Zamba1
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VMware Workstation 5: How to shut down guest OS programmatically?
Hi all,
I'm currently playing around with VMware Workstation 5 on WinXP and searching for a reliable way to shut down specific or all guest operating systems programmatically. I mean a 'soft power off' that shuts down the guest OS before powering off the virtual machine. When I shut down or restart the host or doing a backup, etc., I want all VMs to shut down orderly first. It works well in the user interface, but I need an automated solution.
I already tried:
- The included vmrun tool - it works well, but it supports only a hard poweroff - it always does a hard poweroff, regardless what's configured in the vmx file.
- Some other tools that try to automate the power off/soft off by controlling the VMware user interface. This is not really a reliable solution - I don't want this.
- Found some info about the (undocumented of course) communication backdoor that VMware tools use to communicate with the host, but although this info was useful, there was no description about the other direction back to the VM and it would involve some low level coding, which is time intensive and I don't know how reliable this is.
Best solution would be of course if VMware would include a soft poweroff option in vmrun.
I know that the GSX server can do all that stuff, but switching to GSX server is currently no option.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
I'm currently playing around with VMware Workstation 5 on WinXP and searching for a reliable way to shut down specific or all guest operating systems programmatically. I mean a 'soft power off' that shuts down the guest OS before powering off the virtual machine. When I shut down or restart the host or doing a backup, etc., I want all VMs to shut down orderly first. It works well in the user interface, but I need an automated solution.
I already tried:
- The included vmrun tool - it works well, but it supports only a hard poweroff - it always does a hard poweroff, regardless what's configured in the vmx file.
- Some other tools that try to automate the power off/soft off by controlling the VMware user interface. This is not really a reliable solution - I don't want this.
- Found some info about the (undocumented of course) communication backdoor that VMware tools use to communicate with the host, but although this info was useful, there was no description about the other direction back to the VM and it would involve some low level coding, which is time intensive and I don't know how reliable this is.
Best solution would be of course if VMware would include a soft poweroff option in vmrun.
I know that the GSX server can do all that stuff, but switching to GSX server is currently no option.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
you may want to consider using shutdown.exe tools from Windows Resource
Run scheduled tasks to time the shutdown/restart on the guest OS, schedule another on Virtual Machine according to your next time.
Also this tools can be use remotely to shutdown/restart a network machine.
You can try it by getting at http://www.budja.com/shutdown/
Cheers
Run scheduled tasks to time the shutdown/restart on the guest OS, schedule another on Virtual Machine according to your next time.
Also this tools can be use remotely to shutdown/restart a network machine.
You can try it by getting at http://www.budja.com/shutdown/
Cheers
ASKER
@mcp_jon: Thanks, I saw that this forum exists but I want to know if there is any existing solution before annyoing some VMware staff. I did not find any soluition in the articles already posted there. But there are many articles there, maybe I missed the right ones.
@FanHan: Good idea about remote shutdown using the shutdown tool, but in my case the VMs running at shutdown time are not predefined/static. So I don't know their machine names or IP addresses, additionally not all are guaranteed to have a working network or they are Linux boxes.
@FanHan: Good idea about remote shutdown using the shutdown tool, but in my case the VMs running at shutdown time are not predefined/static. So I don't know their machine names or IP addresses, additionally not all are guaranteed to have a working network or they are Linux boxes.
ASKER
Any other ideas about this question?
ASKER
My closest homegrown solution to what I wanted is now doing an automated suspend/resume, which works fine (At least for single VMs, for teams it doesn't since VMware 5 does not allow to start individual VMs of a team, but shutdowns of individual VMs of a team work without problems).
Anyone else here who could help me improve that solution?
If there are no further comments, I'll keep my own solution that I have until now and will close this question in a few days.
Anyone else here who could help me improve that solution?
If there are no further comments, I'll keep my own solution that I have until now and will close this question in a few days.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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Have you tried to place this question in the VMTN, VMWARE Technology Network ??
They have their "own" staff answering questions, most helpfull for me in the past !
Best Regards !