VM /ETC

Archive for the ‘linux’ Category

I have periodically attempted different methods for running the VMware vSphere and VI Client (VIC) on Ubuntu. While continuing to keep my fingers crossed for VMware to release a Linux version, I’ve tried several workarounds only to remain unsatisfied:

• installing the VIC with Wine
• Locally running Windows virtual machines in either Virtualbox or VMware Workstation/Player
• Used the ESX web client when possible (features are limited)
• Used a full Remote Desktop to vCenter

The method with the least pre-configuration necessary has always been a remote desktop with the VIC already installed, but there is always some untimely inconvenience involved when working between two different desktops.

Long story short, the rest of this post is about using the default Ubuntu Terminal Server Client to access a single application via RDP. This is perfect for using the vSphere Client or VIC on Linux. It does not require a “published application” or full Terminal Server, but instead it is a simple way to take advantage of the administrative RDP connection from the standard Remote Desktop access available on any Windows operating system.

Before I describe how to set this up I want to also reference my first try at RDP directly to the vSphere Client and VIC. Afterall, Read the rest of this entry »

Once again I am using a VirtualBox VM to help me watch a streaming sporting event on a Linux host. This past football season I was Watching the Georgia Bulldogs in a Virtualbox VM running on Ubuntu, and this time I am able to watch the NCAA Mens Basketball Tournament from a Windows 7 Beta VM hosted on Kubuntu. Similar to my scenario before, Firefox is an unsupported browser for the streaming game broadcasts available from cbssportsline.com. I needed IE so I started up my Windows VM and started watching the games.

Here’s some quick details about my setup.

• Host OS is Kubuntu 8.10 with KDE 4.1.4 desktop
• I am using VirtualBox version 2.1.4
• VM has 512 MB of RAM with the video memory set to 128 MB
• VM uses a single vCPU
• VM has Intel VT-x, nested paging, and 3D acceleration enabled
• VM is running Windows 7 Beta

The video stream is surprisingly smooth with occasional, but very brief, periods of choppiness. I’ll attribute this partly to the fact that I am wireless and the ads on the web page contain random animation.

I wish I was as happy about my bracket as I am about VirtualBox!

Here is a screen shot of the VM settings. Read the rest of this entry »

Duncan over at Yellow-Bricks.com just a posted about a technology preview of the new VMware vCenter 2.5 for Linux available for beta testing. The virtual appliance can be downloaded from the VMTN forums in both .zip and .ovf format.

This early edition is for beta testing only, and VMware strongly suggests not to use this edition in a production environment. There is also a vCenter on Linux install guide .pdf available for download.

I’m looking forward to my current download completing so I can explore vCenter on Linux. I will not be able to post anything immediately as verbiage from the download page clearly states this technical preview is “highly confidential”.

Hopefully this is the start of some exciting new product announcements and features to coincide with the opening day of VMworld Europe 2009 tomorrow!

Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Ubuntu Project, has announced via the Ubuntu Development List that Ubuntu Server 9.10, which will be available in October 2009, will allow companies to build their own open source, private clouds. Mark explains in his announcement, “Ubuntu aims to keep free software at the forefront of cloud computing by embracing the API’s of Amazon EC2, and making it easy for anybody to setup their own cloud using entirely open tools.” Mark states that official Ubuntu based revisions of Amazon Machine Images (AMI), the operating system and software stack currently deployed on Xen Server in the EC2 cloud, are currently in beta.

However, Mark indicates that plans for the new Ubuntu Server include more than just providing for the hosted Amazon Cloud service:

“What if you want to build an EC2-style cloud of your own? Of all the trees in the wood, a Koala’s favourite leaf is Eucalyptus. The Eucalyptus project, from UCSB, enables you to create an EC2-style cloud in your own data center, on your own hardware.”

Ubuntu 9.10 ’s official distribution name will be “Karmic Koala” thus explaining the mascot refrence in the previous quote. (I can’t help but think about dining at the Rainforest Cafe when considering all of the Ubuntu distro names and mascots!) Eucalyptus is a cloud management interface in development by Ubuntu which will enable private EC2 style clouds. Eucalyptus is actually an acronym for Read the rest of this entry »

I was surprised to find there is not a “send ctrl+alt+del” menu command in VMware Server 2.0 (updated 01.30.09) when connecting from an Ubuntu desktop. It’s not in the Remote Console menus nor in the Commands section of the Web Interface. Normally that is not a big deal because you can always use “ctrl+alt+ins” to log on to a Windows VM, but it did not work.

