Very silently this week VMware released another free product: the VMware Infrastructure Management Assistant (VIMA) 1.0 (build 124830).
VIMA is a 64-bit virtual machine where VMware administrators can execute scripts and install agents that they would normally try to run on the console operating system (COS).
The VM includes a logging component, an authentication module (vi-fastpass) that supports non-interactive logins, the Remote CLI and the VI Perl Toolkit.
It basically acts as a execution proxy for programs that interact with the virtual infrastructure, saving the COS (where available, think about ESXi) from dangerous installations.
The product is free of charge and available here.