How To Install VMware Server 2 On A Mandriva 2009.0 Desktop

This tutorial provides step-by-step instructions on how to install VMware Server 2 on a Mandriva 2009.0 desktop system. With VMware Server you can create and run guest operating systems ("virtual machines") such as Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, etc. under a host operating system. This has the benefit that you can run multiple operating systems on the same hardware which saves a lot of money, and you can move virtual machines from one VMware Server to the next one (or to a system that has the VMware Player which is also free).

Also, with VMware Server you can let your old Windows desktop (that you previously converted into a VMware virtual machine with VMware Converter, as described in this tutorial: http://www.howtoforge.com/vmware_converter_windows_linux) run under your Mandriva desktop. This can be useful if you depend on some applications that exist for Windows only, or if you want to switch to Linux slowly.

I want to say first that this is not the only way of setting up such a system. There are many ways of achieving this goal but this is the way I take. I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!


1 Preliminary Note

I'm using the user name falko with the home directory /home/falko here - please adjust this appropriately.


2 Find Out Your Kernel Version

Before we go on and install additional software, it's a good idea to find out about your kernel version because in chapter 3 we will install the packages kernel-source and kernel-desktop586-devel which are needed by VMware Server (which we will install at the end of this tutorial). There might be multiple kernel-source and kernel-desktop586-devel packages available, and to select the right ones you need to know your kernel version.

To find out about your kernel version, open a terminal (Applications > Tools > Terminal ) and run

uname -r

The output should look like this:

[falko@localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.27-desktop586-0.rc8.2mnb
[falko@localhost ~]$

which means you have kernel 2.6.27-desktop586-0.rc8.2mnb installed.


3 Installing Additional Software

Now that we have added additional repositories, a lot more packages are available in our package manager for installation, especially a big deal of our needed packages. To install them, go to Applications > Install & Remove Software. The Software Management window opens. Please make sure that you select All in the two drop-down menus on the left to make sure that you can select from all packages that are available:



Browse the applications on the left (or even better, use the search field) and mark the following packages for installation:

* kernel-source
* kernel-desktop586-devel
* xinetd
* perl-devel
* gcc
* gcc-c++

Make sure you select the kernel-source and kernel-desktop586-devel packages that suit your installed kernel.

After the installation, click on Quit to leave the Software Management window.

4 Installing VMware Server

To download VMware Server, go to http://www.vmware.com/products/server/ and click on Download Now:




On the next page, log in with your existing VMware account or create a new one:




Follow the on-screen instructions. At the end, you should receive an email with a link to your download page. On the download page, you should see two license numbers, one for Windows and one for Linux. Write down or save the one for Linux and scroll down.



Then download the VMware Server for Linux TAR image (not the RPM image!) to your desktop (e.g. to /home/falko/Desktop):







Open a terminal (Applications > Tools > Terminal) and become root:

su

Then go to the location where you saved the VMware Server .tar.gz file, e.g. /home/falko/Desktop (replace falko with your own username!):

cd /home/falko/Desktop

Unpack the VMware Server .tar.gz file and run the installer:

tar xvfz VMware-server-*.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 .

If you see the following question, answer with yes:

Your kernel was built with "gcc" version "4.3.1", while you are trying to use
"/usr/bin/gcc" version "4.3.2". This configuration is not recommended and
VMware Server may crash if you'll continue. Please try to use exactly same
compiler as one used for building your kernel. Do you want to go with compiler
"/usr/bin/gcc" version "4.3.2" anyway? [no] <-- yes

When the installer asks you

In which directory do you want to keep your virtual machine files?
[/var/lib/vmware/Virtual Machines]

you can either accept the default value or specify a location that has enough free space to store your virtual machines.

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.

After the successful installation, you can delete the VMware Server download file and the installation directory:

cd /home/falko/Desktop
rm -f VMware-server*
rm -fr vmware-server-distrib/

VMware Server 2 does not have a desktop application for managing virtual machines - this is now done through a browser (e.g. Firefox). You can access the management interface over HTTPS (https://:8333) or HTTP (http://:8222); the management interface can be accessed locally and also remotely. If you want to access it from the same machine, type https://127.0.0.1:8333 or http://127.0.0.1:8222 into the browser's address bar.

If you're using Firefox 3 and use HTTPS, Firefox will complain about the self-signed certificate, therefore you must tell Firefox to accept the certificate - to do this, click on the Or you can add an exception... link:




Click on Add Exception...:




The Add Security Exception window opens. In that window, click on the Get Certificate button first and then on the Confirm Security Exception button:



Afterwards, you will see the VMware Server login form. Type in root and your root password:




This is how the VMware Server web interface looks. The structure is similar to the old VMware Server 1 desktop application, so the usage of the web interface is pretty straightforward.




sumber:http://howtoforge.com/how-to-install-vmware-server-2-on-a-mandriva-2009.0-desktop