How to Install VMware Tools on CentOS from the Command Line

Here are the steps I use to install VMware Tools on a CentOS server VM with no GUI, using the vSphere Client and the command line.

1. In the vSphere Client, choose Guest → Install/Upgrade VMware Tools. This attaches the VMware Tools installer as a virtual CD-ROM.
2. On the VM console, mount the virtual CD-ROM, extract the installer, and run it (press Tab to auto-complete the file names):

mkdir /cdrom
mount /dev/cdrom /cdrom
cd /tmp
tar -xvf /cdrom/VMwareTools*.tar.gz
cd vmware-tools-distrib
./vmware-install.pl
umount /cdrom

3. Accept the defaults in the installer. You may need to install Perl first (yum install perl).
4. Back in the vSphere Client, choose Guest → Install/Upgrade VMware Tools → OK to finish and disconnect the installer.
5. Confirm the install on the VM’s Summary tab: VMware Tools should show OK.

If VMware Tools stops starting after kernel updates, see fixing VMware Tools not starting after reboot on CentOS.