VMware vSphere SDKs and Tools 6.7

8.0 7.0 6.7 6.5

Powering Virtual Machines On and Off

You can start, reboot, stop, and suspend virtual machines by using
vmware-cmd
.
You must supply a value for the
powerop_mode
 flag, which can be
soft
 or
hard
.
You must have the current version of VMware Tools installed and running in the guest operating system to use a
soft
 power operation.
  • Soft power operations - When you specify
    soft
     as the
    powerop_mode
     value, the result of the call depends on the operation.
    Operation
    Result
    Stop
    vmware-cmd
     attempts to shut down the guest operating system and powers off the virtual machine.
    Reset
    vmware-cmd
     attempts to shut down the guest operating system and reboots the virtual machine.
    Suspend
    vmware-cmd
     attempts to run a script in the guest operating system before suspending the virtual machine.
  • Hard power operations -
    vmware-cmd
     immediately and unconditionally shuts down, resets, or suspends the virtual machine.
The following examples illustrate how to use
vmware-cmd
.
  • Start - Use the
    start
     option to power on a virtual machine or to resume a suspended virtual machine. The
    powerop_mode
    , either
    hard
     or
    soft
    , is required. 
    vmware-cmd -H <vc_system> -U <user> -P <password> --vihost <esx_host> /vmfs/volumes/Storage2/testvm/testvm.vmx start soft
  • Reset - When you reset the virtual machine with the
    soft powerop_mode
    , which is the default mode, the guest operating system is shut down before the reset.
    If VMware Tools is not currently installed on the virtual machine, you can perform only a hard reset operation.
    1. Check that VMware tools is installed so that you can reset the virtual machine with the default
      powerop_mode
      , which is
      soft
      . 
      vmware-cmd -H <vc_system> -U <user> -P <password> --vihost <esx_host> /vmfs/volumes/Storage2/testvm/testvm.vmx gettoolslastactive
      See Retrieving Virtual Machine Attributes.
    2. Use the reset option to shut down and restart the virtual machine. 
      vmware-cmd -H <vc_system> -U <user> -P <password> --vihost <esx_host> /vmfs/volumes/Storage2/testvm/testvm.vmx reset soft
  • Suspend - You have two options for suspending a virtual machine.
    • The
      suspend
       option with the
      hard powerop_mode
       unconditionally shuts down a virtual machine. 
      vmware-cmd -H <vc_system> -U <user> -P <password> --vihost <esx_host> /vmfs/volumes/Storage2/testvm/testvm.vmx suspend hard
    • The
      suspend
       option with the
      soft powerop_mode
       runs scripts that result in a graceful shut-down of the guest operating system and shuts down the virtual machine. VMware Tools must be installed for
      soft powerop_mode
      . 
      vmware-cmd -H <vc_system> -U <user> -P <password> --vihost <esx_host> /vmfs/volumes/Storage2/testvm/testvm.vmx suspend soft

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