101 Free VMware Tools

04 Oct 2017 by Jason Fenech

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If you’re used to working with VMware products, you probably found yourself needing one or more tools to help you complete a specific task. Whether it’s a PowerCLI script to bolster your automation platform, a monitoring and analytical tool for renewed insight or perhaps SAN emulation software for shared storage datastores, surely, you will find something that suits your needs in the following list of 101 free VMware tools we put together.

You can download most of the tools and utilities straight away by clicking the product name or download link. In some cases, you’ll need to fill in a registration form and reply to an activation link before downloading.

All the links have been verified to be working as of 6th Sept. 2017. This article will be periodically updated to ensure all links work and point to the latest versions. That said, it’s a long list and if you spot anything amiss please let me know in the comments and I’ll update it immediately.

Note to page administrators: all links are followed so if we’ve linked to your page and you like this resource feel free to link back or share 

	Product Name	Category	Description	Screenshot
1	Altaro VM Backup   [download]	Backup	Warning: Cheeky plug alert    Altaro VM Backup is a fast, affordable, high-performance backup solution, specifically developed for small and mid-market businesses. We’ve cut the waste and hassle to give you an agile, streamlined solution that is easy to implement, feature-rich, with outstanding support as part of the package.
2	Account Lockout Examiner   [download]	Monitoring	A tool that notifies administrators about AD account lockouts and helps determine the root cause whenever an Active Directory account keeps locking out. Works also on mobile devices.
3	Auditor for Active Directory   [download]	Reporting	Provides visibility into what’s happening inside an AD domain by tracking logons and all changes to AD users, groups, organizational units, GPO links and various policies.
4	Auditor for VMware   [download]	Reporting	Tracks configuration changes in a vSphere environment which include changes to datacentre instances, vCenter Server, ESXi, resource pools, clusters, folders, VMs, and other objects.
5	Auditor for Windows File Servers   [download]	Reporting	This free file server software tracks changes made to files, folders, shares and permissions. It also detects deleted and newly created files and folders and logs file server access attempts.
6	Auto Deploy GUI   [download]	Automation	Auto Deploy GUI is a vSphere plug-in for the VMware vSphere Auto Deploy component. The GUI plug-in allows a user to easily manage the setup and deployment requirements in a stateless environment managed by Auto Deploy.
7	AutoConf iSCSI   [download]	Automation	AutoConf iSCSI creates the iSCSI configuration following best practices for ESXi 4, 5 and 6.
8	Backup Calculator   [download]	Calculator	Backup Capacity Calculator evaluates required storage capacity for backups.
9	Brocade SAN Health Diagnostics   [download]	Analytics	SAN Health Diagnostics Capture is a utility that securely audits and analyses your SAN environment.
10	Business Continuity Planning   [download]	Analytics	A free online service tool that helps you build and customize your own DR plan so you can con?dently respond to a disaster or outage and recover your systems rapidly, effectively and efficiently.
11	Certificate Manager for vCSA 5.5   [download]	Management	A graphical user interface (GUI) application used to replace digital certificates on vCenter Server Appliance.
12	CI Manager Plus   [download]	Networking	A simple tool to manage Cisco UCS devices.
13	Cloud Cost Calculator   [download]	Calculator	Provides you with real-time decisions trading off public cloud performance and cost.
14	Damn Small Linux   [download]	Virtual Machines	A great lightweight Linux distro ideal for deploying in low-performance environments.
15	Recovery Time Actual (RTA) Calculator   [download]	Calculator	Helps you automate a disaster recovery test and immediately delivers a report telling you how long it would take to recover your VMware environment.
16	Disk Space Monitor   [download]	Monitoring	This freeware tool will automatically monitor for low disk space on multiple servers keeping you abreast of which servers are getting close to low disk space conditions.
17	Effective Permissions Reporting   [download]	Reporting	Helps you ensure that users’ permissions align with their roles in the organization. This freeware tool delivers a file share and Active Directory permissions report that details who has access to what and how that access was gained.
