Find out if the OS is running in a virtual environment

Question

Is there any way to find out if the linux i'm running (actually installing) is running in a VMWare machine. I need to disable ntp settings if the automated install is done on a virtual machine but keep them enabled if not. VMWare tools are not installed when this check is done.

Duplicate of http://serverfault.com/questions/189447/how-can-i-verify-from-a-command-prompt-if-a-linux-host-is-real-or-virtual — janneb, Nov 01 '10 at 20:08

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 01 '10 at 17:23

If running as root to use dmidecode does not work for your needs, try lspci:

$ /sbin/lspci |grep VMware
00:0f.0 VGA compatible controller: VMware SVGA II Adapter

You (probably) don't particularly care what the virtual video card is, but you're not going to find that answer in real hardware, so you can use it as an identifier.

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 01 '10 at 16:18

5

I usually use dmidecode to do exactly that (though you need to have root access to do that). Look for the "BIOS Information" section, it will usually have the "Vendor" or "Version" fields set to "VMWare", "VirtualBox" or something similar.

answered Nov 01 '10 at 16:18

ipozgaj

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 01 '10 at 16:13

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You don't say what approach you're using to do this but you can certainly do it in C.

answered Nov 01 '10 at 16:13

Alan B

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Most of the Linux distributions have dmidecode command which basically does the same. – ipozgaj Nov 01 '10 at 16:25

score -1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 26 '11 at 13:42

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You can check the MAC address...

When installed in a VM, the MAC address is using the VMWARE range format.

answered Oct 26 '11 at 13:42

sqaopen

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Not necessarily. IIRC the MAC is fully configurable even with physical NICs, much less a virtual one. – Piskvor left the building Oct 26 '11 at 14:09

Find out if the OS is running in a virtual environment

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