<!--[endif]-->
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 一般地，我们可以通过API来控制VM，实现软件测试的全自动化。
6 reference
使用runprograminVM来在VM中自动安装软件时注意：http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/vmroyale/2009/04/23/using-vmrun-runprograminguest-with-windows-installer-msi-packages
完！