Changing a VMs virtual hardware info to match that of the host. Serial number,type,model,vendor ect.

[ShaneCK]

Hello. First time posting. Heres what I'm trying to do. There is this program that runs on the company supplied workstations that pulls off VPD or DMI info from the hardware Type, Model, serial number ect.. and sends it back to the IT Hardware people. I loaded our custom windows XP load in a VM and the tool reports that the hardware is VMware . Is there a way to edit the VM's "BIOS" to either read this info from the host and pass it along to manually enter in this info into some file somewere so it seems as though the XP load is still sitting on the actual hardware?

thanks for your time.

BTW, I'm using VMware workstation 7.

[continuum]

try

SMBIOS.reflect.Host = "TRUE"

in the vmx-file of that VM.

That may help - but keep expectations low




___________________________________

VMX-parameters- Workstation FAQ -[ MOA-liveCD|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VM-Sickbay

[ShaneCK]

That would have been cool if thats all it took. Unfortunatly it did not.. Any other thoughts?

FYI, i got it working with VBox. I had to run a command in a dos window that referenced the VM and a bunch of other values with the correct data in quotes at the end.. booted the VM and it works..I was hoping VMware had a tool like that.... If i cant do the same thing with VMware workstation... I might be forced to use Vbox for that one VM...... didnt really want to have 2 virtualization platforms on my workstation at the same time..

Thanks again for the post..

[continuum]

Cool - it is possible with Virtual BOX ?

can you post what you did there ?

Sounds like you need to run that VM in VirtualBox then.

In VMware there is nothing left to try 😞




___________________________________

VMX-parameters- Workstation FAQ -[ MOA-liveCD|http://sanbarrow.com/moa241.html] - VM-Sickbay

[ShaneCK]

in the Vbox install directory.. there is a file names VBoxManage

these are the commands I ran

vboxmanage setextradata "your VM name here" "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcbios/0/Config/DmiSystemVendor" "your vendor here"

vboxmanage setextradata "your VM name here" "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcbios/0/Config/DmiSystemProduct" "your product here"

in my case the machine type and model of my Lenovo thinkpad with no spaces > 7663AK5

vboxmanage setextradata "your VM name here" "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcbios/0/Config/DmiSystemSerial" "your serial number here"

and if you wanted to do the UUID

vboxmanage setextradata "your VM name here" "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcbios/0/Config/DmiSystemUuid" "your Uuid here"

yes quotes are needed..

thanks!

[golddiggie]

Do your companies IT people actually want you to mask your VM? If so, then that means the system grabbing the inventory information will think it has duplicate records, and delete one of them. This will present them with additional issues, later, if not sooner.

I was the LANDesk administrator at one of my previous jobs where we had several users with VMware Workstation installed. IF we also installed the agent (for collecting inventory as well as other things like remote control, software deployment, etc.) then it would show the target as being a VM and we could then better support them as well as know if we needed to target that system for updates or not. It actually made life easier for us to know that the target was a VM and not a physical system. We could also better keep track of deployed software so that things were better managed.

If you're trying to mask the VM to seem like you're actual system it's going to present issues later. Not the least of which is when a patch needs to be deployed that conflicts with something on the VM, but the IT people don't know, so you get it and the other items you're running on that VM get messed up. OR, they think your host system has the patch, which it doesn't, leaving your system vulnerable. Try to explain why you did that when the company gets a virus that the patch would have protected it from.

Pain to benefits ratio is too far out of whack in my opinion.

VMware VCP4

Consider awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers.

[ShaneCK]

No, they are not.. I'm just trying not to be the only guy out there.... know what I mean? So i take it, there is no way to do this with VMware..

[Borg_Number_One]

Hi,

some minutes ago, I cleaned up my VMware private message folder and I found this:

To: Borg Number One

From: ShaneCK

Sent: Jul 12, 2010

Subject: Private Message: have any thoughts about this ?

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/264453?tstart=0

You are the only one I have found that might understand what im trying to do.

thanks for your time.

Well instead using the host's DMI information, it is also possible to use your own DMI via editing VMware's Phoenix BIOS with

Phoenix BIOS Editor 2.0.18 or Phoenix BIOS Editor 2.2.0.1 or Phoenix BIOS Editor 2.2.1.3.

Here you can get all necessary information about modifying VMware's BIOS:

http://communities.vmware.com/message/103265#103265 /

( http://www.vmware.com/community/message.jspa?messageID=103265#103265 )

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/28149

(many BIOS editing tool download links do not work any more, but you can use google)

If you could successfully extract the VMWare BIOS (with one of many different available resource editors: reshack, xn resource editor, etc..) then you can Phoenix BIOS Editor's built-in DMI editor for changing static SMBIOS/DMI information.

Some DMI information are dynamic and can be changed inside the .vmx configuration file, for example with:

+ SMBIOS.reflect.Host = "TRUE"

+ uuid.bios (UUID is part of the SMBIOS/DMI table)

+ Searching for: "SMBIOS" in vmware-vmx.exe brings following further results/following possible SMBIOS / DMI related .vmx configuration file switches:

SMBIOS.useShortSerialNumber

SMBIOS.assetTag

Try to experiment with the switches.

Here are some more information:

http://sanbarrow.com/vmx/vmx-advanced.html#uuid

[CameronVM]

Hi, a little late too the party here... But did you/anyone ever find a solution to this? I am also trying to run the exact same commands that I was able to do in virtual box:

vboxmanage setextradata "your VM name here" "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcbios/0/Config/DmiSystemVendor" "your vendor here"

vboxmanage setextradata "your VM name here" "VBoxInternal/Devices/pcbios/0/Config/DmiSystemProduct" "your product here"

But cant find the solution in vmware. Also explored editing the EFI64.ROM file with UEFI editor but struggling to find the exact place to edit. Not much discussion online about it. Thanks

[nanayaw_1]

Hello please can you help me with the steps thst you followed to make Vbox work?

[nanayaw_1]

how do I run these commands to make it work?