Power control settings affect the behavior of the stop, suspend, start, and reset buttons for a virtual machine. The behavior that you select appears in a tooltip when you mouse over the associated button. Power control settings also determine which power options appear in the context menu when you right-click the virtual machine in the library.

You can configure a soft or hard setting for each power control. A soft setting sends a request to the guest operating system, which it can ignore or, in the case of a deadlocked guest, it might not be able to handle. A guest operating system cannot ignore a hard power control. Hard power control settings are configured by default.

To change power controls for a selected virtual machine, select VM > Settings, click the Options tab, and select Power.

Table 1. Power Controls

Control

Description

Stop

Power Off

(Hard option) Workstation Pro powers off the virtual machine abruptly with no consideration for work in progress.

Shut Down Guest

(Soft option) Workstation Pro sends a shut down signal to the guest operating system. An operating system that recognizes the signal shuts down gracefully. Not all guest operating systems respond to a shutdown signal from Workstation Pro. If the guest operating system does not respond to the signal, shut down from the guest operating system as you would a physical machine.

Suspend

Suspend

(Hard option) Workstation Pro suspends the virtual machine and leaves it connected to the network.

Suspend Guest

(Soft option) Workstation Pro suspends the virtual machine and disconnects it from the network. VMware Tools runs a script in the guest operating system. On Windows guests, if the virtual machine is configured to use DHCP, the script releases the IP address of the virtual machine. On Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris guests, the script stops networking for the virtual machine.

Start

Power On

(Hard option) Workstation Pro starts the virtual machine.

Start Up Guest

(Soft option) Workstation Pro starts the virtual machine and VMware Tools runs a script in the guest operating system. On Windows guests, if the virtual machine is configured to use DHCP, the script renews the IP address of the virtual machine. On a Linux, FreeBSD, or Solaris guest, the script starts networking for the virtual machine.

Note:

You cannot configure this setting for a shared or remote virtual machine.

Reset

Reset

(Hard option) Workstation Pro resets the virtual machine abruptly with no consideration for work in progress.

Restart Guest

(Soft option) Workstation Pro shuts down and restarts the guest operating system gracefully. VMware Tools runs scripts before the virtual machine shuts down and when the virtual machine starts up.