vD vDan VMware · VCF · NSX · K8S

VMware Tools version mapping with Release Notes

Short answer: the tool below maps every VMware Tools release to the internal version code the vSphere Client and the API report (for example 12452), the Tools build number, the ESXi builds the release ships with and the What’s New of each release taken from Broadcom’s official release notes. Type a version, a Tools build, a client code or an ESXi build to identify it, open the full mapping table, or pick two versions in Upgrade path to read everything that changed between them. The data comes from the official mapping file at packages.vmware.com/tools/versions and from the VMware Tools release notes on Broadcom TechDocs; legacy 10.x notes are PDFs in Broadcom’s archive. esx/0.0 means the release was shipped on its own and is not bundled with an ESXi build.

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How to read the mapping

  • Client version code. The number the vSphere Client, PowerCLI (ToolsVersion) and the API report for a VM, for example 13349 for VMware Tools 13.1.5. Several patch releases can share one code when the Tools binaries did not change.
  • Tools version and build. The version shown in the guest (Setup / About, vmware-toolbox-cmd -v) and its build number, which also appears in the release notes.
  • Ships with ESXi. The ESXi releases and builds whose image bundles that Tools version. Tools work with a wider range of ESXi versions than the one they ship with; use the Broadcom Interoperability Matrix for the supported combinations.
  • What’s New. Copied from the release notes of each release (Broadcom TechDocs, legacy 10.x as PDF). Releases without public release notes, such as 12.4.6 to 12.4.9 and Tools 10.0 and older, show the link to Broadcom KB 304809 instead.

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