VMware pre-compiles the VMware tools for selected OS kernels. The stock RHEL kernels are included, but not the intermediate updates. If you can live with that, you can simply add the VMware tools YUM repository: # cd /etc/yum.repos.d/ # wget http://bert.debruijn.be/linux-stuff/vmwaretools.repo and download the VMware RPM signing key # cd /etc/pki/rpm-gpg # wget http://packages.vmware.com/tools/VMWARE-PACKAGING-GPG-KEY.pub Then install the tools packages: # yum install vmware-tools-nox or # yum install vmware-tools vCenter will report the tools version as "Unmanaged" rather than "OK", but you have heartbeat (so HA and alarms can detect guest OS crashes), balloon driver, etc.
plenty of grains to pick