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I was reading the latest news from VMware and found an interesting entry on the announcement made on 30th of August, will let you read it here the full story but here it is the short version and why I was starting to think about it.
Let’s do things from the beginning, if you are reading the announcement you’ll see there’ a lot if information in it; VMware view 5, Horizon and in the middle-low end “Project AppBlast and Octopus”, in that paragraph VMware says:

Project Octopus will leverage data sync technology from VMware Zimbra™ and Mozy™to enable enterprise-grade collaboration and information/data sharing. Additionally, Project Octopus will offer easy integration with VMware Horizon, VMware View and Project AppBlast to create a secure enterprise cloud service. These two projects promise to dramatically simplify the access and sharing of information across people and mobile devices, contributing to the Connected Enterprise.

Now if you read it straight ahead it seems just another way to “push” people and technology from the “local”  to the “cloud” realm but, I wondering, why they speak about Zimbra and Mozy and most of all about do data sync with them and top of everything , what the hell is Mozy? I’m sorry but I’m not one of those smart guy with a VMware shirt that present sessions in Las Vegas so, excuse my lack of knowledge here.
So Mozy could be found here and from their site they offer, at the moment, two solution standard and pro of a product that is basically an online data synchronization tool (aka network backup to their datacenter or if you want backup in the cloud).
From their site:

Traditional backup solutions can be expensive and take weeks to implement, leaving your business vulnerable to revenue and productivity loss.

And

Hard drive crashes, spilled drinks, and accidental file deletion can occur at any time and put your company’s future in jeopardy. In fact, 93% of all companies that suffer significant data loss close down within 5 years!

Wow one cannot says their marketing is aggressive! (please smile here).
So let’s do a recap, I’m the biggest name or one of the two around in the virtualization arena, I am pushing things over and over with server virtualization desktop virtualization mobile virtualization, I have a strong and reliable solution for cloud, private, public or hybrid that could be, I have acquired a big competitor in the email solutions space (zimbra) so chances are that I am tryting, at some point to offer a all-in-one solution to my customers or that I am trying to be stronger , not the enterprise server market share where I am already doing a good job, but the SMB market share.
So what I miss here? Got the Servers, got the desktop I can manage your applications and your mobile phones what else? Yes you got my same thought the backup. VDR is a good solution as we all know but is not comparable when we go down through restore the single item quickly even less if we’re talking about emails or attchments. Zimbra got is own data archiving systems but again is locally  or at least it is not reliable as it could be a real backup solution and is, obviously limited to what Zimbra may handle.
So at the very end I am asking myself again is Vmware prepare itself to enter seriously in the backup arena? If so Mozy will be only the edge of the solution “iceberg”?

This morning Vmware released Esxi5 and immediately the vWorld  start to talk, try,discusse,post and everything else you could imagine related to vSphere.
One of the tweet I saw from  @XXX was about the fact that esxcfg was gone with vpshere5, the post was this:

“I’m quite disappointed esxcfg- comdlets are gone in #vSphere5 but i hear @alanrenouf has a great table to help the transition”

I simply jumped on my seat wondering if this was true or not, so went through the official documentation and found this:

“vSphere 5.0 introduces a new command-line interface (CLI). A challenge long faced by vSphere administrators has been the need to work with many different command-line tools, each with a unique syntax.
In addition, different commands were needed to manage a host locally versus remotely. vSphere 5.0 marks the beginning of efforts by VMware to standardize on a single CLI for both local and remote administration, as well as to help reduce the overall number of CLI tools.”

At least from what I read this only means that VMware decided to offer a single standard to the administrative cmd-lets, but not means necessarily removed (yet) the “old” tools. For another point of view on this look at this article by Duncan ”Thank You Lord he exist and post blog” Epping on Esxcli in vSphere5.
Now to answer, even if indirectly to the mr. XXX post, esxcfg is still alive and you may use it from local shell as from ssh session as well. Of course now you have to consider that the use of esxcfg- is deprecated and wherever is possible you should use esxcli.
Digging in the esxi 5 under the “/sbin” directory you may find all the old esxcfg commands that are:

