As anyone whom reads this blog regularly knows, I’m a happy VMware Server user. In using it, I’ve come across some handy methods in administrating it and the virtual machines created with it. Without further ado, here they are!

Tip #1 – Start and stop your VMs from the command line

If your VMware server is headless and gui-less (you didn’t install a GUI did you?) it’s handy to be able to start and stop your VM processes with a command line tool over ssh. Use the vmware-cmd tool for this:

vmware-cmd /path/to/vmxfile.vmx stop <hard|soft>

or

vmware-cmd /path/to/vmxfile.vmx start

The third option is the powerop mode. ‘soft’ uses the VMware tools within the guest OS, while ‘hard’ simply powers on and off the VM without the tools.

Tip #2 – Re-install your VM Tools quickly

After upgrading your kernel on Linux-based virtual machines, you’ll also have to re-compile vmware tools’ kernel modules. Upon initial installation, you probably executed the usual:

/usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl

But did you know you can speed up the process and make it automatic by using the default options? The next time you need to recompile your tools, use this instead

/usr/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl -default

Tip #3 – Fine-grain your VM’s priority

VMware Server does not provide the flexibility of ESX, but you can get it part-way there by using the Linux scheduler to prioritize your virtual machines. By default, VS gives all vmware-vmx processes a nice value of “-10″. In Linux, processes with “-20″ have the highest priority for system resources, and “20″ have the lowest. By adjusting your busy VMs to a higher negative number (e.g. -15) and your less-intensive VMs to a higher positive number (e.g 0) you can more finely tune your server’s performance and ensure timeslices on the host are more accurately granted.

To do this, use the `renice’ command. First, find the PIDs of your vmware-vmx processes, by using `ps’:

[root@tlfvm5 ~]# ps -ef | grep vmware-vmx

root      3374     1 13 Mar18 ?        2-20:03:36 /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx -C /vmware/tlfmonitor/tlfmonitor.vmx -@ ""

root      4833     1 15 Mar18 ?        3-04:09:11 /usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx -C /vmware/DellMonitor/DellMonitor.vmx -@ ""

Then renice the appropriate PID. For example, to give the “tlfmonitor” a bit of a bump to “-12″:

renice -12 33

Like all good things, moderation is key. Start with smaller increments and note the change, then if needed bump it again. It should be noted that your reniced values will disappear as soon as the PID terminates. You can also give it a default higher priority via the .vmx file in the prority.grabbed and priority.ungrabbed directives (see http://sanbarrow.com/vmx/vmx-config-ini.html).

Tip #4 – Manage and extend your virtual disks

VMware Server comes with a tool to completely manage your .vmdk disks. The vmware-vdiskmanager tool can create, defrag, extend, and convert vmdks from one type to another. For example, to expand a vmdk from 10GB to 15GB, power off the VM and issue this command:

vmware-vdiskmanager -x 15Gb /path/to/vmdkfile.vmdk

Note that this extends the raw disk, but not the guest file system. For instance, after doing an extend in Linux on an ext3 file system, use “resize2fs” to adjust it accordingly. You may want to run the vmware-vdiskmanager command without arguments to see some help on the different options, as well as some examples.

Tip #5 – Install VMware tools from the command line

You don’t need to click “VM -> Install Vmware Tools…” on the Server Console to mount the virtual media. Do it from the command line!

vmrun installtools /path/to/vmxfile.vmx

This does precisely what clicking in the GUI does. Once this has been run from the host, go to your VM and mount up the /dev/cdrom device and find your tools RPM ready to go.

That’s it for now. Do you have any tips that are useful for other VMware Server administrators? If so, let me know!