Start and stop VMWARE VPS / virtual machine guest operating system from command line

by nixCraft on June 30, 2007 · 12 comments· Last updated July 3, 2007

Vmware server comes with the nifty vmware-cmd utility. It allows an administrator to perform various operations on a virtual machine from Linux command line / shell prompt such as:

=> Stop / Start VM

=> Get VM status

=> Setup variables

=> Powerdown VM and much more

Task: Lists the virtual machines on the local server

You can list all servers and config file, enter:
# vmware-cmd -l
Output:

/nas/vms/Ubuntu/Ubuntu.vmx
/nas/vms/FreeBSD/FreeBSD.vmx
/nas/vms/OpenBSD/OpenBSD.vmx
/nas/vms/Debian4/Debian4.vmx
/nas/vms/CentOS5/CentOS5.vmx

Turn on VM / Power up VPS

Just pas start option to vmware-cmd,
# vmware-cmd /nas/vms/FreeBSD/FreeBSD.vmx start

To stop VM/VPS, enter:
# vmware-cmd /nas/vms/FreeBSD/FreeBSD.vmx stop

To reset VM/VPS, enter:
# vmware-cmd /nas/vms/FreeBSD/FreeBSD.vmx reset

To suspend VM/VPS, enter:
# vmware-cmd /nas/vms/FreeBSD/FreeBSD.vmx suspend

Find out if OpenBSD VM is on or off:
# vmware-cmd /disk2.vmware/vms/OpenBSD/OpenBSD.vmx getstate
Output:

getstate() = off

vmware-cmd offers other options, please consult VMWARE documentation for more information.

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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Sir Geek July 3, 2007 at 4:04 pm: One minor problem with your 1st command to list the VMs. The command should be vmware-cmd -l
Reply
2 vivek July 3, 2007 at 5:08 pm: Sir Geek,
Thanks for the heads up… post has been updated
Reply
3 Husain December 13, 2007 at 2:14 pm: I have installed VMWare Server 1.0.4 on RHEL5.1 64 bit version. When I try to power on a virtual machine the OS panics. I am not a linux expert so I have no idea as to how to deal with this issue. I do not have physical access to the server and remotely I was able to take a screenshot of the panic screen. The last line read “Kernel Panic – not syncing: Fatal exception”.
Your help would be highly appreciated.
Reply
4 Mark Hentov February 26, 2008 at 4:03 pm: Hmm. After a reboot vmware seems not to be running. I can’t connect or start any virtual machines.
What daemons need to be enabled with chkconfig? What modules need to load?
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5 vivek February 26, 2008 at 5:32 pm: Try
/etc/init.d/vmware start
Did you upgraded kernel? If so you need to reconfigure vmware
vmware-config.pl -d
Reply
6 Jay May 8, 2008 at 5:57 pm: Thank you!
A friends server went down due to power failure and this info helped me solve the problem.
Where can i get a complete list of such commands?
oh and by the way, you still need to change the -1 to -l (L) because had he not have seen the error we would not have been able to use the info here. Also, please let people know that the information after # vmware-cmd /this/blah/blah is the path and will be different for all users
Cheers and thanks again
Jay
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7 Phil July 28, 2008 at 2:17 pm: vmware-cmd -?
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8 Emil March 4, 2009 at 6:56 am: Hi,
I’m running VMWare on a Fedora Server, and I would like to start/stop the virtual machines withouth VNC-ing to the server, from a terminal window. The thing is that I can’t find vmware-cmd anywhere. Where can I find that?
Reply
9 rmccurdy March 11, 2010 at 1:09 pm: batch file startup
for /f “delims=” %%i IN (‘dir/s/b c:\rootwars\*.vmx’) do (
“C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Server\vmware-cmd” -v “%%i” start
)
Reply
10 Shivaji June 17, 2010 at 2:03 pm: Hi Vivek,
Thanks. This information helped me.
Reply
11 David August 12, 2010 at 2:12 pm: HI!
how can I restart a machine on vmware remotely?
I mean I have a few vpss on Vmware in my server, now I’d like to restart it remotely from my pc.
thanks:x
Reply
12 anand mb December 3, 2010 at 1:56 pm: gud one.. any dumbo can understand.. keep sharing the knowlege & god bless.
Anand MB
Bengaluru
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