API控制VM虚拟机（VM Workstation or VM Server）

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.

Of course you also can find other language wrapper for VMRun, such as VMRun-Python.

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.

3 VMRun command usage

Vmrun /?

4 examples

@echo off

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%

set vmImage="D:\VMRun\VMrun_Test\Windows XP Professional.vmx"

set vmtype=ws

set guestuser=AAA

set guestpassword=AAA

set snapshotname=snapshot1

set hostsharedfolder=d:\share

set guestnewfolder=c:\share

echo revert to snapshot

vmrun -t %vmtype% revertToSnapshot %vmimage% %snapshotname%

echo start vm without gui

vmrun -t %vmtype% -gu %guestuser% -gp %guestpassword% start %vmImage% nogui

echo run notpad.exe in vm

rem vmrun -t %vmtype% -gu %guestuser% -gp %guestpassword% runprograminguest %vmimage% -activeWindow "c:\windows\system32\notepad.exe"

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%

echo create one new folder in VM

vmrun -t %vmtype% -gu %guestuser% -gp %guestpassword% createDirectoryInGuest %vmimage% %guestnewfolder%

echo copy files from the host to VM

vmrun -t %vmtype% -gu %guestuser% -gp %guestpassword% copyFileFromHostToGuest %vmimage% %hostsharedfolder%\* %guestnewfolder%

echo check whether the file is exist in VM

vmrun -t %vmtype% -gu %guestuser% -gp %guestpassword% fileExistsInGuest %vmimage% %guestnewfolder%\test.bat

echo run script in VM

vmrun -t %vmtype% -gu %guestuser% -gp %guestpassword% runProgramInGuest %vmimage% %guestnewfolder%\test.bat

echo copy files from VM to the host

vmrun -t %vmtype% -gu %guestuser% -gp %guestpassword% copyFileFromguestTohost %vmimage% %guestnewfolder%\test2.txt %hostsharedfolder%

echo capture VM screen

vmrun -t %vmtype% -gu %guestuser% -gp %guestpassword% captureScreen %vmimage% %hostsharedfolder%\resultscreen.png

5 Generally, we can use VMRUN to implement software automation testing.

6 one issue

vmrun quotes each argument it passes to the guest

so if you want to install msi in guest OS, you can use below workaround:

echo C:\Windows\system32\msiexec.exe /i C:\app.msi > C:\sourcebatch.bat
vmrun -T ws -gu USERNAME -gp PASSWORD copyFileFromHostToGuest "C:\VMs\VM1\VM1.vmx" "C:\sourcebatch.bat" "C:\destbatch.bat"

vmrun -T ws -gu USERNAME -gp PASSWORD runProgramInGuest "C:\VMs\VM1\VM1.vmx" cmd.exe "/c C:\destbatch.bat"

vmrun -T ws -gu USERNAME -gp PASSWORD deleteFileInGuest "C:\VMs\VM1\VM1.vmx" "C:\destbatch.bat"

Reference (Using vmrun runProgramInGuest with Windows Installer (MSI) packages) (http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/vmroyale/2009/04/23/using-vmrun-runprograminguest-with-windows-installer-msi-packages )

 

完！