18	ESXi Embedded Host Client   [download]	Management	The ESXi Embedded Host Client is a native HTML and JavaScript application and is served directly from your ESXi host.
19	Extrasphere 3.0.9   [download]	Utility	A set of tools that will help you manage VM data in vSphere environments, including VM migration, proxy VMFS and hot mirroring.
20	FileZilla   [download]	Utility	FileZilla Client is a fast and reliable cross-platform FTP, FTPS and SFTP client with lots of useful features and an intuitive graphical user interface.
21	IP SLA Monitor   [download]	Networking	SolarWinds IP SLA Monitor allows IT administrators to continuously monitor internet protocol (IP) service levels for IP applications and services.
22	FreeNAS   [download]	Storage	FreeNAS is an operating system that can be installed on virtually any hardware platform to share data over a network.
23	ghettoVCB   [download]	Backup	The ghettoVCB script performs backups of virtual machines residing on ESX(i) 3.x, 4.x, 5.x & 6.x servers using methodology like VMware’s VCB tool. The script takes snapshots of live running virtual machines, backs up the master VMDK(s) and then upon completion, deletes the snapshot until the next backup.
24	HCIBench   [download]	Analytics	An automation wrapper around the popular and proven VDbench open source benchmark tool that makes it easier to automate testing across a HCI cluster. The tool fully automates the end-to-end process of deploying test VMs, coordinating workload runs, aggregating test results, and collecting necessary data for troubleshooting purposes.
25	HeavyLoad   [download]	Utility	HeavyLoad is a stress testing utility designed to test computer performance under heavy loads.
26	Icinga 2   [download]	Monitoring	An open source monitoring system which checks the availability of your network resources, notifies users of outages, and generates performance data for reporting. Scalable and extensible, Icinga 2 can monitor large, complex environments across multiple locations.is intuitive to write, efficient to execute and even adjusts to the changing conditions of your environment at run-time.
27	Online IP Subnet Calculator   [download]	Networking	The IP Subnet Mask Calculator enables subnet network calculations using network class, IP address, subnet mask, subnet bits, mask bits, maximum required IP subnets and maximum required hosts per subnet.
28	Kali Linux   [download]	Virtual Machines	VMware ready images of the most popular network penetration and security tool laden Linux distro.
29	Kiwi Syslog Server Free Edition   [download]	Monitoring	Collect, view and archive logs from up to five different routers, firewalls, machines or other devices that emit Syslog messages or SNMP traps.
30	LPAR2RRD   [download]	Monitoring	The tool offers you end-to-end views of IBM and VMware virtualization platforms and can save you significant money in operation monitoring.
31	MAC / WWN Lookup   [download]	Networking	Ethernet MAC Address Lookup / Fibre Channel WWN, WWPN, WWNN Lookup / Vendor Lookup.
32	Nagios Core   [download]	Monitoring	Provides monitoring of all mission-critical infrastructure components including applications, services, operating systems, network protocols, systems metrics, and network infrastructure. Hundreds of third-party add-ons provide for monitoring of virtually all in-house applications, services, and systems.
33	Network Defender Plus   [download]	Monitoring	Network Defender Plus is flow-based network behaviour anomaly detection (NBAD) software that analyses the packet flows to detect malicious traffic hitting the network. Exported flow data is collected & analysed to identify intrusions or attacks by applying advanced rules and patterns on the malicious traffic.
34	NexentaStor (Community Edition)   [download]	Storage	NexentaStor delivers unified file (NFS and SMB) and block (FC and iSCSI) storage services, runs on industry standard hardware supporting all-flash, hybrid, and all-disk scaling from tens of terabytes to petabyte configurations, and includes all data management functionality by default.
35	Notepad++   [download]	Editor	Notepad++ is a free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License.
36	HPE OneView for VMware vCenter   [download]	Reporting	HPE OneView for VMware vCenter is software for VMware’s vCenter management console which enables the vSphere administrator to quickly obtain context-aware information about HPE servers and HPE storage in their VMware vSphere environment directly from within vCenter.
