You can use the vmcli command-line utility in VMware Fusion to interact with the hypervisor from the macOS terminal window. By using vmcli commands, you can perform various virtual machine operations like creating new virtual machine or virtual machine template.

Running the vmcli command-line utility

You can run the vmcli from the macOS terminal window. You can also create scripts to run multiple commands.

To run the vmcli command and get the syntax to use the available functionality, run the following command.

vmcli --help

After you run this command, you receive the following output.

vmcli --help
Usage: vmcli [-v | --version] [<vmx location>] <module> <command> [<args>] [--verbose] [-h | --help] [<vmx location>]

Top level arguments:
    -v, --version
        Display the version information.
Global arguments:
    <vmx location>        (required for commands working with VMs)
        Location of the vmx file to work with. Can be the first or last argument on the command line.
    --verbose
        Enable verbose logging.
    -h, --help
        Display the help information
Available modules:
    Chipset
        Chipset options.
    ConfigParams
        Set VM configuration parameters.
    Disk
        Module to perform disk operations.
    Ethernet
        Setup the ethernet configuration in the guest.
    Guest
        guest ops
    HGFS
        HGFS options.
    MKS
        Mouse, keyboard and screen operations.
    Nvme
        Setup NVME ports in the guest.
    Power
        Set the power state of the vm.
    Sata
        Setup SATA ports in the guest.
    Serial
        Setup serial ports in the guest.
    Snapshot
        Snapshot configuration
    Tools
        Tools related configuration.
    VM
        VM related Operations
    VMTemplate
        Create and Deploy vm template
    VProbes
        Setup VProbes in the guest

To learn more about the syntax of each module or operation, for example the Power module, you can run the following command.

vmcli Power --help

After you run this command, you receive the following output.

vmcli Power --help
Usage: vmcli [-v | --version] [<vmx location>] Power  [--verbose] [-h | --help] query Start Stop Pause Reset Suspend Unpause [<vmx location>]

Top level arguments:
    -v, --version
        Display the version information.
Global arguments:
    <vmx location>        (required for commands working with VMs)
        Location of the vmx file to work with. Can be the first or last argument on the command line.
    --verbose
        Enable verbose logging.
    -h, --help
        Display the help information
Module:
    Power
        Set the power state of the vm.
Arguments available to module "Power":
    query
        Query the power state of the VM.
    Start
        Start the virtual machine.
    Stop
        Stop the virtual machine.
    Pause
        Pause the virtual machine.
    Reset
        Rest the virtual machine.
    Suspend
        Suspend the virtual machine.
    Unpause
        Unpause the virtual machine.

You can also retrieve usage information for a specific operation of any module.

vmcli Power query --help

After you run this command, you receive the following output.

vmcli power query --help
Usage: vmcli [-v | --version] [<vmx location>] Power query  [--verbose] [-h | --help] [-f | --format <2, 1, 0>] [<vmx location>]

Top level arguments:
    -v, --version
        Display the version information.
Global arguments:
    <vmx location>        (required for commands working with VMs)
        Location of the vmx file to work with. Can be the first or last argument on the command line.
    --verbose
        Enable verbose logging.
    -h, --help
        Display the help information
Module:
    query
        Query the power state of the VM.
Arguments available to module "query":
    -f, --format <2, 1, 0>
        Sets the format of the output.

Using vmcli to create a template from an existing virtual machine

You can create a virtual machine template from an existing virtual machine. You can later use this template to create a new virtual machine with the same configuration.

You can use the following syntax.

vmwcli <source vmx path> vmtemplate create  -p <template vmtx path> -n <template name>
Variable Description
source vmx path Path to the source virtual machine vmx from which the template will be created.
template vmtx path Full path to the new vmtemplate folder along with file name with the .vmtx extension.

Example: "~/Virtual Machines.localized/clonevmtest2.vmwarevm/clonevmtest2.vmtx"
template name Name of the tamplate.

Using vmcli to deploy a virtual machine template

You can deploy the VMTemplate that was created by the vmcli command. By using the following syntax, you can create a new virtual machine from the specified VMTemplate at the same location.

VMTemplate Deploy -p <Full file path of vmtx file of existing VM template>

Using vmcli to create a new virtual machine

You can use the following syntax to create a new virtual machine.

VM Create -n <vm name> -d <path where vm will be created>  -g <guest operating system>
Example: 
VM Create -n myVM -d ~/Desktop/ -g windows9-64

Example of creating a virtual machine and attaching an ISO to it

After performing the following steps, you can add a newly created virtual machine to the Virtual Machine Library and then power the virtual machine on to start the guest installation process by using the ISO file. You can use the syntax from the following example.

Example: 
echo "----creating VM-----"
 
vmcli VM Create -n windowstest -d ~/Desktop/test -g windows9-64
 
vmcli ConfigParams SetEntry displayName "windowstest"  ~/Desktop/test/windowstest.vmx
 
 
echo "----create Nvme vmdk related things-----"
 
vmcli nvme SetPresent nvme0 1 ~/Desktop/test/windowstest.vmx
 
vmcli Disk SetBackingInfo nvme0:0 disk windowstest.vmdk 1 ~/Desktop/test/windowstest.vmx
 
vmcli Disk SetPresent nvme0:0 1 ~/Desktop/test/windowstest.vmx
 
echo "----create sata disk for iso mounting-----"
 
vmcli Sata SetPresent sata0 1 ~/Desktop/test/windowstest.vmx
 
vmcli Disk SetBackingInfo sata0:0 cdrom_image ~/Documents/iso/22621.1.220506-1250.ni_release_CLIENT_ENTERPRISES_OEM_x64FRE_en-us.iso 1 ~/Desktop/test/windowstest.vmx
 
vmcli Disk SetPresent sata0:0 1 ~/Desktop/test/windowstest.vmx
 
echo "----create ethernet related things-----"
 
vmcli Ethernet query ~/Desktop/test/windowstest.vmx
 
vmcli Ethernet SetVirtualDevice ethernet0 vmxnet3 ~/Desktop/test/windowstest.vmx
 
vmcli Ethernet SetConnectionType ethernet0 nat ~/Desktop/test/windowstest.vmx
 
vmcli Ethernet SetAddressType ethernet0 generated "" ~/Desktop/test/windowstest.vmx
 
vmcli Ethernet SetLinkStatePropagation ethernet0 true  ~/Desktop/test/windowstest.vmx
 
vmcli Ethernet SetPresent ethernet0 1 ~/Desktop/test/windowstest.vmx
 
vmcli ConfigParams SetEntry  bios.bootOrder "cdrom,hdd" ~/Desktop/test/windowstest.vmx
 
echo "---------Done-------"