If I look in the vsphere client at a VM that is powered off i can see VMware Tools reports Not running (out of date)
However any scripts I have found using the API all seem to want the machine powered on to check that the machine is out of date.
Anyway to check this using an API or am I forced to power on all our template to check the tools status?
I think it should, as VMware Tools can be updated from VMware vCenter Update Manager even when machine is off. reference