HAS ANYONE TRIED VMWARE GUEST CONSOLE FLING?

This seems interesting and is listed as a popular one! So we may have a solution on automation provided we can use powershell and script it ourselves.

Now when I say automation I mean the following –

1. Change ips (or potentially change ips for vms that may move from one subnet to another – think of failover)
2. Updating VM patches or initiating a download and rollover restarts
3. Updating any registry changes etc.
4. Updating any anitvirus patches or any monitoring tools etc.

We can do this all by ourselves using the vmware guest console. Some features of it are as follows.

• Task Manager

 

• List processes running in the Guest
• Start new programs in the Guest
• End running processes in the Guest

Mass Deployment

• Copy programs or scripts to multiple guests and execute them
• Useful for things such as antivirus installation, agent deployment, test deployment etc.

All of the above operations can be performed on:

• a single VM, or
• all the VMs on a host, or
• all the VMs on all connected hosts

File Explorer

1. Provides an interface to access and manage the Guest file system
2. Copies files from host to guest and vice-versa
3. Copies files between guests running on any machine
4. Also supports other basic file system operations like delete, rename, etc.

Snapshot Manager

1. Displays a comprehensive TREE and LIST view of snapshots on all VMs on all connected hosts
2. Supports snapshot operations like Create, Delete and Revert with a single user action

• on a single VM
• or all the VMs on a host
• or on all the VMs on all connected hosts

Mass operations like “delete” can be performed on dynamically selected group of snapshots based on criteria like snapshot names, creation time, power state etc.

VM Manager

• Displays vital statistics of GuestOS like OS type/version, IP address, tools build number, guest uptime, logged-in user, etc.
• Displays vital statistics of VM like power state, CPU count, memory, hardware version, storage path, etc.
• Dynamic teaming allows mass power operations, deployment and snapshot operations on VMs from different hosts/products.

Inventory

• All the information displayed in the VM Manager, Snapshot Manager and Task Manager can be saved for inventory purposes.

Now not everything can be this good to be true – well the problem is the software hasn’t been updated for 3 years and works on esxi 5.1 but throws a MKS error. Another issue is that it actually can connect to ESXi 5.1 but only if we disable “Config.Defaults.security.host.ruissl” in the Advanced Settings of ESXi. But if you wanted to simply run scripts remotely on those vms – then this works just fine.

You can download the VGC here.

Please comment if you like.