This LSB-compliant Linux boot init script lets you auto-start VMware virtual machines on a Linux host machine running VMware Workstation. Tested successfully on Debian 7 and assumed safe for any Ubuntu or Ubuntu-based distro as well. May need some minor tweaks before you can use it on CentOS or RHEL.To use this script, follow installation instru…

vmware-autostarts

#!/usr/bin/env bash

### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: vmwareautostart
# Required-Start: $vmware $network $syslog
# Required-Stop: $vmware $network $syslog
# X-Start-Before:
# X-Stop-After:
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: This service auto-starts and stops VMware guests
### END INIT INFO

# To use this script, follow installation instructions at
# http://www.atrixnet.com/autostart-vmware-virtual-machines-on-boot-in-linux
# ...and then customize it below

# ======== USER CONFIGURABLE VARIABLES (CUSTOMIZE THESE PLEASE) ==========

# unless you have weird characters or shell escapes in your varable values
# there is no need to muddy up the shell code by using excessive quotes
# and punctuation.  For this reason, you'll see the example variable values
# below are simple and clean.  Don't put spaces between variables, values,
# and equal signs (=).  You can't do that in shell scripts.

# number of seconds to wait between startup of multiple VMs.  The faster
# your disk storage, the lower this number can be.  The idea is to not
# start more VMs at one time than your system can handle and still
# remain stable/responsive

VM_wait_between=30

# max number of seconds to wait for a virtual machine to gracefully shut
# down before taking it down hard.  Allow more time for app servers and
# windows virtual machines.

VM_max_stop_wait=30

# name the system user who runs your virtual machines.  you should not be
# running virtual machines as root, in the event that one gets compromised
# that could be a security liability.  I recommend that you consider
# creating an unprivileged system account that does nothing else but run
# virtual machines in vmware

VM_user=tommy

# list your virtual machines below, with each on its own line within the
# perenthesis block, as shown.  Make sure each VM is a fully-qualified
# path to the .vmx file for the virtual machine you want to auto-start

VM_list=(
   /mdlvmraid/vmware/vmachines/private/netmon/netmon.vmx
   /mdlvmraid/vmware/vmachines/private/somevm/somevm.vmx
   /mdlvmraid/vmware/vmachines/private/openvpn/openvpn.vmx
);

# ======== THE REST OF THIS CODE IS NOT CONFIGURABLE ==========

export PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin

if [[ $( id -u ) -ne 0 ]];
then
   echo You must run this script as root or with sudo

   exit 1
fi
if [[ "$( getent passwd $VM_user )" == "" ]];
then
   echo Could not locate specified VM user "'$VM_user'" on the system.  Abort.

   exit 1
fi

VM_user_group=$( id -gn $VM_user );

VM_cmd_exec="sudo -u $VM_user -g $VM_user_group vmrun"

case "$1"
in
   start)
      VM_iter=0
      VM_list_length=${#VM_list[@]};

      for vm in "${VM_list[@]}";
      do
         if [[ $( vmrun list 2>/dev/null | grep $vm | wc -l ) -ne 0 ]];
         then
            echo VM "$vm" is already running

            continue;
         fi

         echo Starting up VM "$vm" ...

         $VM_cmd_exec start "$vm" nogui >/dev/null 2>&1

         VM_iter=$(( $VM_iter + 1 ));

         if [[ $VM_iter -lt $VM_list_length ]];
         then
            echo -n ...waiting $VM_wait_between seconds before starting next VM

            for tick in $( seq 1 $VM_wait_between );
            do
               echo -n .

               sleep 1
            done

            echo
         fi
      done

      $0 status
   ;;

   stop)
      for vm in "${VM_list[@]}";
      do

         if [[ $( vmrun list 2>/dev/null | grep "$vm" | wc -l ) -eq 0 ]];
         then
            echo VM "$vm" is not running

            continue;
         fi
         echo Stopping "$vm"...

         $VM_cmd_exec stop "$vm" soft >/dev/null 2>&1 &

         VM_stop_pid=$!

         VM_stop_waited=0;

         echo -n ...Waiting $VM_max_stop_wait seconds for it to stop

         while kill -0 $VM_stop_pid >/dev/null 2>&1 ;
         do
            echo -n .

            sleep 1

            VM_stop_waited=$(( $VM_stop_waited + 1 ));

            if [[ $VM_stop_waited -gt $VM_max_stop_wait ]];
            then
               echo
               echo -n ...Timeout reached while waiting for graceful shutdown.
               echo -n Hard shutdown forced...

               $VM_cmd_exec stop "$vm" hard >/dev/null 2>&1;
            fi
         done

         echo
         echo ...VM "$vm" stopped.
      done

      $0 status
   ;;

   status)
      $VM_cmd_exec list
   ;;

   restart)
      $0 stop && $0 start
   ;;

   *)
      echo Usage: $0 '{start|stop|status|restart}'

      exit 1
   ;;

esac

# vim: set ft=sh :

This has worked semi-well for me, but the problem I'm running into on Ubuntu 16.10 and Workstation 12 is that I run into the following error on reboot:
Starting up VM /home/username/vmware/CouchPotato/CouchPotato.vmx ...
...waiting 5 seconds before starting next VM.....
Starting up VM /home/username/vmware/Mylar/Mylar.vmx ...
...waiting 5 seconds before starting next VM.....
Starting up VM /home/username/vmware/NextCloud/NextCloud.vmx ...
...waiting 5 seconds before starting next VM.....
Starting up VM /home/username/vmware/SABnzbd/SABnzbd.vmx ...
...waiting 5 seconds before starting next VM.....
Starting up VM /home/username/vmware/SickRage/SickRage.vmx ...
Home directory not accessible: Permission denied
W: [pulseaudio] core-util.c: Failed to open configuration file '/root/.config/pulse//daemon.conf': Permission denied
W: [pulseaudio] daemon-conf.c: Failed to open configuration file: Permission denied
Home directory not accessible: Permission denied
W: [pulseaudio] core-util.c: Failed to open configuration file '/root/.config/pulse//daemon.conf': Permission denied
W: [pulseaudio] daemon-conf.c: Failed to open configuration file: Permission denied
Total running VMs: 2
/home/username/vmware/SABnzbd/SABnzbd.vmx
/home/username/vmware/SickRage/SickRage.vmx

So whenever I get into Ubuntu, I need to manually re-run the script and it'll start the other 3 VMs. Do you have any idea what I can do to try and fix the pulseaudio error? It's not always the same VMs, either. I've gotten it to where 3 VMs will start and 2 will error out, but as you can see the last one was 2 and 3.

Thanks.

This scipt still works in 2021, in CentOS 8 Stream with systemd, without any modification. Just need to put the script in /etc/rc.d/init.d and enable it.
VMware redrew the function to convert VMs into shared VMs and setup autostart in VMware WS 16. Long live bash scripts.

@aflyhorse I'm glad it's still useful to folks :)