vmware-workstation-listener

A go mqtt subscriber for processing power on and power off commands for virtual machines. I use this with home assistant to trigger the remote starting of a VM. I found this necessary as VMWare Workstation REST API is hard coded to bind to 127.0.0.1 with default port of 8697.

This agent will send a status update on start and exit to home assistant to the configured status topic. Combined with a binary_sensor real-time status of the agent is available.

This program runs local to VMWare Workstation and listens to an MQTT topic for power on/shutdown commands. I build this for my Microsoft Windows 11 Home PC.

Home Assistant

Switch

switch:
  - platform: mqtt
    unique_id: eve_ng_switch
    name: EVE-NG WOL
    command_topic: home/servers
    payload_on: '{"id": "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ", "state": "on"}'
    payload_off: '{"id": "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ", "state": "shutdown"}'
    retain: false

Binary Sensor

binary_sensor:
  - platform: mqtt
    name: "VMWare Workstation Listener"
    state_topic: "/home/agents/vmware_ws/status"
    payload_on: "online"
    payload_off: "offline"

Usage

.env file example

Create .env file for use along side .exe

AUTH_TOKEN=abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
MQTT_SERVER=192.168.1.1
MQTT_PORT=1883
MQTT_USERNAME=mqtt
MQTT_PASSWORD=mqtt
MQTT_TOPIC=home/servers
MQTT_STATUS_TOPIC=/home/agents/vmware_ws/status
MQTT_STATUS_UP=online
MQTT_STATUS_DOWN=offline

• AUTH_TOKEN: This is the encoded base64 string used to auth with VMWare Workstation REST API
• Rest is self explanatory

Steps

• build the executable with env GOOS=target-OS GOARCH=target-architecture go build
  • Go Builds Article
• install .env files and vmware-workstation-listener.exe in the same directory on your machine
• Install exe as a scheduled task to start when computer starts, login as you user
  • Or install as a service
• Run

Requires

VMWare Workstation 15+ and vmrest.exe to be started as a local service of scheduled task to start on boot. VMWare Docs