The free vmware product, vmware-server (formerly GSX) does not have auto power on for certain guests. A simple workaround for not being able to auto power on guests using the vmware interface is call the vmware command line utility at boot up using the local init function. A better way is to write an init script to handle the start up and possibly other functions. This text will examine a simple method to create a control script for managing power functions in vmware-server.