One of the primary strengths of GSX Server is that it allows you to manage your virtual machines remotely — that is, from any machine that can connect to your GSX Server host. You are not restricted to interacting with your virtual machines only on the host on which they are stored.

Remote management has many components and levels. For a high level view of your GSX Server host, use the VMware Management Interface, a Web-based tool for managing your virtual machines and the server host. For more information about the management interface, see Using the VMware Management Interface.

If you need to interact with a virtual machine directly from a remote location — for example, if you need to maintain a database stored in a virtual machine — use the VMware Virtual Machine Console. The console displays your virtual machine in a window, and you interact with the virtual machine in this window as you would interact with a physical computer. For more information about consoles, see Running Virtual Machines.

For a more automated way to remotely manage virtual machines and the GSX Server host, use the VMware Scripting APIs. If you are connecting to a GSX Server host from a Windows remote machine, you can use the VmCOM and VmPerl Scripting APIs. If you are connecting to a GSX Server host from a Linux remote machine, you can use the VmPerl Scripting API. For more information, visit the VMware Web site at www.vmware.com/support/developer.

Another automated way to manage virtual machines is to use the vmware-cmd utility. For more information, visit the VMware Web site at www.vmware.com/support/developer.

Finally, you can use third party tools to remotely manage your virtual machines. You can use applications like VNC Viewer, Windows Terminal Services or Windows XP Remote Desktop. To view a virtual machine with VNC Viewer, you must modify the virtual machine's configuration manually.

The following sections further explore remotely managing virtual machines.