Goal:
Have some way to determine if a VM does not have VMWare Tools installed, in a matter of seconds.
Details:
I'm essentially trying to differentiate between two states, which VixVM_WaitForToolsInGuest doesn't distinguish: VMWare Tools are installed but not running yet and VMWare Tools are not installed at all. I'm trying to use VIX in a very responsive way, and I really don't want to make my users wait for the VixVM_WaitForToolsInGuest timeout -- VIX documentation recommends a 5 minute timeout -- just to find out that Tools aren't even installed in the first place.
Things I've Tried:
Aside from fiddling around with VixVM_WaitForToolsInGuest, I've tried using VixVM_ReadVariable to read the VMX key-value pairs. However, inspecting a relatively comprehensive cross-section of VMX files for my use cases, I don't see any particular key-value that tells me definitively whether or not Tools are installed.
Questions:
Is this possible? Is there some way to perhaps just get a Tools version number, the way that VI Java and vCenter can?