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Controlling VM by Script
1 VMRun
VMRun is a command line tool which is delivered with VM workstation or VM server. the tool have many sub commands to control VM, such as starting and stopping VM, creating and reverting to snapshot, run programs or scripts in VM, setting shared folder and setting environment variables in VM, creating and deleting folder and file in VM, checking and killing process in VM, taking record and capturing screen.
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Of course you also can find other language wrapper for VMRun, such as VMRun-Python.
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2 VIX API
The VIX API allows you to do the same things with VMRun, and you needn't install VM workstation or VM server, just need install VIX SDK. The VIX API allows you to automate virtual machine operations on VMware Server or VMware Workstation.
The VIX API can be accessed by C, Perl and COM.
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3 VMRun command usage
Vmrun /?
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4 examples
@echo off
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echo setting the path of vmrun.exe into the system path.
rem set path="C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation";%path%
set path="C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware VIX";%path%
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set vmImage="D:\VMRun\VMrun_Test\Windows XP Professional.vmx"
set vmtype=ws
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set guestuser=AAA
set guestpassword=AAA
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set snapshotname=snapshot1
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set hostsharedfolder=d:\share
set guestnewfolder=c:\share
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echo revert to snapshot
vmrun -t %vmtype% revertToSnapshot %vmimage% %snapshotname%
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echo start vm without gui
vmrun -t %vmtype% -gu %guestuser% -gp %guestpassword% start %vmImage% nogui
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echo run notpad.exe in vm
rem vmrun -t %vmtype% -gu %guestuser% -gp %guestpassword% runprograminguest %vmimage% -activeWindow "c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe"
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echo set the host shared folder %hostsharedfolder% for accessing in VM, you can access the shared folder by \\.host\****
vmrun -t %vmtype% -gu %guestuser% -gp %guestpassword% addSharedFolder %vmimage% hostsharedfolder %hostsharedfolder%
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echo create one new folder in VM
vmrun -t %vmtype% -gu %guestuser% -gp %guestpassword% createDirectoryInGuest %vmimage% %guestnewfolder%
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echo copy files from the host to VM
vmrun -t %vmtype% -gu %guestuser% -gp %guestpassword% copyFileFromHostToGuest %vmimage% %hostsharedfolder%\* %guestnewfolder%
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echo check whether the file is exist in VM
vmrun -t %vmtype% -gu %guestuser% -gp %guestpassword% fileExistsInGuest %vmimage% %guestnewfolder%\test.bat
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echo run script in VM
vmrun -t %vmtype% -gu %guestuser% -gp %guestpassword% runProgramInGuest %vmimage% %guestnewfolder%\test.bat
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echo copy files from VM to the host
vmrun -t %vmtype% -gu %guestuser% -gp %guestpassword% copyFileFromguestTohost %vmimage% %guestnewfolder%\test2.txt %hostsharedfolder%
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echo capture VM screen
vmrun -t %vmtype% -gu %guestuser% -gp %guestpassword% captureScreen %vmimage% %hostsharedfolder%\resultscreen.png
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5 一般地，我們可以通過API來控制VM，實現軟件測試的全自動化。
6 reference
使用runprograminVM來在VM中自動安裝軟件時注意：http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/vmroyale/2009/04/23/using-vmrun-runprograminguest-with-windows-installer-msi-packages
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完！