VMWare Player - select snapshot?

Question

I've set up a number of snapshots in VMWare Workstation, and in order to deliver a Workshop-style training course, I want to distribute VM Player on the client machines and get them to select from the generated snapshot tree.

I'm positive this could be done in older version of VMWare Player - or am I just imagining it?

Are there any changes I could make to the VMX file as a workaround?

Any help would be appreciated, Duncan

Answer 1

I'm pretty sure Player can not do anything with snapshots. If you need snapshots then you can install VMWare Server which is also free though sometimes slightly less convenient then Player in some simple use cases.

VMWare Server only allows one snapshot per VM, so your mention of a "snapshot tree" makes me think that you are thinking about VMWare Workstation, rather than an older version of VMWare Player, as this does support multiple snapshots per VM (as do the paid for server products).

Answer 2

Another way to use snapshots is with the command-line tool vmrun that comes with Workstation, and it works even if you're using your virtual machines with Player and never run Workstation.

Answer 3

I'm pretty sure that you can't specify a snapshot to open in VMPlayer. Here is a way that might work for what you are doing:

1. Create a "baseline" VM.
2. Every place you want a "snapshot", create a linked clone.
3. Have the users open the specific "linked clone vm" that is appropriate to the current training in your workshop.

It will take up a little more disk space, but since all the clones are using only the differences in the file system from the baseline, it should be similar in size to snapshots.

Answer 4

When you start the player there's a Open folder:

Is that what you meant? You just browse where you have your image and you can open it.