VMware Player - Running as a Service

Question

Is it possible to run VMware player as a Windows Service so that a user does not have to be logged in to have the player running?

Solution 1

Vmware Server is the correct tool for running a VM in the background, not Vmware Player.

Solution 2

Sorry for the late responce with this. I was trying to figure this out today. I came across this answer, figured I let SF know.

You can actually ...

• Add this to your VMX config file to set VMWare Player not show the UI:

  msg.noOk = "TRUE"

• Get instsrv.exe from a Windows Server Resource Kit to create your own service

• On Startup have a batch file call the service you just made

Step-by-step instructions can be found here:

http://research.stowers-institute.org/dct/docs/admin/VMwarePlayerService.htm

Solution 3

I know this is an old question, but I searched all over the internet for a solution to this and I couldn't find anything quite as comprehensive as what I'd like to share.

Yes, it's possible to use vmware player as a service for Linux (there's a separate answer for Windows); it's easy and there's no reason I can think of not to do it. It's especially great for hosting a headless server from a headless server.

The other VMware-oriented choice, VMware Server, is deprecated and the only other $0 choice I know of is VirtualBox. If you like that better than VMWare Player, more power to you, but I know VMWare Player and I don't see a reason not to use a well-supported path to get what I want.

Presumably you'll want it to run under a non-root account and start up and shut down at the standard service startup/shutdown times. If that's the case, then here's how to configure it:

• Get the daemon package (usually not installed by default):

  apt-get install daemon
  

• Download VMware Player and VMware VIX from vmware.com and install them to get the VM engine and VIX's vmrun (command-line control of vm execution) binary.

• Add the service to the startup by creating /etc/init.d/<vm_server_name>. It could look something like this:

  #! /bin/bash
  ### BEGIN INIT INFO
  # Provides:          vm_server_name
  # Required-Start:    $named $remote_fs $syslog
  # Required-Stop:     $named $remote_fs $syslog
  # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
  # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
  # Short-Description: My Server VM
  # Description:       Virtual Machine instance of My Server
  ### END INIT INFO
  
  PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin
  VM="/path/to/vmx_file.vmx"
  USER_TO_RUN_UNDER="username"
  
  if [[ "$USER" == "$USER_TO_RUN_UNDER" ]]; then
    USER_FLAG=""
  else
    USER_FLAG="--user=$USER_TO_RUN_UNDER"
  fi
  
  case "$1" in
      start)
          daemon $USER_FLAG -- vmrun -T player start "$VM" nogui &>/dev/null &
          ;;
      stop)
          vmrun -T player suspend "$VM" &>/dev/null
          while [[ "$(vmrun -T player list | grep -o "$VM")" == "$VM" ]]; do
            sleep 1
          done
          ;;
      *)
          echo "Usage: $0 start|stop" >&2
          exit 3
          ;;
  esac
  

• Make the script runnable:

  chmod a+x /etc/init.d/vm_server_name
  

• Add the script to the standard linux service startup/shutdown runlevels. The numbers ensure that it is one of the last things started and the first to be shut down:

  update-rc.d vm_server_name defaults 99 01
  

Notes:

• You'll probably need to 'sudo' all the commands as you're modifying root-owned files.
• I put a loop in so that on shutdown the script doesn't return to the OS until it has completely suspended the guest OS. I don't know if that's needed or not, but it seemed like a good idea. It will definitely slow down shutdown of the host OS, but it is worth it in my opinion.
• If you need to interact with the local GUI of the guest OS, suspend the server by running /etc/init.d/vm_server_name stop and then start it locally using the VMware player GUI. After finishing, suspend it and run /etc/init.d/vm_server_name start to start the headless instance again.

Comments

[Chris_K]

(and is also free)

[JamesBarnett]

Not strictly true. People all over the net are running VMWare Player as a service.

[Rob Moir]

@JamesBarnett people do lots of things that aren't "ideal" - go for a drive and watch how others behave on the roads if you don't believe me. The fact that you can 'bodge' VMWare player into running as a service doesn't alter the fact that VMWare server is the intended tool for that job.

[JamesBarnett]

Maybe depends on the use case. If you want to run a VM unattended because you want a cheap VMWare Server then I agree with you. However the statement "the correct tool for running a VM in the background" is overly broad. In my case, I wanted to run linux side-by-side with Windows using Unity mode and not have to worry with seeing the VMWare Player UI. Also Windows is overly found closely binding GUIs with background processes. A central part of computer history is being able to hack a something to do what you want. The tool isn't wrong, you just need to know it's limitations.

[Zoredache]

OTOH, keep in mind that this site is about professional sysadmining.

[JamesBarnett]

@Zoreache LOL. Runnung a VM in the background is a built-in feature to VMWare Workstation since atleast version 6.

[Sirber]

vmware server is deprecated and has a low "vm hw version"

[Zoredache]

If Vmware player, and Virtual box are the only thing you came up with on Linux, then you aren't searching very hard. KVM and Xen are the preferred tools these days.

[David Gladfelter]

Oops, I didn't see the word 'Windows' in the question.

[David Gladfelter]

hmm, on second thought I think windows wasn't mentioned in the question when I answered it. Could be wrong...

[Roy]

-1 Technically, the question is whether VMware Player can be run in the background, not which alternatives are available that may or may not be more ideal.

[user1734102]

last link is broken