esxcfg-advcfg
esxcfg-ipsec
esxcfg-resgrp
esxcfg-vswitch
esxcfg-dumppart
esxcfg-module
esxcfg-route
esxcfg-fcoe
esxcfg-mpath
esxcfg-scsidevs
esxcfg-hwiscsi
esxcfg-nas
esxcfg-swiscsi
esxcfg-info
esxcfg-nics
esxcfg-vmknic
esxcfg-init
esxcfg-rescan
esxcfg-volume

but in the same place you’ll find to the new esxcli as well, now I am not going to go through an extensive explanation of the escli new commands, I’m sure there will be plenty of bloggers/technicians that will cover the argument in a way I would never been able to but, just to make some examples:
Let see the old way to obtain information like ip address or nic infos (assuming you are working on a local shell or on a remote shell like ssh):

If I work with esxcfg I should write something like that :

esxcfg-vmknic –l

that would give me something like:

Interface  Port Group/DVPort   IP Family IP Address   Netmask         Broadcast       MAC Address       MTU     TSO MSS   Enabled Type
vmk0       Management Network  IPv4      8.0.0.201    255.255.255.0   8.0.0.255       00:0c:29:e6:ca:62 1500    65535     true    STATIC

Or if I need to be specific about the HW of the nic:

esxcfg-nics –l

and would have an output similar to this:

Name    PCI           Driver      Link Speed     Duplex MAC Address       MTU    Description
vmnic0  0000:02:01.00 e1000       Up   1000Mbps  Full   00:0c:29:e6:ca:62 1500   Intel Corporation 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper)

Now with the new esxcli I simply have to write:

esxcli network ip interface ipv4 get

to obtain a result similar to this:

Name  IPv4 Address  IPv4 Netmask   IPv4 Broadcast  Address Type  DHCP DNS
—-  ————  ————-  ————–  ————  ——–
vmk0   8.0.0.201     255.255.255.0  8.0.0.255        STATIC            false

or

esxcli network ip interface list

and obtain something similar to this:

vmk0
Name: vmk0
MAC Address: 00:0c:29:e6:ca:62
Enabled: true
Portset: vSwitch0
Portgroup: Management Network
VDS Name: N/A
VDS Port: N/A
VDS Connection: -1
MTU: 1500
TSO MSS: 65535
Port ID: 16777219

quite simple and more powerful uh?

so eager to know more about esxcli? take a look at this great article from William Lam (again thanks to Duncan Epping for the link in his article).

for those who isntead like more the “official” documenation here’s the link (thanks to @GreggRobertson5 for the suggestion)

From: Windowsboy

To: Mom

Sent: August 24 2011

Dear Mom, it’s been a while since last time I wrote you, the PC you gave me worked so well till this morning. I swear MOM I didnt’ use to visit those perv website, I am serious guy Mom I do not do such things and no, Mom I didnt’poured any liquid substance on the laptop (you pervs do not think immediatly at something weird). The fact is, Mom, that this morning I simply downloaded a fantastic software and decided to install it when, all of sudden on the screen popped out a warning that says:

setup cannot open the registry key named Unknown/Component/[Random Numbers].

As first reaction, Mom, I was surprised by the evil popup, but as you always rember me ” lillone, calm down, back to the basic , think darling use that micro brain the nature gave you…” (and honestly Mom I always suspected that in that sentence you want to tell me something about my brain…but really still don’t have a clue on what is it).

So Mom I did what you always told me and so tried other 1500 times than downloaded other 320 software and tried all of them but the evil popup continue to comeback, I am now desperate Mom, please  help me!

WindowsBoy

From:Mom

To:Windows(Icant’beliveyou’remyson)boy
Sent: August 24 2011

Dear boy,

How many times I said you should pay more attention when Mom speaks? You make me desire to not reply at all at Your mail, even when You write me just because You fall in an issue. The, so-called, evil popup boy is related to the fact that the laptop I gave You it is not anymore in the perfect state it was, I’ll not go down in asking what You do when You’re connected to the Internet at office or why if I dig inside it I am sure to find more than 30 illegal software that were mysteriously installed by some(you)one, so here the explanation and the answer:

This error:

setup cannot open the registry key named Unknown/Component/[Random Numbers].

