Vmware

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Revision as of 23:04, 11 February 2008 by Cactus (talk | contribs) (Removed snetram installation method as it is no longer valid)
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Maintainer

Sme Developers

Description

VMware Server installs on any existing server hardware and partitions a physical server into multiple virtual machines by abstracting processor, memory, storage and networking resources, giving you greater hardware utilization and flexibility. Streamline software development and testing and simplify server provisioning as you utilize the ability to "build once, deploy many times."

Installation

http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=37605.0

http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=30838.msg162804#msg162804

VMware Server

Installation

Get shell access (with Putty or similar ssh-client) and log in as root.

Download the VMWare-server RPM from the vmware server to your machine and issue the following command:

yum localinstall /path/to/VMWare-server.rpm smeserver-vmware-server --enablerepo=smecontribs

The above should also install xinetd for dependency.

Configuration

Go to VMware web site and get a free serial number for VMware Server, linux version.

Important.png Note:
The requirement for GCC is currently an optional. Depending on your kernel at the time you may find the the included modules load and run perfectly (it will give you a message to this effect).

Enabling repos help resolve dependencies.

yum install gcc


To finish the installation run the following command:

vmware-config.pl


Warning.png Warning:
Leaving gcc on a production server is considered a security risk, if you do not really need it you should not install it, if you need it you should seriously consider uninstalling gcc when you no longer need it. Removing gcc can be done using the following command:
yum remove gcc


signal-event post-upgrade; signal-event reboot

VMWare Management UI

Installation

VMware Server Web-based management interface. It's optional, you can also use VMware Console from a client computer.

wget http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmserver/VMware-mui-1.0.4-56528.tar.gz
tar -xzvf VMware-mui-1.0.4-56528.tar.gz
cd vmware-mui-distrib/

Configuration

Configuration of the management user interface is done with a script that can be run like this:

./vmware-install.pl

Remote access

The VMware Server will only be accessible from the local network. If you want to be able to access the VMware Server from internet, run these commands:

Console

To allow console access from your local network:

config set vmware service access private status enabled TCPPort 902


Warning.png Warning:
The command below will open the ports of the Management Console to the internet, this means a serious security implication


To allow console access from all over the internet:

config set vmware service access public status enabled TCPPort 902

Update the remote access settings and reload changes:

signal-event remoteaccess-update

Substitute "disabled" instead of "enabled" in the above commands to disable access.

Management UI

To allow Management UI access from your local network:

config set httpd.vmware service TCPPorts 8222,8333 access private status enabled


Warning.png Warning:
The command below will open the ports of the Management UI to the internet, this means a serious security implication


To allow Management UI access from all over the internet:

config set httpd.vmware service TCPPorts 8222,8333 access public status enabled

After defining the service we need to make the service start at boot time

ln -s /etc/rc.d/init.d/e-smith-service /etc/rc7.d/S91httpd.vmware

Now we can manually start the service

/etc/rc7.d/S91httpd.vmware restart
signal-event remoteaccess-update

Substitute "disabled" instead of "enabled" in the above commands to disable access.

Usage

Console

Download and install the VMware console from the VMware web site, or the MUI webpage, on a client machine or use the existing console if you already have VMware (Server) installed.

Run Console on your client and connect to your_server and start to play...

Management UI

Open a web browser and go to https://your_server:8333/vmware/en/

Log in as root and you will find VMware Management interface.

Uninstallation

vmware-uninstall-mui.pl
yum remove VMware-server gcc smeserver-vmware-server

Check installed versions

yum info installed smeserver-vmware-server VMware-server

Additional information

More information about vmware can be found on the vmware website http://www.vmware.com/products/server/

VMware download site: http://register.vmware.com/content/download.html

If some setting went wrong during installation, just rerun

vmware-config.pl

Be aware that a yum update that includes a new kernel may cause a failure of VMware-server. In this case, you will have to re-run vmware-config.pl and rebuild the modules.

NB. VMware-server benefits from a lot of ram.

Bugs

Please raise bugs under the SME-Contribs section in bugzilla and select the smeserver-vmware-server component or use this link .

Known problems

Virtual machines created in a Windows host probably need further customization to work fully under SMEserver (Linux) host.