37	OpenFiler   [download]	Storage	Openfiler converts an industry standard x86_64 architecture system into a full-fledged NAS/SAN appliance or IP storage gateway and provides storage administrators with a powerful tool to cope with burgeoning storage needs.
38	OpManager   [download]	Monitoring	An integrated network management software for faster and smarter network management. Out-of-the-box, it offers network monitoring, physical and virtual server monitoring, flow-based bandwidth analysis, firewall log analysis and archiving, configuration and change management, and IP address and switch port management, thereby providing all the visibility and control that you need over your network.
39	Permissions Analyzer for Active Directory   [download]	Active Directory	Unravel your tangled mess of permissions for Active Directory, network shares, folders, and files for users and groups with this free tool.
40	Port Database Search   [download]	Networking	Returns information about network port numbers and associated services.
41	Port Scanner   [download]	Networking	Scan available IP addresses and their corresponding TCP and UDP ports to identify network vulnerabilities.
42	PowerCLI   [download]	Scripting	PowerCLI is a powerful command-line PowerShell interface developed by VMware that lets you automate all aspects of vSphere management, including network, storage, VM, guest OS and more.
43	PowerShell Plus   [download]	Editor	PowerShell Plus is the most advanced Interactive Development Environment for PowerShell available today. Designed to help administrators and developers quickly learn and master Windows PowerShell, it also dramatically increases the productivity of expert users.
44	PRTG Network Monitor   [download]	Monitoring	PRTG Network Monitor is a free syslog server: one sensor type in PRTG is the Syslog Receiver, which receives and analyses syslog messages, stored in a high-performance database. This means that the content of received syslog messages can be checked and an alarm can be triggered depending on the content and severity.
45	Putty   [download]	Utility	PuTTY is a free implementation of SSH and Telnet for Windows and Unix platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator.
46	RAID Calculator   [download]	Calculator	RAID calculator computes storage system characteristics based on the provided RAID level, number of disk drives, and drive capacity.
47	Real-Time Bandwidth Monitor   [download]	Monitoring	Real-time Bandwidth Monitor lets you set critical and warning thresholds to instantly see when usage is out of bounds.
48	Rsync 3.1.0   [download]	Backup	Rsync is a file transfer program capable of efficient remote update via a fast differencing algorithm. Rsync compiled for ESXi 5.1 and above, allows for extended copy options between local datastores, delta transfers between ESXi hosts and delta transfers between an ESXi host and any other server executing a compatible Rsync version.
49	Rufus 2.16   [download]	Utility	Rufus is a utility that helps format and create bootable USB flash drives, such as USB keys/pen drives, memory sticks, etc.
50	RVTools 3.9.5   [download]	Reporting	RVTools is a Windows .NET 4.0 application which uses the VI SDK to display information about your virtual environments as well as disconnect removable media drives and updates VMware Tools.
51	Script List   [download]	Scripting	A nice list of PowerCLI scripts and one-liners for everyday use.
52	SDDC Discovery tool   [download]	Reporting	The SDDC Discovery Tool gives users a holistic view of their SDDC deployment. By collecting vCenter server credentials from the user, the tool is able to discover all of the products installed in the deployment by recursive probing.
53	Server Health Monitor   [download]	Monitoring	See into the hardware health of your server and get alerted before your applications are affected.
54	Service Monitor   [download]	Monitoring	Netwrix Service Monitor is a free tool to monitor critical Windows services and optionally restart them after failure.
55	IP Address Tracker   [download]	Networking	IP Address Tracker is a free, reduced feature set version of SolarWinds IP Address Manager enabling you to sample the functionality of IPAM.
56	Solarwinds TFTP Server   [download]	Utility	Use this free TFTP Server to upload and download executable images and configurations to routers and switches with ease.
57	Splunk Light 6.6.3   [download]	Reporting	Speed tactical troubleshooting in small IT environments. Gather real-time log data to enable powerful searches, dynamic dashboards, alerts, and analysis.
