et another item that I do not like about the new VMWare Server 2. The process name. In SErver 1.x you could identify which vm a specific process represented from either a ps or top. It would display something like
/usr/bin/vmware-vmx myvm.vmx
and continue on with some other stuff. With the upgrade to Server2, the process names have changed and now require extra effort to see which VM is which when the process is running.
My monitor’s resolution is 1680×1050 and this is all I can see of the process line when running top.
“/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx -# product=2;name=VMware Server;version=2.0.0;buildnumber=101586;licensename=VMware GSX Server for Linux;licensever”
Running ps aux shows a few characters less.
This is the full text of the command string.
/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx -# product=2;name=VMware Server;version=2.0.0;buildnumber=101586;licensename=VMware GSX Server for Linux;licenseversion=3.0 build-101586; -@ pipe=/tmp/vmhsdaemon-0/vmxf0587f70a704b094;readyEvent=58 /srv/vmware/host.example.com/host.example.com.vmx
As you can see.. the bit of info that is needed to identify the vm is at the very end.
VMWare, please rearrange the construction of the command that launches the virtual machines to have the configuration file listed at the beginning so we can easily see which VM is which.
NOTE: The easiest workaround is to run “ps aux | grep vmx”, unfortunately, this doesn’t work in top.
> VMWare, please rearrange the construction of the command that launches the virtual machines to have the configuration file listed at the beginning so we can easily see which VM is which.
Why not just run ps axuww?
Because ps axuww isn’t top, which is what the originally OP was pointing out.
Additionally, snmp doesn’t pick up all the parameters (hrSWRunParameters truncated at 129), so you’re SOL if you want to try to identify and monitor a particular running vm through snmp-based monitoring software.
Would really love for this to be fixed. My guess is “-#” is nothing but a remark anyway.
Forgot to mention…
htop provides horizontal scrolling (but unfortunately still gets truncated before the important vmx config file info, at least for me).