Sometimes VMware Tools installations can get into an odd state. The only option in your “Guest” menu for the tools is to end the install. Often, this will return an error stating it cannot complete the command. The commands below are a quick way to kill off the tools install. I would not recommend doing this if the tools are in the middle of installing. Only when you have a situation where the automatic upgrade has done nothing, and ending the install isn’t working.
Enable Remote Tech Support on the host running the VM.
Log into the host running the VM as root (or log in and su to root) with putty or your favorite terminal program.
Run vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms (no spaces between vmsvc/getallvms)
A list will be returned of all the VM’s running on that host. Note the VM ID for the VM in question (first column in the list)
Run vim-vmd vmsvc/tools.cancelinstall vmid (the VM ID from the list from the previous command)
This will kill the VMware Tools install process on the host. You can then go and run an interactive installation to see where the problem lies. I see this issue the most when SCCM is trying to push a package to windows servers while I am trying to upgrade the VMware Tools.