Is only shown when registry keys do not have the right permission basically missing the Administrator user in the ACL, the “Unknown” key is in fact the one in:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\

.obviously boy you are logged in as Administrator, right? As it happens some setup can mess up the registry permissions and your “fantastic” (do not want to know details please) installer is no exception.

As first help I would enter the following line in Command Prompt , it fix the problem for most people,

secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\inf\defltbase.inf /db defltbase.sdb /verbose

If it doesn’t work for you as well, follow the second method below.

Download SubInAcl, a command line tool from Microsoft that enables administrators to obtain security information about files, registry keys services, etc. It will install to Program Files folder, you may copy SUBINACL.EXE file to /Windows/System 32 folder or leave where it is. Boy please, remeber that if your laptop is x64bit so it will be installed in the “Program Files(x86)” directory so do not write me back whining that you’re not able to find the exe once installed.

Now create a new notepad and paste the following code in it:

subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /setowner=administrators
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /setowner=administrators
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /setowner=administrators
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
Exit

Save the notepad file with the name you want, I personally suggest “loveUmom” as name and change the extension to cmd or bat, the complete name will become “loveUmom.bat” . Run this file as administrator, you’re on Windows aren’t you boy?
The process will now take several minutes,  do NOT close the Window what may come. Once the process is complete, the command line window will automatically close and you can then install successfully your pervy software.
Mom

I was playing a bit with a newly VDR and found myself in a little curious issue. Question “how do I change the keyboard setting from the standard US to italian?”

Well the answer is quite simple, since this VM is a CentOS just login  and use system-config-keyboard command….but hey wait!

first of all how I can log into the VM? For the italians readers to login in a VDR the “@” symbol is made with SHIFT+2 (and for those who dont’know how to login in the VDR shell is:

username:root

password:vmw@re

now once you’re in all you have to do is type the following:

cd /etc/sysconfig

vi keyboard

type “I”

delete the “us” and type “it”

SHIFT+ç (remeber you’re still with US keyboard)

type “wq” thant press ENTER

reboot and that’s it.

Today vmware relased the Vsphere compliance checker, as from the help of the tool “The Compliance Checker runs an assessment on ESX/ESXi hosts managed by vCenter. The assessment is based on a predefined subset of 26 of the vSphere Security Hardening Guide rules and is run against the first 5 ESX/ESXi hosts found on the target vCenter. The assessment results for each host include the rules, the rule descriptions, and the success or failure of each rule.”

The  installation process is definitely simple, all you have to do is to go here, download it and launch the setup, at the end of it all you have to do is launch the tool

Basically what it will happen is that will be run an assessment against your vcenter/vpshere architecture that will match your actual configurations with what suggested by the  vSphere Security Hardening Guide.

The output produced is a nice web page where you may find what’s “wrong” and what’s “good” in your environment and decide how to proceed along.

The tool come along with another nice tool “VMware Compliance Checker for PCI”  that (from the vmware website) “Check the compliance of your IT infrastructure against specific standards and best practices that are applicable for the environment. The Compliance Checker for PCI DSS v1.2 is a free, downloadable, fully-functional product for checking compliance of your environment to help you ensure that it remains secure and compliant.”

You try to create a snapshot of a VM and run into the following error:

“File<unspecified filename> is larger than the maximum size supported by datastore ‘<unspecified datastore>”

Your configuration is one or all of the following:

1)      Your vmx file is in a different datastore than the vmdk disks

2)      Your datastore is set with a small blocksize (1Mb)

As explained in the article “Creating a snapshot for a virtual machine fails with the error: File is larger than maximum file size supported” (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1012384):

“This issue occurs because the snapshot file at its maximum size cannot fit into a datastore. Starting with version 4.0, ESX and ESXi will compare the maximum size of a snapshot redolog file with the maximum size of files on a the datastore. The redolog file may not work correctly once it reaches the maximum size of the datastore. If the file could grow beyond the maximum size, ESX cancels the Create Snapshot operation and displays this error instead.”

This issue does not happen with ESX 3.5 or earlier.

