VMware Virtual machine automation tools and methods

Question

I'm new to VM automation however have used Selenium and Appium to extensively automate mobile devices.

I wanted to ask what kind of programs, tools to use for VM automation that allow you to access the VM GUI elements and move the mouse cursor even before entering the login screen similar to how Selenium allows you to?

so far I've only found "vmrun", but while helpful it doesn't seem to allow you to get displayed elements and move the mouse cursor around.

Answer 1

I see two solutions here:

1) Old style (I won't recommend it) Using visually automation packages, one of them is autoit https://www.autoitscript.com/site/autoit/

It allows you to generate mouse movements, clicks, typing, etc. so you could access visually the vm gui.

2) Automate things programatically (this makes more sense): Using the vm command line: https://www.vmware.com/support/ws5/doc/ws_learning_cli_vmrun.html