How do I stop a vm from shutting down automatically after a period of inactivity

[rymal]

I have a server 2012 vm that is acting as a DC in a test environment.  I'm not working on it a lot but it needs to run as I work on test VMs (W7 & W8).  

The problem is after a period of inactivity, the server vm stops all services & shuts down.  I've done some research and found some vague references to a script that can be changed in vmware tools, but I'm not able start up a tools GUI to even look at them.  I've re-installed the tools, but still cannot open any kind of interface to work with the tools, and i'm not even sure if that is the right place to solve this issue. 

Has anyone else seen this problem?

[vm11a22b]

Welcome to the forums.

Are you sure it's not the guest doing this?

I run Workstation 10 on a laptop and when i create new vm guests using Windows 7 OS, after the guest is up and running I find that the VM is shutdown after about 15-20 minutes. This is because, for some reason on my guest installations, Windows 7 defaults to the suspend mode and sets it for 15 minutes of inactivity. I just go into the guest, set the power mode to "maximum performance" which will disable suspend and my problem is solved.

As a first step, maybe take a look at the the power management settings in the guest and verify that they are as desired.

[rymal]

Thank you for your response.   I have examined all of the host power settings and it's not the cause.  I do have 3 other vm's running - two W8.1 and one W7.  Those continue to run uninterrupted until I shut them down.  It's only the 2012 server vm that shuts down.

[WoodyZ · Accepted solution]

Is this a properly licensed and activated install of Windows Server 2012?

[rymal]

It is a 90 day evaluation version that I just installed last week so a lot of time left - for a Group Policy training project.  However, after your inquiry, I checked and it says the license is expired.  The info in the bottom right-hand corner shows:

     Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard Evaluation

     Windows Licnese is expired

     Build 9600

Think that's the cause?

[WoodyZ]

That is most definitely the cause!

[rymal]

Confirmed!   Because it was an eval living in a test lab environment, I hadn't bothered connecting it to the internet.  As soon as I did & restarted, it grabbed the eval license and started the countdown.  Thanks for your help Woody.