Automating VMWare or VirtualPC

Automating VMWare or VirtualPC

"I'm currently experimenting with build script, and since I have an ASP.net Web Part under source control, my build script should do that at the end:

Grab the ""naked"" Windows 2003 IIS VMWare or Virtual PC Image from the Network
Boot it up
Copy the Files from the Build Folder to the Server
Install it
Do whatever else is needed

I have never tried automating a Virtual Machine, but I saw that both VMWare and Virtual Server offer automation facilities. While I cannot use Virtual Server (Windows XP Home :-(), Virtual PC works.

Does anyone here have experience with either VMWare Server or Virtual PC 2007 SP1 in terms of automation?

Which one is better suited (I run windows, so the Platform-independence of VMWare does not count) and easier to automate?"

Asked by: Guest | Views: 349

Total answers/comments: 3

Comments display order:

Guest [Entry]

"With VMWare, there is the Virtual Machine Automation APIs (VIX API). You can find the reference guide here. It works with VMWare Server and WorkStation, but AFAIK it's not available for ESX Server.

From the main page for VIX:

The VIX API allows you to write
scripts and programs that automate
virtual machine operations. The API is
high-level, easy to use, and practical
for both script writers and
application programmers. It runs on
VMware Server and Workstation
products, both Windows and Linux.
Bindings are provided for C, Perl, and
COM (Visual Basic, VBscript, C#)."

Guest [Entry]

Use https://github.com/dblock/vmwaretasks rather than the raw VixCOM API if you're going to do this in C#.

Guest [Entry]

VirtualBox also has API's for automating their VM's.