You can quickly and easily update VMWare tools using the command line, which can be helpful in a single server environment:
Start by turning on SSH on the ESXi host you need to update.
This first part is optional but recommended. Log in and go to the directory containing VMWare Tools cd /productLocker/ and back up the current tools.
Then you will need to SCP over the new VMware Tools files. Keep in mind that you will need to do this for each OS you keep tools for, IE Windows and MacOS (Darwin). Since the new recommended way to manage VMware Tools on Linux is through the Open Tools repo you don’t need to worry about Linux.
scp -r <LOCAL DIR>/* <USER>@<IP OF HOST>:/productLocker/vmtools
After that you should also update the files in the floppies folder as well.
scp -r <LOCAL DIR>/* <USER>@<IP OF HOST>:/productLocker/floppies
Once you have updated VMware tools and verified it is working properly you can delete you backup. With MacOS machines you may need to manually mount and install the new tools, however on Windows machines a reboot should install them if you have it set to auto-update at startup.