How do I programmatically detect a Blue Screen in VMWare Workstation?

Question

I would like to automatically be able to detect if a BSOD has occurred in a VM (using VMWare Workstation and VIX). I am testing software using all versions of Windows in VMWare and would like to know when a blue screen occurs.

Preferrably I would also like to attempt to automatically send myself the dump file that the BSOD generates, but I can probably figure that out once I can detect that the BSOD actually happened.

The VMWare HA doesn't really suit me due to costs and I don't really care about recovering ... I just care about detection.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

I will query the EventLog in each reboot if I were you (I'm assuming you have autoreboot activated). You can find the evidence of a BSOD there and then send the dumps or do whatever you need.

Answer 2

Have guest OS report in to another server with an "I'm Alive" message periodically. If it fails to report assume the worst.

I'm not an expert on VMWare, but if it is possible to programattically get OS disk access and processor usage, then that would also let you know. They shouln't be zero but they will be in a BSOD.