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Table Of Contents
VMware Server User’s Guide
102 VMware, Inc.
Youcanpassstringstoavirtualmachine’sguestoperatingsysteminoneoftwoways:
placingthestringinthevirtualmachine’sconfigurationfileorpassingthestringtothe
guestfromthecommandline.
Usethisfeatureonlyifyouhaveagoodunderstandingofascriptinglanguage(for
example,PerlorNetShell)andknowhowtomodifysystemstartupscripts.
Passing a String in a Configuration File
Placeastringinthevirtualmachine’sconfiguration(.vmx)filebysettingthestringto
themachine.idparameter.Forexample,youcansetthisstring:
machine.id = "Hello World."
Followingisanexampleofportionsoftwoconfigurationfilesthatpointtothesame
virtualdisk.Eachconfigurationfilecontainsitsownuniquestringforthemachine.id
parameter.
config_file_1.vmxcontains:
ide0:0.present = TRUE
ide0:0.fileName = "my_common_virtual_hard_drive.vmdk"
machine.id = "the_string_for_my_first_vm"
config_file_2.vmxcontains:
ide0:0.present = TRUE
ide0:0.fileName = "my_common_virtual_hard_drive.vmdk"
machine.id = "the_string_for_my_second_vm"
Topreventastringfrombeingpassedfromthehosttotheguestthroughtheservice,
setthefollowinglineinyourvirtualmachine’sconfigurationfile:
isolation.tools.getMachineID.disable = "TRUE"
Passing a String in a Startup Command
Ratherthansettingthemachine.idparameterintheconfigurationfile,youcanpass
thestringtotheguestoperatingsystemfromthecommandlinewhenyoupoweron
thevirtualmachine.Followingisanexampleofastartupcommand(enteredonone
line):
“C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Server\vmware -s 'machine.id=Hello World'
C:\Virtual Machines\win2000\win2000.vmx”
Usethismethodtodeployvirtualmachinesonanetworkusingacommon
configurationfilewhileprovidingeachmachinewithitsownuniqueidentity.