This is an attempt to document the steps I needed to take to install VMware Server 2.0 beta now available for download. Please note that this is beta software from VMware and this should also be considered a beta tutorial. I have not tested these steps to any great degree, but its my hope that this will be a good starting point for those interested and any improvements can be left in comments for future improment.
I should mention first off that the VMware Server interface has completely changed in this release. It is now accessible via a web interface vs the application interface. This took a little bit of searching for me to find initially. To access your VMware Server you’ll need to do so via Firefox (I can’t get the remote console to work in Epiphany).
How to install VMware Server 2.0 Beta in Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon”
- Download VMware Server 2.0 Beta available from the VMware website. Write down the serial number it generates for you at registration.
- Unpack this archive to a location on your machine (perhaps /tmp).
- Before you configure and compile VMware Server we need to disable ipv6 support in Ubuntu as it is not currently compatible.
- sudo aptitude install build-essential xinetd
- cd /tmp/vmware-server-distrib ; sudo ./vmware-install.pl
- Answer the questions presented during the installation. The defaults should be safe in most cases.
- Because Ubuntu does not use the root user account we also need to setup access for your main user. Replace root with your username on line 10 of: /etc/vmware/hostd/authorization.xml (ACEDataUser).
- At this point I had to restart my machine to put the changes in place. I did try restarting the service(s) after changing the config, but it still didn’t allow access.
- Access your VMware Server via http://localhost:8222 or https://localhost:8333
- Accessing the remote console tab to view your virtual machine will also require an extension installed to Firefox. This also requires a browser restart after the extension is installed.
The web interface took a bit of getting used to for me. I had to spend a few minutes in there poking around to find everything. I see some advantages in moving in this direction, but for those more familiar with VMware Server 1.x it is quite a change. All the rebooting and restarting seems a bit “Windows” to me, but maybe this can be improved in the future. Again, at this point the software (and this tutorial) are beta so you get to run it at your own risk and help fix bugs.
the link of how to disable ipv6 doesn’t work.
Anyone have any luck installing vmware-tools on an Ubuntu server install. The “console” says the image for tools is mounted but it does not show up in cdrom.
Edit to myself, need to mount /media/cdrom
FWIW, I ran VMWare server on Feisty. I found it to be painfully slow (maybe I needed to spend some time tuning it).
After failing to install VMWare in Gutsy (before you posted your tutorial), I looked around at other alternatives and came across VirtualBox. It worked for me right “out of the box” and is really really fast compared to VMWare server. There is an Open Source version, though I am currently using the non-Open Source but still “free” version.
I am using it to run Windows XP for easier access to some tools that I need to have when I am on call for work.
@sparky – you mean like this?
http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2007/10/12/how-to-install-virtualbox-open-source-edition-on-ubuntu-710/
my tutorial on installing the actual open source version, which I agree (I run this much more than VMware Server) is *much* faster than VMware.
IMHO, a much easier route is to use
the vmware-package package from Debian, and
to use its make-vmpkg. It fetches everything
but the .tar.gz from VMware (which one needs
to get for the usual click-through reasons)
and then invokes module-assistant et al, and
your are left with several shiny .deb packages.
Worked fine on Gutsy at home and work.
I alien’d the RPM and it refused to find the EULA until I manually gunzip’d it. After which, I finally managed to get it running, only to find out that the WebUI takes up 122.9MB of RAM and a hell lot of CPU even when it’s not moving. What’s going on?!
i have yet to get the latest 2.0 beta working on gutsy. it installs fine, everything looks peachy then i either get one of two things happening:
1. i load up the web gui via firefox (do you have to be localhost, or can i do this from across the network?) and get to the login prompt, enter in my login/password, and it just sits there greyed out.
or
2. i try and loadup the web gui via firefox and nothing happens. webaccess looks like its spiking the cpu on the server and nothing ever loads up.
any help on what needs to be done or debugged from here?
Has anybody found the Firefox extension mentioned in step 10?
the link of how to disable ipv6 doesn’t work.
Change it for: http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2007/11/18/how-to-disable-ipv6-on-ubuntu-710-gutsy-gibbon/
I’ve tried this, and I cn strat VMs but not see them on the console – even after installing the plugin. I get:
Cannot view Virtual Machine consol:
The VMware Virtual Machine Remote Console plug-in failed to connect to your virtual machine.
Cannot connect to host localhost: Connection refused
If this problem persists, contact your system administrator.
Any ideas?
It all works fine until I go to look at a running machine in the console. Then I get a permission error saying it can’t connect. I’ve set the root user to my own user and so on as detailed above.
Any ideas anyone?
Has anybody tried to install the vmware tools on a FreeBSD 7.0 (RC1) release? I get the following errors…
(Note: /lib contains “libc.so.7”)
Before running VMware Tools for the first time, you need to configure it by
invoking the following command: “/usr/local/bin/vmware-config-tools.pl”. Do you
want this program to invoke the command for you now? [yes]
/usr/libexec/ld-elf.so.1: Shared object “libc.so.6” not found, required by “vmware-checkvm”
/usr/libexec/ld-elf.so.1: Shared object “libc.so.6” not found, required by “vmware-checkvm”
/usr/libexec/ld-elf.so.1: Shared object “libc.so.6” not found, required by “vmware-checkvm”
This configuration program is to be executed in a virtual machine.
Execution aborted.
How do I completely uninstall vmware server 2 beta? with all configuration and files..
invoked # sudo vmware-uninstall.pl , but i think not all files and configuration removed. still some files in /usr/lib/vmware, /etc/vmware. i don’t know where else…
Thanks for the info!
Mythbuntu 7.10, 64 Bit
Other than installing the ia32-libs, everything went as planned. My Virtual Machines seem to work OK and I can still record/watch TV with mythtv!
Just wanted to say thanks for putting together this tutorial. It was a breeze to upgrade (or really feels like downgrade) to 2.0 from 1.4.
Thanks Again,
Bradford Knowlton
http://x86Virtualization.com/
CPU performace was terrible until I installed the Real Time (rt) kernel. I used apt-get install linux-headers-2.6.22-14-rt, changed grub to load the new kernel in /boot/grub/menu.lst and the VMs ran really smooth afterward. Just run vmware-config.pl after a reboot with the new kernel and you’ll be good to go. I’m surprised no one has mentioned this on any guides.
To connect the panel, i had to go to http://localhost
without specifying any port ! maybe my ubuntu (hardy beta) config is strange ?
fred
thanks, this is useful to me.
And the steps work on Ubuntu 8.04(amd64), too.
Works on ubuntu 8.04 32bit. By default web interface listens on port 80.
There’s no need to restart your computer when you have modified authorization.xml. Just restart the vmware-mgmt service:
$sudo /etc/init.d/vmware-mgmt restart