Now how to solve the problem? Let’s do a step back, first of all why this error is thrown ?Basically  as explained in this article the problem is in the blocksize, just to refresh our (mine too) knowledge  the maximum  filesize it’s directly related to the block size in the following manner:

“All virtual machines having disks with a maximum supported size by VMFS may experience this error.

For example, a virtual machine with a disk sized 256 GB stored on VMFS with 1MB block size fails to snapshot because of the additional overhead required for the delta files. Though the maximum file size for a 1MB block size is 256GB – 512, creating a vmfsSparse (delta) disk requires additional overhead space about 2GB. This resulting delta has potential to grow beyond the file system limit.

To resolve this issue, move the virtual machine to a VMFS volume with a larger block size.

Overhead for the snapshot is roughly about 2GB for a disk size of 256GB. If snapshots are to be used, consider the overhead while deciding the size of the disks.

Note: VMware recommends that you to create virtual disks of size less than 2TB-xxGB, to use features like Snapshot, Clone, and Independent-nonpersistent.

 

Block size in MB	Maximum VMDK size	Maximum Overhead
1	256 GB – 512 B	~ 2 GB
2	512 GB – 512 B	~ 4 GB
4	1024 GB – 512 B	~ 8 GB
8	2048 GB – 512 B	~ 16 GB

This means that to use snapshots, the maximum file sizes are:

1MB block size -> 256GB – 2GB = 254GB
2MB block size -> 512GB – 4GB = 508GB
4MB block size -> 1024GB – 8GB = 1016GB
8MB block size -> 2048GB -16GB = 2032GB”

Now based on this article you have 2 choices

“To resolve this issue you can either change the location of the virtual machine configuration files or change the workingDir to a datastore with enough block size. workingDir is the location where the snapshots are created, By default, workingDir contains the .vmx file).”

So let say that you cannot change the blocksize of a VMFS so easily,at least if you don’t move out of it all the VM ,destroy the datastore and recreate it with a larger blocksize . So, as I was saying the only option is to move the working dir on a datastore with a larger blocksize.

How to do that? Simple :

• Power off the virtual machine.
• Add the following line to the .vmx configuration file for the virtual machine:  workingDir=”<new_path_location>

For example:  workingDir=”/vmfs/volumes/46f1225f-552b0069-e03b-00145e808070/vm-snapshots”

Note: Alternatively, if your datastore has been called Datastore1, you can specify workingDir=”/vmfs/volumes/Datastore1/vm-snapshots” instead of the UUID as demonstrated above. If the name of the directory contains a space, use the UUID as the space may cause an issue.

• Reload the virtual machine by unregistering and re-registering it. If you do not want to redirect the virtual machine’s swap file, add this line to the .vmx configuration file and reload the configuration file:

sched.swap.dir=”<path_to_vm_directory>”

This ensures that the swap file is created in the same directory as the virtual machine.

• Power on the virtual machine.

That’s it now you may re-launch your snapshot and everything will work.

Lately I’ve been involved in the as beta tester by Symantec  for their “BackupExec 2010 plugin for vmware”. The idea behind this plugin is to provide end user the capability to monitor the status of their “protected” VM directly from the Vsphere console.

The Backup Exec Management Plug-in for VMware lets administrators use the vSphere client application to monitor the backup jobs that run on virtual machines. The Plug-in provides:

• The backup status of the virtual machines and the details of past and future backups
• The option to exclude virtual machines from backup jobs directly inside the vSphere client application
• Support for both VMWare vCenter and ESX hosts.

The plugin is available at the Symantec website http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH144754, once downloaded the installation process is quite simple:

Simply Double click on the  BEVMPlugin.msi file  on a computer that run VMware Vsphere client , if instead or other than on your management station you desire to register the plugin with VMware vCenter Server just follow these easy steps:

Before start  ensure that:

• The following files are in the same directory as the RegisterBEVMPlugin.exe file:
  • Vim25Service2005.dll
  • Vim25Service2005.XmlSerializers.dll
  • RegisterBEVMPlugin.exe.config
  • Microsoft .Net version 2.0 is installed on the computer.

Once you’ve satisfied the requirements than, from the vCenter Server:

1. Open a command prompt.
2. Run the following command:

RegisterBEVMPlugin -r -s <vCenter-ip> -n <username> -p <password> -m <msipath>

Where, web server is the name or IP address of the Web server on which the BE VMware Plug-in is published. In case the web server is configured on a non-default port, the port number should be explicitly specified in the link.

