VMWare Fusion Headless VM execution on OSX

VMWARE_FUSION.md

Symlink VMs Folder

Create symlink to where VMware Fusion stores VM images, use this symbolic path instead default spacey path. On my OSX dev machine that folder is $HOME/Virtual\ Machines.localized.

# symlink path $HOME/vms
ln -s Virtual\ Machines.localized vms

Create a folder for VMware Fusion stuff

mkdir $HOME/vmware-fusion
# add an export to .bashrc or .zshrc
export VMWARE_FUSION_HOME=$HOME/vmware-fusion

Symlink VMWare Fusion Library folder

Another symlink to VMWare Fusion's Library folder for easy access to binaries.

cd $VMWARE_FUSION_HOME
ln -s /Applications/VMware\ Fusion.app/Contents/Library lib

# add the lib folder to your PATH in .bashrc or .zshrc
export PATH=$VMWARE_FUSION_HOME/lib:$PATH

Check Setup

# vms symlink
cd $HOME
ls -al
lrwxr-xr-x    1 corbs    vms -> Virtual Machines.localized

# lib symlink
cd $VMWARE_FUSION_HOME
corbs@corbspro:~/vmware-fusion|⇒  ls -al
lrwxr-xr-x    1 corbs    lib -> /Applications/VMware Fusion.app/Contents/Library

VM script

cd $VMWARE_FUSION_HOME
mkdir bin
cd bin
# create vm script (see below) then set perms
chmod u+x vm

vm start/stop script

#!/bin/bash

function start {
  ${VMWARE_FUSION_HOME}/lib/vmrun start ~/vms/${1}.vmwarevm/${1}.vmx nogui 
}

function stop {
  ${VMWARE_FUSION_HOME}/lib/vmrun stop ~/vms/${1}.vmwarevm/${1}.vmx nogui 
}

function list {
  ${VMWARE_FUSION_HOME}/lib/vmrun list
}

function suspend {
  ${VMWARE_FUSION_HOME}/lib/vmrun suspend ~/vms/${1}.vmwarevm/${1}.vmx nogui   
}

function pause {
  ${VMWARE_FUSION_HOME}/lib/vmrun pause ~/vms/${1}.vmwarevm/${1}.vmx nogui   
}

function unpause {
  ${VMWARE_FUSION_HOME}/lib/vmrun unpause ~/vms/${1}.vmwarevm/${1}.vmx nogui   
}

function reset {
  ${VMWARE_FUSION_HOME}/lib/vmrun reset ~/vms/${1}.vmwarevm/${1}.vmx nogui   
}

function usage {
  echo "-----------------------------------------------------------------------------"
  echo "Usage - options are: start | stop | suspend | pause | unpause | reset | list"
  echo "-----------------------------------------------------------------------------"
}

if [ $# -lt 1 ]; then
  usage
  exit 1
fi

case "$1" in
    start)
        if [ $# -lt 2 ]; then
          echo "Usage: vm start [name-of-vm]"
          exit 1
        fi 
        echo "starting vm ${2}..."
        start ${2}
        ;;
    stop)
        if [ $# -lt 2 ]; then
          echo "Usage: vm stop [name-of-vm]"
          exit 1
        fi
        echo "stopping vm ${2}..."
        stop ${2}
        ;;
    suspend)
        if [ $# -lt 2 ]; then
          echo "Usage: vm suspend [name-of-vm]"
          exit 1
        fi    
        echo "suspend vm ${2}..."
        suspend ${2}
        ;;
    pause)
        if [ $# -lt 2 ]; then
          echo "Usage: vm pause [name-of-vm]"
          exit 1
        fi
        echo "pause vm ${2}..."
        pause ${2}
        ;;
    unpause)
        if [ $# -lt 2 ]; then
          echo "Usage: vm unpause [name-of-vm]"
          exit 1
        fi    
        echo "unpause vm ${2}..."
        unpause ${2}
        ;;
    reset)
        if [ $# -lt 2 ]; then
          echo "Usage: vm reset [name-of-vm]"
          exit 1
        fi        
        echo "reset vm ${2}..."
        reset ${2}
        ;;                             
    list)
        echo "listing vms..."
        list
        ;;
    *)
      usage
      exit 1
esac

Use

corbs@corbspro:~/vmware-fusion/bin|⇒  ./vm start ubuntu-dev1
starting vm ubuntu-dev1...
corbs@corbspro:~/vmware-fusion/bin|⇒  ./vm stop ubuntu-dev1
stopping vm ubuntu-dev1...

Optionally set $VMWARE_FUSION_HOME/bin on your path to run the vm script from anywhere on your box.

export PATH=$VMWARE_FUSION_HOME/lib:$VMWARE_FUSION_HOME/bin:$PATH