Guest Operating Systems
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The VMware Guest Operating System
Service
When you install VMware Tools in a virtual machine, the VMware guest operating
system service is one of the primary components installed. The guest service can do
the following:
• Execute commands in the virtual machine when it is requested to halt or reboot
the guest operating system.
• Gracefully power off and reset a virtual machine.
• Send a heartbeat to ESX Server so that it knows the guest operating system is
running.
• Synchronize the time of the guest operating system with the time in the console
operating system.
• Pass a string from the console operating system to the guest operating system.
The guest service starts automatically when you boot the guest operating system.
In a Windows guest, the guest service program file is called VMwareService.exe.
For help information, right-click the VMware Tools icon in the system tray and choose
Help.
In a Linux guest, the guest service is called vmware-guestd. To display help about
the guest service, including a list of all options, use the following command:
/etc/vmware/vmware-guestd --help
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