why doen't HPE have VMWare Tools already installed?

[DANDKS]

Greetings.

Is your query why "HPE has not bundled or included VMware tools into the iLO Amplifier pack?" If not, please provide more details on the query.

Thank you.

I work for HPE

[hendersond]

That is exactly what I am asking. Without VMWare Tools installed you cannot

• Shutdown or restart VM from vsphere web client
• Cannot use vmxnet nic
• Cannot us pvscsi adapter
• Cannot take quiesced snapshots of the vm

For every other OVA file I have pulled into ESXi, vmware tools has already been installed by the maker of the OVA or in one case I was able to get to the linux command line and install vmware tools myself

[DANDKS]

Hello hendersond

Greetings.

There is an option to Shutdown or Restart the Appliance from the Amplifier pack. The Aplifier pack does not have VMware tools integrated & it is by Design.

The iLO Amplifier Pack is an advanced server inventory, firmware and driver update solution that enables rapid discovery, detailed inventory reporting, firmware, and driver updates by leveraging iLO advanced functionality. The iLO Amplifier Pack performs rapid server discovery and inventory for thousands of supported servers for the purpose of updating firmware and drivers at scale.

Please review the User Guide at the below link

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c05384285

Request for integrating VMware tools will have to be made to the Developers. There may be plans to integrate the VMware tools in the iLO Amplifier pack in future based on the requirement, however there is no ETA on it for now.

You may contact your assigned HPE Account Support Manager to raise an Enhancement request with HPE Developers

If let us know if there is anything else that we may assist you with.

Thank you

[hendersond]

You mention "The Amplifier pack does not have VMware tools integrated & it is by Design."

What design criteria would exclude installing VMWare Tools? VMWare recommends that all VMs have VMWare Tools installed. The vmxnet3 driver and pviscsi controller have better performance than the E1000 driver and LSI Logic Parallel controller that the Amplifier Pack uses. For this reason alone I would think HPE would want to include VMWare Tools with the Amplifier Pack.

I have a total of 10 linux appliances added to ESXi via an OVA download. For 9 of them, the makers of the OVA file including VMWare Tools in the OVA, the only exception is the iLO Amplifier Pack.

[JRBull]

This answer does not address the OP's point regarding iLO Amplifier Pack violating VMWare's operational best practices.

Lack of VMTools support is a show stopper for my company.

[Hariom]

Greetings,

There is an enhancement from iLO Amplifier Pack v1.8x onwards. If you upgrade or deploy this release, by default VMtools are bundled and will get installed as part of Upgrade/Deploy process.

Hope this helps.

[KurtMR]

What version of VMware tools is being shipped? Our current vm is deployed with 10346 (10.3.10) which is being flagged by VMware for memory leak issues. https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/76163

[MikeG15]

Yes, we are having the same issue. How can I upgrade the VMware tools on the iLO Amplifier Pack VM?

@Hariom 

[BjornM]

While not exactly the same issue, there is a similiar issue for those running ilo Amplifier Pack on Hyper-V ... there are no integration services installed in Ilo Amplifier Pack for Hyper-V