VMWare Fusion 6 about packer-windows HOT 7 CLOSED

JC1738: Actually, by default Packer uploads the tools from your VMware Fusion / Workstation distribution. Sometimes the release cadence between Fusion and Workstation differs, leading to the situation you describe. For example, if you build the box using Packer with Fusion, then you use the box on Workstation then you may and up with out of date VMware tools.

The version you linked to is a fallback. It is used if you have not set tools_upload_flavor with a value (windows, in our case): https://github.com/joefitzgerald/packer-windows/blob/master/windows_2012_r2.json#L15. In most cases you should not see the linked tools being downloaded at all. If you are, that points to a potential problem with tools upload.

The fallback version we are using appears to be the latest publicly available one: http://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/ws/ (see that 10.0.1 is the latest version of workstation). You could try using the tools from here: http://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/fusion/6.0.2/1398658/packages/, but that might require a slightly different workflow to untar the file.

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@JC1738 Does this make sense? Did you glean any insight during your testing that might improve the experience here (recognizing that version differences in VMware's product portfolio is largely out of our control)?

Can you indicate whether you were building and consuming the box using Workstation or Fusion or a combination?

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Yes, I am using Fusion 6. I believe I understand, however I can't seem to get it to create a box that contains the latest version of tools installed. Every vagrant up of a new box asks me to upgrade the tools. Not sure why it thinks it needs to update if it is using the version already present on my host machine.

Thanks for the follow up, it's not blocking me, just an annoyance/mystery.

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Is it asking you to upgrade the tools or upgrade the VM itself? Can you capture a screenshot?

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Sure, I have shutdown for the evening, will post tomorrow. Thanks

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I think you might be right, it's not the tools, it's the VM itself.

http://monosnap.com/image/mYHiQK13JbLPWnorBPTeW8SqzR3hUW

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Yeah, I think Packer creates a Fusion 5 compatible VM, and I'm not sure if that's overridable. Closing this - if you'd like, you can create an issue in the Packer repo to generate Fusion 6 .vmx files that don't need upgrading?

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