How to Connect to a Virtual Machine

  • Article

Use the following procedure to connect to a virtual machine in Virtual Machines view. The connection is made through a Virtual Machine Remote Control (VMRC) client on the virtual machine host. The virtual machine must be running, stopped, paused, or in the saved state in order to connect using VMRC.

To connect to a virtual machine, the following requirements must be met:

  • You must have specified the port on the VMM server to use for VMRC. For more information, see How to Configure VMRC Access to Virtual Machines.
  • VMRC must be enabled on the virtual machine host. For more information, see How to Modify VMRC Settings on a Host.
  • You should install Virtual Machine Additions on the virtual machine to ensure consistent performance of VMRC when you access the virtual machine. For information about installing Virtual Machine Additions, see "Installing Virtual Machine Additions" in the Virtual Server 2005 Administrators Guide (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=89735).
  • Credentials must be provided to log on to the virtual machine. Local administrator credentials can be set automatically during virtual machine creation. For more information, see How to Create a Virtual Machine.

To connect to a virtual machine

  1. In Virtual Machines view, expand All Hosts in the navigation pane, and navigate to the host on which the virtual machine is deployed.

  2. In the results pane, click the virtual machine.

  3. To start the virtual machine if it is not already running, in the Actions pane, under Virtual Machine, click Start. VMM automatically attempts to connect to any running virtual machine that you select in the results pane and adds a thumbnail of this connection: the desktop of the virtual machine to the virtual machine details.

  4. To launch a larger connection window so that you can log on to the virtual machine, take one of the following actions:

    —Double-click the thumbnail.

    —In the Actions pane, under Virtual Machine, click Connect to virtual machine.

  5. In the dialog box, press Right-ALT+DELETE (hold down the ALT key on the right side of the spacebar while you press DELETE) to display the logon prompt for the guest operating system running in the virtual machine.

  6. Log on to the virtual machine.

See Also

Concepts

About Virtual Machine Remote Control (VMRC)
How to Add and Configure Network Adapters for a Virtual Machine
How to Configure VMRC Access to Virtual Machines
How to Modify VMRC Settings on a Host
Managing Virtual Machines