Does VMware provide tools to control the use of the virtual appliance (like activation keys) or help automate configuration?
VMware Studio provides a web-based interface, CLI or an Eclipse plug-in to customize virtual appliances. These customizations involve providing the pre-install and post scripts, first-boot, virtual resource configuration, Operating System, application package list, etc. At the customer side a web-based UI can be used to configure the IP Address and Proxy settings.