Last but no least remember  to ensure that the installer (msi file) is shared on a Web server and the msi path includes the   msi file name.

Once the plugin is installed just log on  to the Vsphere client , you should see the Symantec BackupExec tab, in case you don’t see it, just do:

1. From the Vsphere Console click on the Menu “Plug-ins”
2. Click on the  the “configure Symantec Backup Exec Management Pugin for VMware” (Or click on “manage plug-ins” and registed the Backup Exec Pugin).
3. Then from the plugin tab simply enter your credential to log on to the BackupExec media server where the VM jobs reside.

Once the plugin is connected to the Media Server you will see the status of your protected VM and will be able to view the log of every single job.

For those who are not sure how to protect a VM through Backup Exec 2010 or 2010 R2 I suggest you to follow the article:

“Best practices for Backup Exec 2010 Agent for VMware Virtual Infrastructure” (http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO21769).

Got a mail from a customer who just started to “play” with  vmware  and asked me the following question:

How I may force a VM to powering off when is stuck at 95%?

So my first consideration was: on VMware  Esx or Esxi?  So again since in the future everyone will have to use esxi I would explain how to do.

First of all it depends on what  you know of esxi so let’s say you have three choices:

• From the VI client
• From the Remote command-line tool
• From the Tech Support mode (aka directly from the console of esxi)

From the VI Client:

Connect VMware Infrastructure (VI) Client to VMware VirtualCenter Server.

Right-click on the virtual machine and click Power off.

Connect VI Client directly to the ESXi host.

Right-click on the virtual machine and click Power off.

I know it sounds a bit odd since you just did the same and the VM is stucked at 95% but sometimes it’s useful give a second try don’t you think?

Now let say that the VM is still there so you’ll have to do one of the following:

Install the remote command-line tool (or better install the vMA) or use directly the esxi console (aka Local Tech support).

From the Remote command-line tool:

(http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35u2/vi3_35_25_u2_rcli.pdf) for those who want to know more about the command-line vm management.

First of all get the real state of the VM with the command: vmware-cmd /vmfs/volume/vmfslabel/VMName/VMName.vmx getstate

1. If the status is still on or stuck thant go for a  second attempt with a “soft” shutdown: vmware-cmd vmfs/volume/vmfslabel/VMName/VMName.vmx stop trysoft

   If it doesn’t work thant “use the force Luke” :vmware-cmd vmfs/volume/vmfslabel/VMName/VMName.vmx stop hard

Now let say that you do not have the vMA installed or you simply wont to use it so let’s go for the local Tech Support.

From the Tech Support mode:

1.On the ESXi console, enter Tech Support mode and log in as root

2.Get the World_ID with the command:

# vm-support -x

3.Kill the virtual machine by using the following command in the home directory of the virtual machine.

# vm-support -X <World_ID> –w <dir>

If everything is done in the right way the VM finally will be shutdown. Last but not least could happen that the VM remain locked in this case you may:

• Reboot the HOST
• Follow the Vmware KB “Virtual Machine does not power on because of locked files” (http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=10051)

The curios case I faced up this morning is about installing VMware Esxi 4.1 on a IBM Blade HS22 with local SAS disk. Now before deep inside the case I would like to let you notice that the customer already did a successful installation on the same blade last week using an VMware ESX 4.1 but since the recent advise from vmware :

“vSphere 4.1 and its subsequent update and patch releases are the last releases to include both ESX and ESXi hypervisor architectures. Future major releases of VMware vSphere will include only the VMware ESXi architecture. For this reason, VMware recommends that deployments of vSphere 4.x utilize the ESXi hypervisor architecture.”

Available at (http://www.vmware.com/products/vsphere/esxi-and-esx/) , customer decided to switch to a new installation with esxi.

Now it should be quite simple, even simplier than normal since it was not a production environment but a new installation from scratch. So we simply load the iso file from the  IBM AMM console and we started the installation.

With simply followed the installation steps and when it was time to choose the disks where to install there were no local disk to use.

