VMware tips (including Fusion)

vmware-tips.md

Serial console

Forwarding as telnet

serial0.present = "TRUE"
serial0.fileType = "network"
serial0.fileName = "telnet://127.0.0.1:10001"
serial0.startConnected = "TRUE"

This worked for VMware Fusion 5. Should also work on VMware Workstation.

For this to run on ESXi, you need "good" license.

ESXi (with "bad" license)

ESXi's serial as "named pipe" is not really what it says - it's hacked so that created named pipes don't show up in VFS namespace. It only works as a bridge between two virtual machines.

CLI

ESXi

Login via SSH.

Shutdown -> "halt"

Guest

List VMIDs -> "vim-cmd vmsvc/getallvms"

Power-On -> "vim-cmd vmsvc/power.on ${vmid}

RC script

/etc/rc.local.d/local.sh