Specifications

Add a Virtual Serial Port to a Virtual Machine
You can add up to four serial (COM) ports to a virtual machine. Virtual serial ports can output to physical
serial ports, files, or named pipes.
You might want to add a virtual serial port to a virtual machine to make devices such as modems and
printers available to the virtual machine. You can also use virtual ports to send debugging data from a
virtual machine to the host system or to another virtual machine.
NOTE The virtual printer feature configures a serial port to make host printers available to the guest. You
do not need to install additional drivers in the virtual machine.
Prerequisites
Power off the virtual machine.
Procedure
1 Select the virtual machine and select Player > Manage > Virtual Machine Settings.
2 On the Hardware tab, click Add.
3 In the Add Hardware wizard, select Serial Port.
4 Select where the virtual serial port sends output.
Option Description
Use a physical parallel port
Send output to a physical serial port on the host system.
Use output file
Send output to a file on the host system. Either locate an existing output
file or browse to a directory and type a filename to create a new output
file.
Output to named pipe
Set up a direct connection between two virtual machines, or a connection
between a virtual machine and an application on the host system.
5 If you selected Output to named pipe, configure the named pipe.
a (Windows host) Use the default pipe name, or type another pipe name.
The pipe name must begin with \\.\pipe\ and must be the same on both the server and the client.
For example: \\.\pipe\namedpipe
b (Linux host) Type /tmp/socket or another UNIX socket name in the first text box.
The pipe name must be the same on both the server and the client.
c To send debugging information to an application on the host system, select This end is the server
from the first drop-down menu and select The other end is an application from the second drop-
down menu.
d To send debugging information to another virtual machine, select This end is the server from the
first drop-down menu and The other end is a virtual machine from the second drop-down menu.
6 To connect the port to the virtual machine when the virtual machine powers on, select Connect at
power on.
7 Click Finish to add the virtual serial port to the virtual machine.
Getting Started with VMware Player
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