1) Connect to the server with your vSphere Client.
2) Ensure you have CDROM hardware connected to your VM.
Select your VM, then click on Edit Settings|Hardware tab|CD/DVD Drive 1 and ensure it is set to connect at power-on:
3) Start your Ubuntu VM.
4) Ensure you have the proper prerequisite packages:
Ubuntu installs in a very stripped-down configuration. You will need to install kernel headers and the GCC compiler to be able to build VMware tools. Login to Ubuntu and issue the following commands:
# sudo apt-get install gcc
# sudo apt-get install build-essential binutils linux-headers-$(uname -r)
5) Connect VMware Tools
Once these packages are installed, select your Ubuntu VM in the vSphere Client and right-click on your VM. Select Guest – Install/Upgrade VMware Tools
This will transparently connect the VMware Tools CD into your virtual machine.
6) Mount the CDROM
# sudo mount /dev/scd0 /media/cdrom
7) Copy the VMwareTools-8.3.2-257589.tar.gz on the CDROM to the /tmp directory
cp /media/cdrom/VMwareTools-8.3.2-257589.tar.gz /tmp
8) Untar the VMware Tools package
# tar -zxvf VMwareTools-8.3.2-257589.tar.gz
9) Change to the VMware tools directory.
# cd /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib
10) Run the installer
# sudo ./vmware-install.pl
Follow the instructions presented in the install script.
UPDATE: Or just type in “sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools” or “sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends open-vm-tools"