VMWare Hardware Version and open-vm-tools

Hi all,

Just trying to understand the relation between VMWare Hardware Version and open-vm-tools. The VMware KB 1010675 explain how to do it but it does not provide too much information for Linux VM so I am trying to understand if there is any other considerations that I should take.

I copy below part of the KB details:
Before you upgrade the virtual hardware:
1.- Create a backup or snapshot of the virtual machine.
2.- Upgrade VMware Tools. On Microsoft Windows virtual machines, if you upgrade the virtual hardware before you upgrade VMware Tools, the virtual machine might lose its network settings.
3.- Verify that the virtual machine is healthy and available, with no inaccessible virtual disks, CD-ROM or ISO images, etc.
4.- Determine the version of the virtual hardware by selecting the virtual machine from the vSphere Client or vSphere Web Client and clicking the Summary tab. The VM Version label in the Compatibility field displays the virtual hardware version.

Is there any correlation between VMWare Hardware Version and open-vm-tools? and also Redhat version and open-vm-tools? or Redhat version and VMWare Hardware Version? or there are independent of each other?

Thanks in advanced.