How to get hostname of the physical PC inside a virtual machine before user logs in Windows?

[lbnl2014]

I am not sure if this is the right place to post this question, I am developing a software to support VMWare PCoIP and need to find out how to get the hostname of the physical machine (that runs View Client and the virtual machine) inside a virtual machine before the user logs in Windows of the virtual machine.

I understand there are two ways to read the hostname, via environment variables and registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Volatile Environment, but they are only available after the user has logged on. I need the info before the user logs in.

Is there any VMware API that can be called or queried the hostname?

Thanks.

[Linjo]

Have you tried to read the eventlog? Its a sql-database where all actions are logged.

// Linjo

[mpryor · Accepted solution]

Not on the broker, but there's the Start Session scripts on the VM itself: http://pubs.vmware.com/view-52/topic/com.vmware.view.integration.doc/view_integration_startsession_s...

Note that these get executed when a desktop VM has allocated the connection, not at the point the client connects - it is possible for the client to fail to complete the connection (crash, cancel, network failure), and so any solution you design needs to handle that.

Mike

[lbnl2014]

Thanks for the replies.

I have checked the event logs, but cannot find any info.

I have also tried Mike's suggestion, I followed every steps mentioned in the link to enable start session script (enable the VM service, create a script file as given in the link, and set registry settings, etc.) but then was not able to connect to the virtual desktop anymore. As soon as I disable the script by setting RunScriptsOnStartSession to 0, I manage to (re-)connect to my virtual desktop. I wonder how can I debug this kind of problems?

Any suggestion would be grateful, thanks.

[lbnl2014]

Have fixed the problem mentioned earlier, the script now runs fine and gives me what I need.

Thanks