58	StarWind Virtual SAN Free   [download]	Storage	A free command-line based Software-Defined Storage stack that eliminates the need for physical shared storage by “mirroring” local disks and flash between its servers to create a fault-tolerant storage pool.
59	STOR2RRD   [download]	Monitoring	SAN and storage performance and capacity monitoring.
60	The Ultimate Deployment Appliance   [download]	Virtual Machines	The UDA is a Linux based virtual appliance – which is a PXE/TFTP/Web-front end system designed to deploy many different operating systems.
61	Turbonomic Virtual Health Monitor   [download]	Monitoring	A free virtualization monitoring and reporting tool for VMware, Hyper-V, RHEV, and XenServer environments. Virtual Health Monitor is a free real-time performance monitoring solution that can be deployed broadly across multiple hypervisor platforms.
62	UltraSearch 2.12   [download]	Utility	UltraSearch searches folders and files on local NTFS drives. You can target file names or patterns. Works without an index and provides results within seconds. Portable version available.
63	V2V Converter   [download]	Converter	Convert and clone VMs from one format to another. The software supports the most widely used formats: VMDK, VHD/VHDX (Windows Repair Mode aware), StarWind native IMG and QCOW.
64	vCenter Certificate Automation Tool   [download]	Automation	The SSL Certificate Automation Tool is a command-line utility that automates the Self- or CA-signed certificate renewal process.
65	VMware vCenter Converter Standalone   [download]	Converter	Convert virtual and physical machines to VMware virtual machines. You can also configure existing virtual machines in your vCenter Server environment.
66	vCheck   [download]	Scripting	A PowerShell HTML framework script designed to run as a scheduled task. Key information is emailed directly to your inbox in a nice easily readable format. This script picks on the key known issues and potential issues scripted as plugins for various technologies written as PowerShell scripts.
67	vCSA Database Backup / Restore   [download]	Backup	Python scripts that allow you to backup and restore the vPostgres database used by vCenter Server 6.0 and 6.5.
68	vDisk Informer 1.2.5 [download]	Utility	vDisk Informer is a tool used to check for potentially non-allocated space on virtual disks due to misalignment which in turn may affect performance.
69	VIB Author   [download]	Utility	Build custom VIB packages, such as firewall rules, for ESXi.
70	Virtualization Calculator   [download]	Calculator	Calculates the number of ESXi hosts in a vSphere cluster based on the planned VM workload and host configuration.
71	Visual Traceroute   [download]	Networking	Displays the route a packet takes across a network and provides detailed response time information hop-by-hop from start to finish, continuously, over a specified duration or one-time.
72	VisualESXTop   [download]	Reporting	An enhanced version of resxtop and esxtop, VisualEsxtop can connect to VMware vCenter Server or ESX hosts, and display ESX server stats with a better user interface and more advanced features.
73	VM Manager Plus   [download]	Monitoring	Monitor an unlimited number of VMs, hosts, and data stores across VMware, Hyper-V and XenServer platforms. Proactively monitor critical performance metrics such as CPU, memory, and disk utilization, network usage, memory swap, datastore read/write latency, memory ready, and much more.
74	VM Monitor   [download]	Monitoring	VM Monitor continuously monitors your VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V host and associated virtual machines in real-time.
75	VMware ESXi 6.5   [download]	Hypervisor	The free edition of VMware’s popular enterprise hypervisor.
76	VMware Horizon Toolbox 7.2   [download]	Management	VMware Horizon Toolbox 7.2 is a Web portal that acts as an extension to View Administrator in VMware Horizon™ 6 or above.
77	VMware I/O Analyzer   [download]	Analytics	An integrated framework designed to measure storage performance in a virtual environment and to help diagnose storage performance concerns.
78	VMware OS Optimization Tool   [download]	Utility	Helps optimize Windows systems for use with VMware Horizon View. Includes customizable templates to enable or disable Windows system services and features, per VMware recommendations and best practices, across multiple systems.