I was banging away at my keyboard wondering what was wrong. I had just finished installing Server 2008 remotely from one of my Intrepid desktops and was ready to log back in to run dcpromo but I could not get to the log on prompt. I thought maybe my ins key went bad, but I knew that could not be the case. When I tried to use another Ubuntu desktop I had the same problem. Then I discovered there was not a menu command either! I silently questioned whether the VMware Server team’s parents were married when they were born, and then I did some research.

I quickly found the answer at the following thread on the Ubuntu Forums: vmware server 2.0 in intrepid ibex [Archive] – Ubuntu Forums. Turns out you have to use the Del key from the number pad on your Ubuntu desktop’s keyboard because the keyboard mappings in Ubuntu 8.10 are not correct! The working key combination is therefore “ctrl+alt+[numberpad]del.

updated 4.30.09 – if you do not have a number pad on your keyboard (laptops) then make this quick config change.

add just one line to the file ~/.vmware/config:

xkeymap.nokeycodeMap = true

Close the VM web console and reopen it for the change to take effect.

VMware please add a “send ctrl+alt+del” command to the (update 01.30.09) Linux Remote Console in the next update/version of VMware Server. Ubuntu, why are the keyboard mappings messed up?

updated 01.30.09 – I added the following screen shots to show the menu options when using the Remote Console from my Ubuntu desktops. I should point out I am using Firefox 3.0.5. I also updated the opening sentence of this post by adding “when connecting from an Ubuntu desktop” and the last sentence with “Linux Remote Console”. As Dracolith points out in his comment and screen shot link below, the “send ctrl+alt+del” command exists when connecting from a Windows host. I confirmed The ctrl+alt+ins key combination works as expected too. Read the rest of this entry »

VMware announced specific Linux packages are now available for it’s VM Tools not too long ago. They also introduced the  Operating System Specific Packages (OSP) Home Page where “you will be able to search, browse and download VMware Tools software packaged in the native package format (e.g. rpm, deb etc) for select supported Operating Systems.” At VMworld 2008 I attended a session about VMware’s Roadmap for Linux that promised distribution packages were on the horizon, so it’s great to see them so quickly.

VMware currently has Linux packages for:

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (including GA and Update Releases 1 through 7)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (including GA and Update Releases 1 and 2)
• Suse Linux Enterprise Server 9 (including GA and Service Pack releases 1 through 4)
• Suse Linux Enterprise Server 10 (including GA and Service Pack releases 1 and 2)
• Ubuntu Linux 8.04 (including GA and Update Release 8.04.1)

VMware has created a guide for installing the OSPs (http://www.vmware.com/pdf/osp_install_guide.pdf), but after reading this PDF I was a little disappointed in the complicated process described inside. It made me curious if it could really be that hard, for Ubuntu for example, when so many packages are readily available via the Synaptic Package Manager. So, I decided to check for myself and the result was the screen shot image in this post. Click it for a larger view.

I haven’t actually tried an install from Synaptic yet, but I am definitely excited about the package availability! Let me know if you’ve already used Synaptic, Yum, apt-get, or any other native Linux package management tool to successfully install VMware Tools.

In my opinion, this is a huge advancement in the automation of Linux guest administration, and it will make installing and  keeping VMware Tools updated for Linux operating systems almost as easy as in Windows guests!

Not too long ago I published a visual how to guide for installing Windows 7 Beta on VMware Workstation 6.5. In this post I am illustrating how to install Windows 7 in a VirtualBox 2.1 virtual machine hosted on a 32 bit Ubuntu 8.10 desktop. Once again the installation is straightforward, but I’ve taken the time to record screen shots of the process. Judging by the traffic from the first post, the topic of running Windows 7 in a VM has been very popular, so now this post provides a Linux open source alternative to the previous Windows Vista VMware Workstation post. Like before I’ve added some basic notes along with my impressions during the process.

There’s nothing really too complicated or tricky, but nonetheless use this guide to get an idea how simple the VirtualBox Windows 7 installation process really is. Read the rest of this entry »