Greetings,
I was hoping to be able to make a poll, but it seems that option isn't available. So I guess I'll just ask in a regular discussion: what do you use to update your VMware Tools?
We're currently doubting between a software deployment method and the upgradeAtPowerCycle. Both have their pro's and con's.
As I see it the pro's of the software deployment is you can update the tools when you install the windows patches, minimising the downtime. Downside of this, is you need to make a new "package" every time a new VMTools version is available, which is quite often. Another downside is that when you install the windows patches and tools at the same time, you never know what exactly is causing a problem after the update.
The pro's of the upgradeAtPowerCycle setting is it's easiest, you just enable the setting and reboot again after a reboot. Downside of this is that it's not always a good time to do a reboot, right after a previous reboot. Another downside of this option is you can't really make a test-group to test the new VMTools on development/testservers before testing it on production. When a server reboot it'll automatically install them on the server. Of course you'd be able to make a powershell script to disable the setting on production servers and enable it on test/development, but then you lose the upside of this option - being the fact that it doesn't take much time to keep your environment updated.
So what are your thoughts/preferences?
Do you manually update them? Use a software deployment method? Do you mass-update them using the Update Manager? Or do you use the upgradeAtPowerCycle setting? Or is there another option?