Here are some quick and dirty steps to install the VMware Tools on a Linux server.
Within Debian and Ubuntu Server
Become Root
sudo -s
Refresh Available Packages
apt-get update
Upgrade to the latest available packages
apt-get upgrade -y
Make a directory to mount the CD drive into
mkdir /mnt/cd
Install compiler tools and kernel headers
apt-get install build-essential kernel-headers-$(uname -r) -y
Attach VMware Tools .ISO Image
Within the VMware Infrastructure client Guest, Install/Upgrade VMware Tools
Mount the CDROM drive
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cd
Copy the VMware Tools locally
cp /mnt/cd/V*.tar.gz /tmp
Extract the VMware Tools
cd /tmp
tar xzvf V*.tar.gz
Compile and install to default location
cd vmware-tools-distrib
./vmware-install.pl -d
Tidy Up
cd /tmp
rm -rf vmw*
apt-get remove build-essential kernel-headers-$(uname -r) -y
apt-get autoremove -y
apt-get autoclean
Reboot
init 6
That's it! VMware tools should be working upon reboot.
