Using Authentication Flags in vmrun Commands

You can use authentication flags in vmrun commands to provide information required to access a system.

For example, you can use an authentication flag to specify the local host type because vmrun commands apply to both VMware Workstation and VMware Fusion host types. You can also use authentication flags to provide the credentials required to access encrypted virtual machines or a guest operating system.

Authentication flags must appear before the command and command parameters.

The vmrun command supports the following authentication flags.

-T hostType

-vp encryptedVirtualMachinePassword

-gu guestUser

-gp guestPassword

Product Type

The -T flag is optional. When you run vmrun commands with Workstation Pro, workstation is the default. Use the -T flag for Workstation Pro as follows.

vmrun -T workstation

Encrypted Virtual Machines

Encrypted virtual machines require a password for most operations.

-vp encryptedVirtualMachinePassword

Guest Operations

Guest operations require authentication by the guest operating system.

Use the following flags to specify the user name and password of the user in the guest operating system.

-gu guestUser

-gp guestPassword