1 The Open Virtual Machine Tools (open-vm-tools) are the open source
2 implementation of VMware Tools. They are a set of guest operating
3 system virtualization components that enhance performance and user
4 experience of virtual machines. As virtualization technology rapidly
5 becomes mainstream, each virtualization solution provider implements
6 their own set of tools and utilities to supplement the guest virtual
7 machine. However, most of the implementations are proprietary and are
8 tied to a specific virtualization platform.
10 The tools are currently composed of kernel modules for Linux and
11 user-space programs for all VMware supported Unix-like guest operating
12 systems. They provide several useful functions like:
14 * File transfer between a host and guest
15 * Improved memory management and network performance under
17 * General mechanisms and protocols for communication between host
18 and guests and from guest to guest