After further investigation  we decided to proceed in the following manner:

1. We restared the  IBM Blade HS22 and from the  LSI console we deleted the Logical Volume.
2. At this point we decided to try a first install using the local disk as two standalone drives.

This time, as you may see in the picture below the server recognize the disk, with just a minor issue that the “local” disk is seen as “remote” disk.

The installation went without any further  problems so we restared the server again and we recreated the IM Volume:

1. At boot press F1 and enter in the UEFI console
2. Select System Settings
3. Select  the  LSI controller
4. Once inside the controller menu select the RAID controller
5. Select Raid Proerties
6. Add the first disk to the IM Volume
7. Add the second disk to the IM volume
8. Exit saving the configuration and reboot.

As is it possible to see below the server reboot successfully.

Now what we see is that the main problem is in the driver of the LSI controller that is not recognized by Esxi on boot, anyway as seen once you have completed the isntallation Vmware take care of everything.

I’ve been asked if it was possible to run a VM Player as a service so to start automatically a specific VM when the phisical host bootstrap.

My first concern is “why I should do that when VMware itself clearly states that for this specific need one should use  VMWare Server? ” ,but after a short consideration on the possible answers I came to the conclusion that, beside the common sense (aka use VMware server at least) there could be special cases, like:

• The physical host where you want to run the VM cannot install VMware Server
• You need something that could be easily moved/copied on another physical machine without too much effort
• You have to run a single VM and there is nobody to control its state or to restart the VM in case of need.

So how I may do? VMPlayer is not built to run as a service but I recalled that, on a Windows machine, you may transform any executable in a service with two executable from the resource kit instsrv.exe and srvany.exe so my first attempt was quite easy:

1. Install the Windows Resource Kit on a windows machine
2. Copy instsrv and srvany in the windowssystem32 folder or add them to the path
3. Launch the command to install vmplayer as service:

instsrv VMPlayer “%SYSTEMROOT%System32srvany.exe”

Or as stated in the MS article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q137890/

1. At this point I’ve added a couple of registry keys so to start the VM correctly that means :
   1. KEY “AppParameters” and “AppDirectory” in HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesVMPlayer
   2. The path to the VMX of the VM I want to start in AppParameters and the Directory where the VM reside in AppDirectory.

At this point I simply started the service and…NOTHING!  Well the VMPlayer appear in the TaskManager  list and the service was correctly started but the VM not. After a  brief investigation I found out the problem, seems that srvany is not able to launch the vmx since it is not able to launch something that it is not and executable .

I’ve tried two solution:

• Launch directly the VMX.
• Launche Vmplayer from command-line in this way : vmplayer  “pathtovmx”

Manually both works correctly but again there is no way to use them “inside” the newly created service, so now what? I found this really well done article, written in 2001  by  “Nishant Sivakumar”,  called “Beginner’s introductory guide to writing, installing, starting, stopping NT services” http://www.codeproject.com/system/serviceskeleton.asp after a deep read of it I’ve started to google around for something more tangible since develop my own service was not my primary intention and found this very well done application “Launch Serv 2.0”  by “Ernesto Villarroel Zapata”  (http://emutastic.emulation64.com/netosoft) .

The whole process is simple or, at least, seems simple, all I have to do was to download Launch Serv, configure the ini file and click on the install.bat, at this point I’ve opened the Task Manager and observed the list of applications but something goes wrong, I may see the vmplayer.exe  and the vmware-vmx.exe and….another vmplayer.exe !!! What the… I tried to stop the service but one of the two vmplayer.exe remains and so the vm. What I found out is that when I start the service  I effectively launched the player but when the parameter launch the vmx it start a second player totally  uncontrolled.

So now? Well Launch Srv may launch any kind of executable so even a  command/bat file  so the idea is “I launch a simple bat that makes nothing” and as parameter I launch the vmx file. The vmx will open the player by itself in a single instance mode and I may so control its behavior through the service.

But what if I stop the service? The VM will be halted ? Again VMPlayer got a lovely setting that suspend the VM if you close the player and so will do if you stop your newly created service.

So the answer is: yes you may run vmplayer as a service but as VMWare state if you can use VMWare Server.