What is the primary role of VMware Tools in a virtual machine?

The primary role of VMware Tools within a virtual machine is to provide better integration and performance optimization. This set of utilities enhances the overall efficiency and functionality of VMs by enabling features such as improved mouse and video performance, seamless interaction between the host and guest operating systems, and more precise time synchronization. In essence, VMware Tools helps the virtual machine to function more like a physical machine, facilitating smooth operating system updates and guest memory management.

While monitoring VM performance metrics is useful, it is not the core purpose of VMware Tools. Live migration between hosts pertains to VMotion features that allow for migrating running virtual machines between physical hosts with minimal downtime, which is separate from the functionality provided by VMware Tools. Additionally, while there are capabilities for configuring network settings, this is not the main intent of VMware Tools, which focuses on enhancing performance and integration overall.