Virtual Machine Options Tab : Power Settings Panel
Power Settings Panel
Choose: VM > Settings > Options > Power
These settings affect what Workstation does with a specific virtual machine when you start the application.
Power Options Section
The options in this section are fairly self-explanatory. Take the following considerations into account, however, before changing the default settings:
•
Power on after opening this virtual machine — In order to change a configuration setting for a virtual machine, you need to open but usually not power on the virtual machine. If you select this option, you will not have an opportunity to change configuration settings after you open the virtual machine, since it powers on immediately.
•
Enter full screen mode after powering on — In full screen mode, the virtual machine display fills the screen, so you no longer see the borders of the Workstation window. To leave full screen mode, click the Restore icon on the full screen toolbar.
•
Close after powering off or suspending — Closing a virtual machine removes the tab for that machine from the main window.
•
Report battery information to guest — If you plan to run a virtual machine on a laptop in full screen mode, selecting this check box enables you to determine when the battery is running low. This check box is available only for Workstation 6 virtual machines.
Power Controls Section
The controls in this section enable you to specify what sort of power operation occurs when you click the power buttons on the Workstation toolbar. The behavior that you select is displayed in a tooltip that you see when you place your mouse pointer over the button in the toolbar.
Take the following considerations into account, however, before changing these settings:
•
Power Off/Shut Down Guest — If this button is set to Power Off, it turns off the active virtual machine like the power button on a hardware PC. The virtual machine is abruptly powered off, with no consideration for work in progress.
If you choose Shut Down Guest, the VMware Tools service sends a shut down signal to the guest operating system and runs a script in the guest. An operating system that recognizes this signal shuts down gracefully.
•
Suspend/Suspend Guest — If you choose Suspend Guest, the VMware Tools service runs a script that does one of the following:
•
On Windows guests, if the virtual machine is configured to use DHCP, this script releases the IP address of the virtual machine.
•
On Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris guests, this script stops networking for the virtual machine.
•
Power On/Start Up Guest — If you choose Start Up Guest, the VMware Tools service runs a script in the guest operating system whenever you power on the virtual machine or resume it. If the virtual machine is resumed, this script does one of the following:
•
On Windows guests, if the virtual machine is configured to use DHCP, this script renews the IP address of the virtual machine.
•
On Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris guests, this script starts networking for the virtual machine.
•
Reset/Restart Guest — You can configure this button to work the same way as a reset switch, so that it resets the virtual machine abruptly, with no consideration for work in progress. Or you can set it to send a restart signal to the guest operating system. In this case, the VMware Tools service runs a script before shutting down and another script when starting up. The virtual machine shuts down gracefully and restarts.
VMware Tools Scripts for Power States
When you install VMware Tools in the guest operating system, some default scripts are included. You can configure the power control buttons in the Workstation toolbar (Power On, Suspend, Resume, Power Off) to use “guest” options (also called a soft power options), such as Shut Down Guest for the Power Off button. If you do so, then when you click a power button, one or more of the default scripts are run.
To find the location of the scripts, in the guest operating system, open the VMware Tools Control Panel:
•
In Windows guests, right-click the Tools icon in the guest’s system tray, and choose Open VMware Tools.
•
In UNIX guests, open a terminal window, become the root user (su -) and enter:
vmware-toolbox &
If you want to create a custom script instead of using the default one, see the VMware Workstation User’s Manual and the online help for VMware Tools.