There is no objection that VMware tools are an essential module -a suite of utilities that enhances the performance of the virtual machines guest operating system and improves management of the virtual machine.
The frustration comes when the deployment or update of the tools goes bad and you end up with the following condition (fits to any OS):
There is no stop button to interrupt the process, you can not mount the VMware Tools ISO to execute the upgrade manually, nor you can migrate VMs across other hypervisors, in case of a HA failure or patching activity. At this point, your frustration tops.
Cheer Up! There is a way to fix this, by canceling the task from within hypervisor’s cli interface, so let’s step this down:
First, connect to the host where the VM is registered and running via Putty or any other SSH console tool.
You will afterwards need to identify the VM ID by executing the below command:
vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms | grep yourvm'sname
Notice that the result will bring you the registered VM and a number before it. In the above screenshot, it was Nr. 81.
Now, execute the below command to cancel the task:
vim-cmd vmsvc/tools.cancelinstall Nr_of_your_VM
Now, smile and enjoy your coffee while continuing what you wanted to do!