vmtoolsd
vmtoolsd is a daemon process that runs on virtual machines to enhance their integration with the host hypervisor. It is part of VMware Tools, a suite of utilities designed to improve the performance and manageability of virtual machines. The vmtoolsd process facilitates communication between the guest operating system and the host, enabling features such as graceful shutdown, suspending and resuming the virtual machine, and synchronizing time.
Key functionalities of vmtoolsd include guest operating system introspection, allowing the hypervisor to understand the state
The daemon typically starts automatically when the guest operating system boots and runs in the background.