How to run Virtual Machine headless and controlling shutdown or suspend upon Mac OS X Lion Reboot or Shutdown?

[Chheda]

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as the title saying. I am looking to run Virtual Machine headless that means without GUI in order to control shutdown and suspend with the reboot and shutdown of Mac OS X. Can you give me brief idea of above mentioned things?

[Gania]

Well if you wanted to run Virtual Machine Headless which is only possible with VMware Fusion. Before you go for running Virtual Machine as headless you should run it normally in order to find out whether it is configured. You have to turn off all the unnecessary feature. Virtual Machines are supposed to connect automatically to unwanted devices. You have to add following parameters to vmx configuration file.

msg.autoAnswer = "TRUE"

• now shutdown Virtual Machine and remove entry from Virtual Machine Library and close VMware Fusion.
• After that you have to use vmrun in order to start with Virtual Machine by using nogui parameter.
• If you have done the same VMware Fusion would remain headless as it was removed from Virtual Machine Library.

[Abhiroopa]

If you wanted to start Virtual Machine with the user login then you have to perform.
You have to launch Terminal and execute below mentioned command

cd /Library/LaunchDaemons/
sudo nano com.wkz.headlessvm.plist

you have to copy and paste below mentioned code into nano.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Disabled</key>
    <false/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <false/>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.wkz.headlessvm</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmrun</string>
        <string>-T</string>
        <string>fusion</string>
        <string>start</string>
        <string>/Virtual Machines/Windows XP Professional SP3.vmwarevm/Windows XP Professional SP3.vmx</string>
        <string>nogui</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>UserName</key>
    <string>WKZ</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Now save the file and close it.
You have to verify permission by using ls -l command.

-rw-r--r--  root  wheel  com.wkz.headlessvm.plist

In case it is not displaying permission then execute ls -l below mentioned output should be generated.

sudo chown root:wheel com.wkz.headlessvm.plist
sudo chmod 644 com.wkz.headlessvm.plist

[Essien]

You have to perform below mentioned steps to perform shutdown and suspend of Virtual Machine when Mac OS X is rebooting or shutdown.

From the Home folder in the Terminal you have to create .profile and add following

export PATH=$PATH:/Scripts
 runheadless and suspendheadless are the two folders in the script folder to use Headless Virtual Machines.

runheadless:

#!/bin/bash
"/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmrun" -T fusion start "/Virtual Machines/Windows XP Professional SP3.vmwarevm/Windows XP Professional SP3.vmx" nogui

suspendheadless:

 
#!/bin/bash
"/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmrun" -T fusion suspend "/Virtual Machines/VMware Fusion/Windows XP Professional SP3.vmwarevm/Windows XP Professional SP3.vmx"

Now you will need to run below mentioned command on Terminal

mkdir /Library/StartupItems/HeadlessVM
cd /Library/StartupItems/HeadlessVM
nano HeadlessVM

Now you have to copy and paste the following command into nano file

#!/bin/sh

. /etc/rc.common

StartService () 
{
    /Scripts/runheadless
}

StopService () 
{
    /Scripts/suspendheadless
}

RunService "$1"
 Now save and close HeadlessVM file.
 Now executer HeadlessVM file
chmod a+x HeadlessVM

after that you have to created StartupParameters.plist from HeadlessVM script.

nano StartupParameters.plist

you should copy and paste following code in the nano file.

  Description     = "HeadlessVM";
  Provides        = ("Runs/Suspends Virtual Machine Headless on OS X Startup/Shutdown");
  Uses            = ("Disks");
}

There is need of checking the file permission by using following command ls –l.
It should display following output

-rwxr--r--  root  wheel  HeadlessVM
-rw-r--r--  root  wheel  StartupParameters.plist