You can use the vmrun command-line utility in VMware Fusion to control virtual machines and automate guest operations on VMware virtual machines. The vmrun utility is associated with the VIX API libraries.
The capabilities of the vmrun utility are summarized in the following sections.
Power commands control virtual machine operations. You can use power commands to start (power on), stop (power off), reset (reboot), suspend, pause, and unpause a virtual machine.
A snapshot captures the state of a virtual machine at the time of the snapshot, including all data on virtual disks. You can then use the snapshot to revert the virtual machine to its previous state. Snapshots are useful for data backup and as a placeholder for development and testing. You can use snapshot commands to list existing snapshots of a virtual machine, create a snapshot, delete a snapshot, and revert a virtual machine to its state at the time of a snapshot. Revert to snapshot does not resume running a virtual machine, even if it was running at the time of a snapshot.
Network adapter commands allow you to control the virtual network adapters associated with a virtual machine. You can use network adapter commands to list, add, update, and remove a network adapter.
Host network commands allow you to list the host virtual networks and to list, update, or remove a port forwarding configuration.
Guest operating system commands enable you to interact with a guest operating system in the following ways.
The timeout, which is the wait period for VMware Tools, is five minutes for all guest‐related commands.
General commands include commands that list all running virtual machines, upgrade the virtual machine hardware version, install VMware Tools in the guest operating system, check the current status of VMware Tools, and delete virtual machines. Also, you can clone a virtual machine to create a copy of the virtual machine.
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| No configuration is needed to use the vmrun utility on a Mac OS X, OS X, or macOS host. |
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| The vmrun command syntax can contain authentication flags, commands, and parameters. |
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| You can use authentication flags in vmrun commands to provide information required to access a system. |
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| The vmrun commands have syntax and other requirements that you must follow. |