A mass deployment package is configured with a volume license key and a copy of the VMware Fusion application. This mass deployment package is deployed to any number of client Macs using standard package deployment tools such as Apple Remote Desktop Admin.
When deployed on a client machine, mass deployment automatically performs these actions:
- Installs the VMware Fusion application
- Applies Volume License
- Suppresses EULA, Registration, and other administrative first-run dialogs
- Redirects the VMware Fusion Support menu and/or software updates to your local server (optional)
- Copies prepared virtual machines to the client machine and adds them to the Virtual Machine Library of the user (optional)
After deploying, the VMware Fusion application is ready to run on the client without requiring any administrative privileges by the logged-in user.
Deployment requirements:
- The VMware Fusion application downloaded from the VMware Download Center. For more information, see Downloading and installing VMware Fusion (2014097).
- A Volume License Key for VMware Fusion: Standard or Professional or Pro Edition.
- A package deployment tool such as Apple Remote Desktop Admin.
To create a VMware Fusion mass deployment package:
- Right-click the downloaded
VMware Fusion.app
icon, and click Show Package Contents. - In the
Contents
folder, locate the Library
folder. - Right-click the
Deploy VMware Fusion.mpkg
file and click Copy Deploy "VMware Fusion.mpkg". - Close the
VMware Fusion.app package contents
finder window. - Right-click on your desktop and click Paste Item. This creates a copy of the deployment package template on your desktop.
- Right-click the
Deploy VMware Fusion.mpkg
icon and click Show Package Contents. - Locate the folder named
00Fusion_Deployment_Items
in the Contents
folder. - Copy the downloaded VMware Fusion application (
VMware Fusion.app
) into the 00Fusion_Deployment_Items
folder.
Note: It has been observed that certain package deployment tools lose code signatures for some scripts/utilities/config files inside VMware Fusion 11.5.5 or later during package deployment, the loss of the code signatures causes Fusion to fail to load kernel extensions and launch services, and therefore VMs fail to power on after the deployment. To avoid the code signature loss, you have the option to compress the VMware Fusion.app to a zip file and put the zip file instead of the VMware Fusion.app itself into the deployment payload folder inside "Deploy VMware Fusion.mpkg" bundle. Support for zip file payload has been added in Fusion 11.5.5, so you can now copy either "VMware Fusion.app" or "VMware Fusion.zip" into the 00Fusion_Deployment_Items folder. - To deploy virtual machines with VMware Fusion, copy one or more virtual machines into the
00Fusion_Deployment_Items
folder.
Note: Before deploying a virtual machine to multiple clients, first modify some settings on the virtual machine:
- Power on the virtual machine.
- Open a terminal window. For more information see Common Mac OS operations that may be needed with VMware Fusion (1022113)
- Run this command:
sudo nvram -d platform-uuid
Note: Deploying Mac OS X virtual machines stores the hardware UUID in the nvram. The command clears the hardware UUID to avoid duplicates after deployment of the packages.
- Power off the virtual machine.
- Open the virtual machine settings file in a text editor. For more information, see Editing the .vmx file for your VMware Fusion virtual machine (1014782).
- Remove unique identifiers by removing the lines containing these entries:
ethernet0.addressType =
ethernet0.generatedAddress =
ethernet0.generatedAddressOffset =
uuid.bios =
uuid.location =
- Modify the relative host pathname settings:
Note: When initially set up, Shared and Mirrored folders have absolute path names to the specified shared directories. To make the virtual machine suitable for mass deployment, change absolute paths to relative paths that expands the next time the virtual machine is started.
Locate this line:
sharedFolder1.hostPath = "/Users/username/Documents"
Change the username-specific part of the pathname to the tilde (~
).
For example:
sharedFolder1.hostPath = "~/Documents"
- Save the
.vmx
file and exit the editor.
Note: Do not power on this virtual machine again before mass deployment. If the virtual machine is powered on, the settings will be reset.
- Open the
00Fusion_Deployment_Items/Deploy.ini
file in a text editor. - Locate the
[Volume License]
entry in the file. - Remove the
#
at the start of the next line containing a dummy license key. - Replace
XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
with your volume license key. - Save and close the
Deploy.ini
file. - Close the
Deploy VMware Fusion.mpkg
finder window, and give the package file a name describing its contents, according to your requirement.
The Fusion Mass Deployment Package is now ready for deployment.
To deploy the package using the Apple Remote Desktop Admin application:
- Launch Apple Remote Desktop.
- Select the system to deploy to from the list.
- Click Install.
- When prompted, enter the credentials for the remote system and click Add.
- Click + and select the created package, then click Install. Deployment starts and the status is indicated in the progress bar.
- The deployed virtual machine is saved in the
Macintosh HD/Users/Shared/Virtual Machines
folder of the remote system.