VMWare Server Console 2.0

I just upgraded VMWare server to version 2.0.2 on a Linux machine. THEN I realized that the friendly folks at VMWare had taken most of what I knew about connecting to a virtual machine via the VMWare console and tossed it out in the waste bin.

The first clue was when the old VMWare console application, the one you used to be able to install in the normal way you install other windows apps, wouldn't let me connect any more. What exactly is "501 Global command GLOBAL server to non-host agent targets not supported" supposed to mean to me anyway? Well? VMWare? Are you trying to be as obtuse with your error messages as your buddies in Redmond? If so, then mission accomplished!!

So I relented, and read enough of the manual to realize that the whole remote console in VMWare server is now rewritten as some kind of web-browser based monster. I knew that I had set values for the http and https ports, 8222 and 8333 respectively, when I ran the vmware-configure script. I also knew that I would need to allow inbound access to those ports in the Linux firewall (iptables) configuration, so I had already added:
-A INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW -m tcp --dport 8222 -j ACCEPT
-A INPUT -p tcp -m state --state NEW -m tcp --dport 8333 -j ACCEPT
What I didn't know is that using the web-browser based VMWare console is the only way in v2.0, at least initially, to access the virtual machine guests.

Getting the web-browser based VMWare console application to show me the console was a little frustrating. VMWare still has something to fix on this part of it, but until they do, if you get a blank page on the https:/myvmwareserverbox:8333/ui page:
1. Accept the SSL certificate
2. Reload/refresh the page (ctrl + F5) over and over until the login prompt finally shows up.

But wait, there's more!!!
Not only do you have to throw the Ginsu knives up in the air several times before they stick in your meatloaf, you have to pull out the nonstick pan instead of cooking on a diamond ring. Ok, it has nothing to do with mid-80s "as seen on TV" cookware, but it's about that goofy.

You need to install a browser add-on to see the desktop of any virtual machine guests. Before you're given the opportunity to install the browser add-on, you have to start one of the virtual machine guests by selecting it from the inventory list and clicking the "play" button, and then switch to its console tab. THEN you're offered the chance to install the browser add-on. At this point I was getting worried that all access to my virtual machine guests would be trapped inside a web browser window/tab. However, as it turns out, the browser add-on is actually the core client binary executable application portion of the old vmware console app.

The documentation detailing how to use this client binary outside of a browser has a few holes in it. This blog post is my feeble attempt to fill a few of those holes.

1. Finding the path to the executable.
Since the VMWare console client is installed as a browser add-on, it will most likely be buried somewhere deep in the OS user's browser profile directory. This varies depending on which browser and which OS, but with a VM guest (named MyVmGuest for instance) selected in the Inventory panel of the web-browser based VMWare console app, in the "Command" panel of the "Summary" tab, there should be a link labeled "Generate Virtual Machine Shortcut." Clicking that link pops up a box that has a link labeled "Install Desktop Shortcut to MyVmGuest" Click that, answer the prompts, and then examine the target of the shortcut it creates. On a windows machine using Firefox, it's probably something ugly like:
C:\Users\whirly\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\jkbr2e9f.default\extensions\VMwareVMRC@vmware.com\plugins\vmware-vmrc.exe
That vmware-vmrc.exe IS the new console client binary!!!

2. Understanding the parameters.
I didn't look all that thoroughly in the documentation but most of what I found on VMWare's site, or elsewhere, about the parameters to vmware-vmrc.exe was in discussion thread form and required a bit of noise filtering to isolate the speculative conclusions that actually worked.

-X - Start in the client console for the VM guest in full screen mode.

-h {hostname} - this is just what it sounds like, the host name or ip address where VMWare server is running. However, unlike the old vmware console, which had a -P switch for the port, this one just takes a hostname:port combined, like myvmwareserverbox:8333

-u {username} - the username on the vmware server host that is permitted to access the vm guest. This is only useful in combination with the password switch. Note: Does not work as of v2.0.2 in combination with the -M switch.

-p {password} - supplies the password to be used with the username In the old version of vmware console, this was the -w switch. -p makes more sense I guess. Note: Does not work as of v2.0.2 in combination with the -M switch.

-M ## - this identifies the VM guest from the inventory in a simplified way (example -M 33). Unfortunately, this does not work when combined with the -u username -p password parameters.

{vm guest datastore path} - This is the last parameter and replaces the -M ## to specify a VM guest. The format of this may be documented somewhere, but I didn't end up finding that either. The forum posts I found on the topic were difficult to decipher because the brackets were translated into markup characters by the forum app. The format is:
"[standard] vmguest subdir/vmguest name.vmx"
Note: [standard] is a verbatim part of the pattern and is followed by a space. It tells VMWare Server to find the subdir and vmx file in the configured location for vmware guests.
Note: The -u and -p switches only work with this form of specifying the VM guest.

So, here's a full example of the target to a "click it and connect" shortcut (ignoring security precautions related to embedding a password):

"C:\Users\whirly\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\jkbr2e9f.default\extensions\VMwareVMRC@vmware.com\plugins\vmware-vmrc.exe" -h myvmwareserverbox:8333 -u "vmwareadmin" -p "myvmwarepw" "[standard] Old Windows 2000 Pro VM/Old Windows 2000 Pro VM.vmx"

• Note: C:\Users is the standard home directory path for Windows Vista. On XP, this part of the path would probably be C:\Documents and Settings
  
• Note: whirly, in the example, is just the username on the client machine
  
• Note: The quotes around the executable path, username, password, and vm guest datastore path are necessary if there are spaces in the corresponding parameter values. Quotes may not be necessary when there are no spaces in a parameter value, but using quotes anyway removes some guessing if something still doesn't work.
• Note: Old Windows 2000 Pro VM, in the example, is the subdirectory that appears within /var/lib/vmware/virtual_machines on the Linux machine. /var/lib/vmware/virtual_machines is the location that is set in the VMWare Server configuration as the default place to store virtual machine guests.
• Note: Old Windows 2000 Pro VM.vmx is the VM guest configuration file that appears within the Old Windows 2000 Pro VM subdirectory.
• Note: In the datastore path, [standard] is interpreted on the VMWare Server end as equivalent to the configured default path of /var/lib/vmware/virtual_machines
  

I'm sure the reasons for these changes are related to VMWare's consolidation of components between the legacy GSX product and the ESX / infrastructure product line, which ultimately allows the development team to focus on features instead of dividing attention and support between products that have bigger differences in their behavior. But, I just can't resist being a little sarcastic, so I'd like to say thanks again VMWare for changing everything. I'm looking forward to learning it all from scratch again when 3.0 is released ;)

There are other posts, similar to this one, that refer to the ESXi product line. I found a few (links below) that may help if this didn't answer your questions. Searching for the executable name vmware-vmrc might find other information on the topic too.

• This one is about Generating a Virtual Machine Shortcut for ESXi 4
• This one is also about VM Shortcuts in ESXi