VMware Installation & Usage

Purpose of document

This document was written to share the information gathered while install and using VMware on
my Fedora Core 7 system.

Table of Contents
1 What is VMware?...........................................................................................................2
2 Why do I need virtual machines?.....................................................................................2
3 Installation Requirements...............................................................................................2
4 Download VMware Server...............................................................................................2
5 Get Serial Key...............................................................................................................2
6 Install VMware Server....................................................................................................3
7 Download Patch.............................................................................................................3
8 VMware Server Console..................................................................................................4
9 Creating Virtual Machine.................................................................................................5
9.1 Install VMware Tools................................................................................................6
9.2 VMWare Tools on Windows........................................................................................6
9.3 VMware Tools on Ubuntu..........................................................................................7
10 Web Interface..............................................................................................................9
11 Reference...................................................................................................................9
12 Contact......................................................................................................................9

Prasad
1 What is VMware?

With VMware Server you can create and run guest operating systems (“virtual machines”) such
as Windows, Linux etc. under the host operating system.

2 Why do I need virtual machines?

There are several advantages of having virtual machines setup. Some of them are described
below:

➢ If you want to test your product on all platforms of OS, then instead of going for 1-
Desktop-1-OS model you can go for 1-Desktop-N-OS. You see a direct reduction in price.
[ This 1-Desktop you can make it more powerful with memory and storage to gain even
the performance. ]

➢ If you want to provide access to different flavors of OS (like Fedora, Debian, Red Hat...) to
your users, you can have all these as virtual machines on the same server and allow
remote access quite easily. Easy maintenance is possible this way.

➢ These are just some examples, you can think of many more...

3 Installation Requirements

✔ kernel development headers – which is generally selected when Fedora Core 7 is installed.

✔ xinetd – This is an optional package, it might not be installed.

yum install xinetd

[Install the dependent packages as well]

4 Download VMware Server

You have to download the VMware server from http://www.vmware.com/download/server/

Accept the agreement and download the .tar.gz package (not RPM!)

[ My VMware Server version is 1.0.3 – VMware-server-1.0.3-44356.tar.gz ]

5 Get Serial Key

Go to http://register.vmware.com/content/registration.html and provide required details, a mail

will be sent with the Serial Key. Please have a copy of it. This is required during installation.

Prasad
6 Install VMware Server

Open the terminal, become the root

tar zxvf VMware-server-1.0.3-44356.tar.gz

cd vmware-server-distrib
./vmware-install.pl

The installer will ask you a lot of questions. You can always accept the default values simply by
hitting <ENTER>.
It is possible that the installation aborts with this failure message:
Building the vmmon module.

Using 2.6.x kernel build system.

make: Entering directory`/tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only'
make -C /lib/modules/2.6.21-1.3194.fc7/build/include/.. SUBDIRS=$PWD SRCROOT=$PWD/.
modules
make[1]: Entering directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.21-1.3194.fc7-i686'
CC [M] /tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o
In file included from /tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only/linux/driver.c:80:
/tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only/./include/compat_kernel.h:21: error: expected declaration
specifiers or ... before compat_exit
/tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only/./include/compat_kernel.h:21: error: expected declaration
specifiers or ... before exit_code
/tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only/./include/compat_kernel.h:21: warning: type defaults to int
in declaration of _syscall1
make[2]: *** [/tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only/linux/driver.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [_module_/tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/usr/src/kernels/2.6.21-1.3194.fc7-i686'
make: *** [vmmon.ko] Error 2
make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config2/vmmon-only'
Unable to build the vmmon module.

For more information on how to troubleshoot module-related problems, please

visit our Web site at "http://www.vmware.com/download/modules/modules.html" and
"http://www.vmware.com/support/reference/linux/prebuilt_modules_linux.html".

Execution aborted.

7 Download Patch

VMware compilation fails on 2.6.x, you need to add a patch for it.

Go to http://knihovny.cvut.cz/ftp/pub/vmware/
Download the file: vmware-any-any-update114.tar.gz

wget http://knihovny.cvut.cz/ftp/pub/vmware/vmware-any-any-update114.tar.gz
tar xvfz vmware-any-any-update114.tar.gz
cd vmware-any-any-update114
./runme.pl

The ./runme.pl command will continue the VMware Server installation. This time it should
succeed, and again you can accept all default values.

Prasad
At the end of the installation, you will be asked to enter a serial number:
Please enter your 20-character serial number.
Type XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX or 'Enter' to cancel:
Fill in your serial number for VMware Server (this was sent as email after your registration).

8 VMware Server Console

After successful installation you can start the server console from the menu as shown below:

Click on Connect to establish connection with Local host VMware.

Prasad
9 Creating Virtual Machine

New Virtual Machine Wizard will be displayed to help you create basic setup before
installation.
You can accept the default values chosen by the Wizard except in few steps:

1. Select Appropriate Configuration Step

➢ Choose Custom installation instead of Typical.
2. Select Disk Capacity
➢ You can uncheck Allocate all disk space now option, if your disk size is small.
After this step, your new virtual machine is ready for installation. Keep the OS installation
CD/DVD ROM. Select the virtual machine and click on Power On Button

VMware startups and you can finish the installation as you do on a Desktop.

Prasad
9.1 Install VMware Tools

After the virtual machine is installed with the required Operating System, it is good to install
VMware tool for it.

This will install suitable drivers to make sure the emulation of the screen and mouse works
smooth.

If you have not installed the VMware tools for virtual machine operating system, the status bar of
VMware Server Console shows the following:

After Power Up of virtual machine, you have to click inside the tab to get mouse control in the
virtual machine operating system. To get mouse control for the Server Console and the host
operating system you have to first press CTRL + ALT (Hot Key, shown in the status bar)

If you install VMware tool for the virtual machine operating system this circus is not required.

You can only install VMware Tools when virtual machine is:

➔ Powered Up and you have logged into the Operating System

9.2 VMWare Tools on Windows

Right click on the virtual machine name and select Install VMware Tool as shown below:

You will get a wizard to allow setting configuration and finally VMware Tools are installed.

Prasad
9.3 VMware Tools on Ubuntu

The only difference between VMware Tools install on Windows and *nix OS, is there is no auto-
installation. After you click Install VMware Tools, it is mounted as a cdrom and you have to carry
on the installation through command line which described below:

Prasad
cp /media/cdrom0/VMwareTools-1.0.3-44356.tar.gz $HOME
cd $HOME
tar zxvf VMwareTools-1.0.3-44356.tar.gz
cd vmware-tools-distrib
sudo ./vmware-install.pl

[If asked for password enter your login password – there is no root user in Ubuntu]

After the installation is complete virtual machine is reset (Restarted).

You can now configure the screen resolution and check mouse control now available on both host
operating system and virtual machine operating system without needing you to press CTRL+ALT!

Prasad
10 Web Interface

You can install vmware-mui (Vmware-mui-1.0.4-56528.tar.gz). This will let you manage the
VMware through web (https://)

After successful installation, try http://localhost:8333/

Login with username: root, password: <root password>

Other than managing the VMware, it lets you download the client side VMware server console.
This lets your user connect to the virtual machine on the server.

Shown below is the installed version of VMware Server Console on my other Windows machine (it
is not Windows installed on the Virtual Machine – don't get confused). Downloaded the required
version from the Fedora Core 7 VMware Web Interface.

11 Reference

http://www.howtoforge.com/vmware_server_fedora7

12 Contact

If you find this document useful or have any feedback to share drop me a mail at:
prasad83.a@gmail.com (prasad83 dot a at gmail dot com)

Prasad