# vmware/open-vm-tools

Official repository of VMware open-vm-tools project

Repository: https://github.com/vmware/open-vm-tools
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/open-vm-tools
Homepage: http://sourceforge.net/projects/open-vm-tools/
Language: C
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Last push: 2026-05-14T07:22:24+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 78/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 82, release rhythm 60, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4513, "days_push": 111, "days_rel": 111, "gap_med": 105.0, "n_releases_24m": 7}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2657, forks 470 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:07.344401+00:00)

## What it is
open-vm-tools is VMware's open-source implementation of VMware Tools, a suite of services, plugins, and kernel modules that improve management and user interaction of VMware guest virtual machines. It enables power operations, guest-host file operations, heartbeat monitoring, time sync, clipboard sharing, and statistics collection for Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD guests.

## Use cases
- install vmware tools on linux vm
- graceful shutdown of vmware guest from host
- sync clock between vmware host and guest
- copy paste between vmware guest and host
- collect guest vm statistics in vSphere
- quiesce guest filesystem for consistent snapshots
- enable heartbeat monitoring for vSphere HA

## When to choose
- running Linux or FreeBSD guests on VMware ESXi, Workstation, or Fusion and needing host-guest integration
- managing a vSphere fleet that requires guest heartbeat, customization, and power automation
- you want the open-source, distribution-packaged alternative to the proprietary VMware Tools installer

## When to avoid
- running VMs on non-VMware hypervisors like KVM, VirtualBox, or Hyper-V
- you need fully open-source Linux kernel drivers - those are already upstreamed into the Linux kernel
- Windows guests, which should use the official VMware Tools installer instead

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: monitoring, auth, file-system, developer-tools
- domain: operating-systems, self-hosted
- platform: windows, bsd, cpp, c
- tags: vmware, virtualization, guest-tools, vsphere, kernel-modules, hypervisor, devops, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- vmware/open-vm-tools (main) score 78

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:07.344401+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:18:27.925470+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/vmware/open-vm-tools (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:07.344401+00:00, sha a3da94be2e39)
  - homepage: http://sourceforge.net/projects/open-vm-tools/ (fetched 2026-08-29T10:01:21.794742+00:00, sha 35f7853e59c0)
  - site_page: https://sourceforge.net/about (fetched 2026-08-29T10:01:21.804166+00:00, sha 47a5f3730d75)
  - site_page: https://sourceforge.net/p/forge/documentation/Docs%20Home (fetched 2026-08-29T10:01:21.806182+00:00, sha 3cca19403dfa)
  - site_page: https://sourceforge.net/about/leadership (fetched 2026-08-29T10:01:21.809838+00:00, sha bfffa8fdd816)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.