Sub-titled: “Don’t Suffer from Guy Eyes When Reading Documentation”
I built a few VMware clients at work yesterday and then headed home to service pack and configure them in the evening. It wasn’t long before I recalled one of my biggest pet peeves about VMware server.
The VMware client console stinks over a slow network / VPN scenario.
When I’m at the office the console is fine and responsive, but when at home, connected via a VPN over the internet, working with the console is painfully laggy and sluggish. Yuck. I hate typing something and then waiting to see if it shows up or moving and window and waiting for it to redraw. Since these servers weren’t fully “baked” yet I couldn’t just switch to Windows Remote Desktop which is far more responsive.
While mulling this over I recalled that I had once heard something about using VNC to connect to VMware clients. A quick web search turned up two great articles:
- Using a VNC Client to Connect to Virtual Machines from the VMware KnowledgeBase
- The Built-in VMware Server Backdoor at Petri.
I looked over the two articles and quickly made the edits to my VMware clients’ config (.vmx) files and gave it a try.
But alas, no matter what I tried I couldn’t get a connection!
Turns out I was suffering from a bad case of what my wife calls “Guy Eyes.”
See, I read those articles, saw the title confirmed I could do what I wanted and immediately skimmed down looking for code. I skipped the important bits like, you know, directions and tips. Like this one:
You would connect to the IP address or DNS name of the VMware Host – NOT of your VM guests
Gee, that would explain – and solve – all of my issues. I was trying to connect to the wrong machine. Whoops.
And yes, the VNC method is much more responsive than the native VMware console over the VPN. Mission accomplished.
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February 12th, 2009 
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Way cool. I just did this to Erick:
Me: Watch as I VNC to my desktop. [all the way in the next cubicle]
Erick: Yes, and…?
Me: Watch as I shut down the VNC server.
Erick: You’ll get disconnected… um, what?
Me: Watch as I shut down Windows and enter the BIOS setup screen.
Erick: VNC Server’s running SOMEwhere…
Good for a geek parlor trick, but also useful. No footprint in the VM. OS doesn’t even have to be booted, or running a GUI. I would imagine it’d even work if you had a BSOD on your VM.