How do you autostart VMware Player with VM when host server restarts?

Question

The only thing I can think of to do is create a bat file that points to the VM in question that will auto start when a admin logs into the server.

The downfall to this is that if the server goes down for any reason then comes back up the VM won't start till someone logs in.

Is there a way to make VMware Player run as a service that will auto start with the server and load the corresponding VM?

I'm running the player on Server 2008R2

Answer 1

I think you are using the wrong software. VMware Player was not designed for using it in a production environment. In your place I would try to use VMware ESXi server or Microsoft Hyper-V.

Answer 2

This isn't exactly what your asking for, but I think it will accomplish the same end result.

You can create a shortcut to VMWare Player and pass it a parameter, where that parameter is the location of the VMX file. Then put that shortcut in your windows Startup folder.

For example (Target): "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMWare Player\vmplayer.exe" "C:\Virtual Machines\Serve\Serve.vmx"

I hope this is helpful