VMware Guest - Get environment variable
Declaration
<AMVMWAREGUEST ACTIVITY="get_environment_variable" HOSTTYPE="text (options)" SERVER="text" USERNAME="text" PASSWORD="text (encrypted)" VMPATH="text" GUESTUSERNAME="text" CONSOLE="YES/NO" LAUNCHGUI="YES/NO" TIMEOUT="number" GUESTPASSWORD="text (encrypted)" OPENVMTIMEOUT="number" POWERONTIMEOUT="number" TOOLSTIMEOUT="number" LOGINTIMEOUT="number" CONNECTIONTIMEOUT="number" NAME="text" RESULTVARIABLE="text" />
Description
Retrieves information about an environment variable in a guest OS and populates a variable with results.
Practical usage
Used to get information about environment variables on a guest OS. On a Windows Series guest, writing these values is saved persistently so they are immediately visible to every process. On a Linux or Windows 9X guest, writing these values is not persistent so they are only visible to the VMware tools process.
Parameters
Connection
Property | Type | Required | Default | Markup | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Connection | --- | --- | --- | --- | Indicates
where connection details, guest credentials and other preferences
should originate from. The available options are: The available options are:
NOTE: This parameter does not contain markup and is only displayed in visual mode for task construction and configuration purposes. |
Session | Text | Yes, if Connection is set to Session | GuestOSOpsSession1 | SESSION="MySession" | The name of an existing session to associate this activity with. This parameter is available only if the Connection parameter is set to Session. |
Host type | Text (options) | Yes if Connection set to Host | VMWare VI Server |
|
Indicates
the VMware software type running on the host where the virtual
machine is located. If you are using VMware Server to connect
to a remote host, it does not matter which VMware product (if
any) is running on the local host. This parameter is available
only if the Connection
parameter is set to Host. The
available options are:
|
Host name | Text | Yes | (Empty) |
|
The hostname or IP address of the computer where the virtual machine is located. This parameter is active only if the Host type parameter is set to VMWare Server (1.0x) or VMWare VI Server (ESX/ESXi, vCenter, VMWare Server 2.0). |
[Host] Username | Text | Yes | (Empty) | USERNAME="theUser" | The username identifying a valid user account on the virtual machine. This parameter is active only if the Host type parameter is set to VMWare Server (1.0x) or VMWare VI Server (ESX/ESXi, vCenter, VMWare Server 2.0). |
[Host] Password | Text | Yes | (Empty) | PASSWORD="encrypted" | The password identifying a valid user account on the virtual machine. This parameter is active only if the Host type parameter is set to VMWare Server (1.0x) or VMWare VI Server (ESX/ESXi, vCenter, VMWare Server 2.0). |
Virtual machine path | Text | Yes | (Empty) | VMPATH="c:\My Virtual Machines\<vm_name>.vmx" | The path to the virtual machine. (Example: c:\My Virtual Machines\<virtual_machine_name>.vmx ). |
[Guest Credentials] Username | Text | Yes | (Empty) | GUESTUSERNAME="user" | The username to authenticate the guest user. |
[Guest Credentials] Password | Text | Yes | (Empty) | GUESTPASSWORD="encrypted" | The password to authenticate the guest user. |
Log on to console session | Yes/No | No | No | CONSOLE="yes" | If selected, the user will be logged onto the console session. This parameter is disabled by default. |
Launch GUI | Yes/No | No | No | LAUNCHGUI="yes" | If selected, a GUI (Graphic User Interface) will appear on the desktop upon connection. If disabled (default), no GUI will be launched and operations will execute in the background. |
Connection - Host > Timeout
Property | Type | Required | Default | Markup | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Open VM | Number | No | 60 | OPENVMTIMEOUT="2" | The maximum time period in seconds during which this activity must be completed or the step times out. The default value is 60 seconds. |
Power on | Number | No | 60 | POWERONTIMEOUT="3" | The maximum time period in seconds during which the VM must power on or the step times out. The default value is 60 seconds. |
VMware tools | Number | No | 300 | TOOLSTIMEOUT="4" | The maximum time period in seconds during which VMWare Tools must start on the guest operating system or the step times out. The default value is 300 seconds. |
Log on | Number | No | 60 | LOGINTIMEOUT="5" | The maximum time period in seconds during which the log on process must be completed or the step times out. The default value is 60 seconds. |
Connection | Number | No | 60 | CONNECTIONTIMEOUT="6" | The maximum time period in seconds during which a connection must be established or the step times out. The default value is 60 seconds. |
Guest OS Operations
Property | Type | Required | Default | Markup | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Variable name | Text | Yes | (Empty) | NAME="GuestEnvVarName" | The name of the guest environment variable. |
Populate environment variable value | Text | Yes | (Empty) | RESULTVARIABLE="theVar" | The variable to populate with information retrieved about the guest variable. |
Example
- Copy and paste the sample AML code below directly into the Task Builder Steps Panel.
- To successfully run the sample code, update parameters containing user credentials, files, file paths, or other information specific to the task to match your environment.
Description
This sample task gets a guest OS environment variable and stores its value into a variable.
<AMVARIABLE NAME="theVar" />
<AMVMWAREGUEST ACTIVITY="connect" HOSTTYPE="Workstation" VMPATH="C:\VMs\Windows Server 2008 x86\Windows Server 2008.vmx" GUESTUSERNAME="Techsupport"GUESTPASSWORD="AM4g/HMkxlqorZ5uVmBmE6ucg==aME" CONSOLE="YES" LAUNCHGUI="YES" SESSION="GuestSess1" />
<AMVMWAREGUEST ACTIVITY="get_environment_variable" SESSION="GuestSess1" NAME="guestEnvironmentVar" RESULTVARIABLE="theVar" />
<AMVMWAREGUEST ACTIVITY="disconnect" SESSION="GuestSess1" />