9.0

VMware, Inc. 17

Using vmrun to Control Virtual Machines

Forcommandsthatrequireanenvironmentvariable,youcansetitfirst,orexportitformultiplecommands:

vmrun -gu <user> -gp <pass> runProgramInGuest SUSE/SUSE.vmx "DISPLAY=:0 /usr/bin/salesgui"

vmrun -gu <user> -gp <pass> runProgramInGuest SUSE/SUSE.vmx "export REL=7; /opt/cmd1; /opt/cmd2"

SettingtheguestenvironmentwithguestEnvrequiresrootpermissiononLinux,becausethechangeaffects

subsequentcommandsissuedbyotherusers:

vmrun -T ws -gu root -gp <rootpass> writeVariable SUSE/SUSE.vmx guestEnv SRC tmp.example.com:1666

ListprocessesinaLinuxguest,andendtheprocessnumbered8192:

vmrun -T ws -gu <user> -gp <pass> listProcessesInGuest Ubuntu/Ubuntu.vmx

vmrun -T ws -gu <user> -gp <pass> killProcessInGuest Ubuntu/Ubuntu.vmx 8192

RunaPerlscriptonaLinuxguesttoremoveDOS‐stylecarriagereturnsfromafile:

vmrun -T ws -gu <user> -gp <pass> runProgramInGuest Ubuntu/Ubuntu.vmx /usr/bin/perl -e

"open(FILE, '>/tmp/unix.txt'); while (<>) { s/\r\n/\n/ ; print FILE}" /tmp/dos.txt

RunaPerlscriptonaWindowsguesttoinsertDOS‐stylecarriagereturnsinafile:

vmrun -T ws -gu <user> -gp <pass> runProgramInGuest WinXP\WinXP.vmx C:\cygwin\bin\perl.exe -e

"open(FILE, ‘>C:\dos.txt’); while (<>) { s/\n/\r\n/ ; print FILE}" C:\unix.txt

RunaprograminaLinuxvirtualmachineonanESX/ESXihost:

vmrun -T esx -h 10.0.1.8 -u root -p <pass> -gu <user> -gp <userpass> runProgramInGuest

"[datastore1] RHEL4/RHEL4.vmx" /usr/X11R6/bin/xclock -display :0

Guest to Host File Operations

Tocopyafilefromthehosttoaguest,theusermusthavewritepermissiononthedestination:

vmrun -gu <user> -gp <pass> copyFileFromHostToGuest Ubuntu\Ubuntu.vmx C:\Temp\img.db /tmp/img.db

Tocopyafilefromaguesttothehost,theusermusthavereadpermissiononthesourcefile:

vmrun -gu <user> -gp <pass> copyFileFromGuestToHost Ubuntu\Ubuntu.vmx /home/<user>/addr addr.txt

Beforesharingfolders,youmustenablethemwiththeenabledSharedFolderscommand,orbyselecting

VM>Settings>Options>SharedFolders>Enabledintheuserinterface.OnLinuxguests,the/mnt/hgfs

directoryisavailableforsharing,butyoucanuseadifferentdirectoryforsharedfolders.

ToshareafolderonaWi

ndowshostwithaparticularLinuxguest:

vmrun -T ws addSharedFolder Ubuntu\Ubuntu.vmx <sharedFolderName> C:\Share

Sharedfoldersarewritablebydefault.Tomakeasharedfolderread‐onlyortodeletethesharedfolder:

vmrun -T ws setSharedFolderState Ubuntu\Ubuntu.vmx <sharedFolderName> C:\Share readonly

vmrun -T ws removeSharedFolder Ubuntu\Ubuntu.vmx <sharedFolderName>

Guest Variables and Environment

Fromthehost,setaguestvariableontwovirtualmachines:

vmrun writeVariable WindowsXP/WindowsXP.vmx guestVar vmstartdate 21April2011

vmrun writeVariable Ubuntu10/Ubuntu10.vmx guestVar vmstartdate 21April2011

Ontheguestoperatingsystems,readtheguestvariablethatyoujustset:

> vmware-rpctool.exe "info-get vmstartdate"

$ vmware-rpctool "info-get vmstartdate"

Fromthehost,setaguestenvironmentvariableonaLinuxvirtualmachines,andverifybywritingthe

environmentvariablesintoatemporaryfile:

OTEOnWindows7andVista,onlytheAdministratoraccountcanusecopyFileFromHostToGuestand

deleteFileInGuesttowriteanddeletefilesinC:\andsystemfolders,orusecreateDirectoryInGuest

anddeleteDirectoryInGuesttomodifysystemdirectories.Regularusers,eventhosewithadministrator

privilege,cannotperformtheseoperations.