VM /ETC

Archive for the ‘linux’ Category

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 »

5 Linux-based Virtualization Companies to Watch on Ken Hess’s Linux Blog is a post about the 5 main server virtualization platforms based on Linux. Ken also mentions the only non Linux based hypervisor, Microsoft’s Hyper-V.

“There’s only one company that doesn’t use Linux for its server virtualization platform. Can you guess which one it is? If you guessed Microsoft, you’re correct. Microsoft is a newbie in the virtualization space but wants in and may make significant dents in the already well-established market that is significantly owned by VMware. For Windows-only virtualization, there may be some validity to the switch to Hyper-V.

For the rest of us, who are either too stubborn or too smart to make the shift to Hyper-V, what are our choices? The following is a list of 5 of the main players in Linux-based virtualization.”

Use the link above to read all of Ken’s original post for some brief info about each platform, but I am listing the 6 products and the links to their free versions for quick reference here. Ken does not discuss nor am I including free hosted platforms such as Microsoft Virtual PC or VMware Server. Read the rest of this entry »

If you run the free VMware Server on a Linux host then VMTN Communities user phxrider has created a couple of scripts that can make your life a little easier. Phxrider’s clone and rename scripts automate the process of two administrative tasks that are frankly a burden to do manually. Both VMware Server 1.x or 2.0 do not offer any template or cloning abilities from their respective GUI interfaces, so these scripts are an essential tool to have if you want to duplicate VMs or change the VM’s files to match a renamed directory.

Check out either http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-8050 or the VMTN Forum thread at http://communities.vmware.com/thread/168266 to download the scripts. Here’s some brief info from these links:

“The clone script does a straight clone of a VM. It copies the directory, renames the files and tweaks all the text inside the files by using sed to replace the old name with the new one, then sets all the permissions to what they would be if you created a new VM.

The rename script basically does all but copy it. This is handy for if you tried to rename a directory manually or attempted a manual copy and then found it still shows up under the old name in the web console. Remember this one assumes you have already renamed the directory to the new name and it MUST be the same as what you intend for the new name to be.

Both work the same way… scriptname <old name> <new name>”

I am not aware of equivalent scripts for VMware Server hosted on Windows, but if they exist please leave a comment with a link for VM /ETC readers.

The rest of this post is my example of using the clone_vm.sh script to make a template for future VMware Server 2.0 VM cloning. Read the rest of this entry »

This session was my last VMworld 2008 session on Tuesday 9.17. I must have missed it in my notebook Tuesday night, so I am posting my notes now. The session was hosted by Mike DePetrillo, Principal Systems Engineer at VMware. Mike did the entire session on one leg. If you saw one of Mike’s sessions or you know Mike you’ll understand that comment.

This session was designed for companies that are primarily Linux shops and have numerous virtual machines (VMs) on VMware virtual infrastructure. Mike provided general information about Linux as a guest OS as well as some best practices and performance tips for both the VMs and the ESX hosts. The rest of this post is my notes from the session.

Mike started out by talking about general recommendations for building Linux VMs.

Read the rest of this entry »

I had to miss my 9:30 am scheduled session because I was delayed finishing up the General Session post. Luckily VMworld has different sessions on the top and bottom of each hour this year. I think the staggered availability of sessions is a great idea, and it was perfect for my scenario this morning. I am actually more interested in VMware’s Linux strategy anyways. My power is low on my notebook, so this may start as a live blog but my battery might not make it.

Once again the legal disclaimer about forward technologies, but the presenter tells us he can’t give dates … hmmm.

VMware’s Linux strategy is focused along 2 vectors:

• Ensure it is the best platform for linux workloads
• Ensure customers have a wide variety of platform choices to deploy VMware

Here’s the Linux Initiatives at VMware Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I had a customer ask me for help with a repetitive administrative task that is extra aggravating for shops with a lot of Linux virtual machines (VMs). The customer was frustrated with the manual process of upgrading VMware Tools after kernel upgrades in their VMs. It’s a problem unique to Linux since the Windows operating system kernel does not change very frequently, but the development cycle of several Linux distributions can mean multiple kernel versions each year. After each upgrade and subsequent VM reboot the VMware tools must be re-installed so the tools are compiled correctly with the new kernel. Not exactly fun to do when you have a lot of Linux VMs.

I suggested 2 alternatives for the customer. The first is a scripted solution configured inside each Linux VM and the second is a built in feature of VirtualCenter and ESX for versions 2.0.1 and 3.0.1 or greater. I have not tested either of these solutions. My reason for writing this post is partly to explain the options, but also to get some feedback from the community. Let me know if you use or have tried either of these solutions or anything similar. If there is a better way please comment on this post! If you try one of these for your Linux virtual guests let me know what works and what doesn’t.

The following methods require that VMware tools are already installed in the Linux guests. For instructions for installing the tools check out the current VMware .pdf guide titled Basic System Administration Update 2 Release for ESX 3.5, ESXi version 3.5, VirtualCenter 2.5. if you are wondering if you should even install VMware tools in Linux guests than check out my post “Why do I need to install VMware Tools?”. Read the rest of this entry »