79	VMware Remote Console   [download]	Utility	Provides console access and client device connection to VMs on a remote host. Download and install before launching the external VMRC application directly from a vSphere or vRealize Automation web client.
80	VMware Software Manager 1.5   [download]	Downloader	VMware Software Manager is a free product that dramatically simplifies the download of VMware suites and products.
81	VMware View Client Resizer   [download]	Utility	The View Client Resizer is a utility that resizes VMware Horizon Client for Windows desktop to a specific resolution.
82	VMware Vmmark 3.x   [download]	Analytics	A free tool used to measure the performance, scalability, and power consumption of virtualization platforms.
83	VMware VMSS2Core   [download]	Utility	Converts VMware checkpoint state files into formats that third-party debugger tools understand.
84	VMware vSphere Compatibility Predictor   [download]	Analytics	Scans all PSCs connected to a single PSC. It will detect the versions of all the vCenter Servers connected to PSCs and all the Solutions connected to vCenter Servers. It will then depict the connectivity in pictorial form.
85	VMware vSphere Replication   [download]	Backup	A hypervisor-based, asynchronous replication solution for vSphere virtual machines. It fully integrates with VMware vCenter Server and the vSphere Web Client.
86	VMware Workstation Player 12.5   [download]	Hypervisor	VMware Workstation Player builds on the industry-leading foundation of Workstation Pro, and delivers a streamlined user interface for creating and running operating systems and applications in a virtual machine.
87	vSphere (Legacy) client   [download]	Management	The long-lived vSphere client of choice prior to vSphere 6.5.
88	vSphere Configuration Backup   [download]	Backup	vSphere Configuration Backup is an automation tool used to save configurations of multiple ESXi and SQL databases.
89	vSphere Content Library Assistance   [download]	Analytics	This assistant will help you easily onboard your VC templates (.vmtx) on to Content Library.
90	vSphere HTML5 Web Client   [download]	Management	Although now part and parcel of vSphere 6.5, this client can be installed as a standalone appliance that deployed in an existing or new vSphere 6.0 environment.
91	vSphere Management Assistant 6.5   [download]	Management	A virtual machine that includes pre-packaged software such as a Linux distribution, the vSphere command-line interface, and the vSphere SDK for Perl.
92	VUM Sizing Estimator 6.5   [download]	Calculator	Estimates the size of the VMware vSphere Update Manager 6.5 database and patch store. This estimate is calculated from the information entered about a deployment, such as the number of hosts and virtual machines.
93	WAN Latency Estimator   [download]	Networking	An estimate of WAN latency based on the light signal propagation time over a fibre link.
94	Webserver Stress Tool   [download]	Utility	A powerful HTTP-client/server test application designed to pinpoint critical performance issues in a website or web server.
95	WhatsUp Active Directory Monitor   [download]	Monitoring	Keep track of all the user accounts and passwords in your organization and implement enterprise-wide policies, credentials and security. It allows you to limit the numbers of usernames and logins end-users need to remember and increases security.
96	WhatsUp PortScanner   [download]	Networking	Identify active hosts using ICMP and TCP. Utilize multiple scanning deep-level technologies to find open ports.
97	WinSCP   [download]	Utility	WinSCP is an open source free SFTP client, FTP client, WebDAV client and SCP client for Windows. Its main function is file transfer between a local and a remote computer. Beyond this, WinSCP offers scripting and basic file manager functionality.
98	Wireshark   [download]	Networking	A network protocol analyser that gives insight on what’s happening on your network at a microscopic level.
99	Xfer Calculator   [download]	Calculator	Xfer Calculator is a bandwidth/transfer time/transfer size calculator.
100	XSI Backup   [download]	Backup	XSIBackup is a VMWare ESXi backup tool and Disaster Recovery solution, it uses the ESXi built-in command line to create unattended backup solutions, this means you can create a backup schema that will for example backup all your running virtual machines every night.
101	XSIDiff   [download]	Backup	An extremely high efficient command line tool to transfer VM disks locally or over IP.