VMware Communities : All Content - VMware Studio

Ubuntu 9.10 Server support on VMware Studio 2.0

NickelNetworks — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 00:56:04 GMT

In order to add Ubuntu 9.10 Server to be supported under VMware Studio 2.0 you must add it to the supported OS profiles.
I hope this helps someone.

#1 Copy the Ubuntu 9.10 Server CD ISO to /opt/ISO

#2 Go to /opt/vmware/etc/build/templates/ubuntu and create directory “09” and indide "09" also create "10", so the full path now is /opt/vmware/etc/build/templates/ubuntu/09/10.

#3 Copy the build_profile.xml from /opt/vmware/etc/build/templates/ubuntu/08/041/build_profile.xml to /opt/vmware/etc/build/templates/ubuntu/09/10/

#4 Edit the /opt/vmware/etc/build/templates/ubuntu/09/10/build_profile.xml and change the location of the vadk:path= to match the location of your Ubuntu 9.10 Server CD ISO from step 1.

<vadk:ISO vadk:path="file:///opt/ISO/ubuntu-9.10-server-i386.iso"

Change the line that contains md5sum="

md5sum="55618ad5f180692f9dac20cbff352634" is the latest Ubuntu 9.10 Server ISO md5.

Other lines to change:

vadk:sourceDir="http://VADK.vadkRoot/lib/build/include/ubuntu/09/10/"

vadk:OSverMajor="9" vadk:OSverMinor="10"

Regards,

Paul Aviles
www.nickelnetworks.com

VMWare Studio 1.0 Appliance needs a reboot during firstboot script.

vnagaraja — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:20:33 GMT

You could just start the tomcat server from Vmware Studio provided firstboot and subsequentboot scripts. This way tomcat will run after your initialization script (if called from the firstboot script).
Won't that work?

Vishwas

ERROR: Unable to parse vm customization options

vnagaraja — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:53:24 GMT

Probably an xml file that is needed for displaying information in the Blue Login screen is either corrupt or missing.

Could you check if the following files are present and look like they have valid information, if they do, can you post these files:
/opt/vmware/share/htdocs/service/core/view-deploy.xml
/opt/vmware/var/lib/vami/update/data/info/manifest-installed.xml

Also, to figure out what may cause this,
Did you install a special package, or modify any files during build of the VA?
Is the product name, application url, and version in the build profile valid strings (do they have special characters)?

Vishwas

Guest type and Cannot configure the source image errors

vnagaraja — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:21:50 GMT

There are a set of OS names internal to the ESX product (for instance try creating a new VM using vSphere Client and specify the OS for it), some of the OSes are not present in this list Ex: Centos 5.3. As a result this OS name is mapped to the closest available OS name in that list.

Newer releases of ESX will probably have Centos 5.3 listed.

Vishwas

What is the minimum licensed version of vSphere/ESX to run Studio?

leong — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:08:50 GMT

To run/host the Studio 2.0 vm itself, the free license of vSphere would also work. To provision/build appliances using vSphere/VI:

ESXi 4.0 and ESXi 3.5 U4 or later: a minimal of the vSphere Essentials license is required.

ESXi 3.5 U3: free license of vSphere would work.

The minimal supported version of vSphere for running/hosting the Studio 2.0 vm itself is ESX 3.5 U3.

Ref: http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/studio/studio20/release_notes.html

Management Services customizations

sjalagam — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:41:17 GMT

Please look for "Adding a Linux Management Service" in Studio Developer Guide. (http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/studio/studio20/studio_developer.pdf).

It is possible to accomplish what you are asking for, you can use the lighttpd (webserver) to serve the webpage in the new tab and write a cgi file to run your command (lighttpd is already configured to work with python).

You can create the Management Services by hand or use eclipse to create and build a service (Please see VMware Studio Plugin for Eclipse>Creating Management Services in Developer Guide)

Please see the attached cgisample.tar that shows how to run a command and show the output. It also does http basic authentication. Please see "Importing a Management Service" to see how to import and use the attached cgisample.tar

CentOS 5.4 support on VMware Studio 2.0

NickelNetworks — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:22:02 GMT

In order to add CentOS 5.4 to be supported under VMware Studio 2.0 you must add it to the supported OS profiles.
I hope this helps someone.

#1 Copy the DVD ISO to /opt/vmware/www/ISV/ISO/

#2 Go to /opt/vmware/etc/build/templates/centos/5 and create directory “4” as the latest version can also add “4_x86_64”.

#3 Create build_profile.xml as sample below. The latest md5sum must exist in the line that reads:

<vadk:ISO vadk:path="file:///opt/vmware/www/ISV/ISO/CentOS-5.4-i386-bin-DVD.iso" vadk:md5sum="071e18754c2fb066c526672f9aea0515" vadk:containFiles=""/>

So md5sum="071e18754c2fb066c526672f9aea0515" is the latest CentOS 5.4 DVD ISO md5.

#4 Create build_profile.xml inside /opt/vmware/etc/build/templates/centos/5/4/

<ovf:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://schemas.dmtf.org/ovf/envelope/1 /opt/vmware/etc/build/schemas/vadk.xsd"
xmlns:vadk="http://www.vmware.com/schema/vadk"
xmlns:ovf="http://schemas.dmtf.org/ovf/envelope/1"
xmlns:vssd="http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/CIM_VirtualSystemSettingData"
xmlns:rasd="http://schemas.dmtf.org/wbem/wscim/1/cim-schema/2/CIM_ResourceAllocationSettingData"
xmlns:vmw="http://www.vmware.com/schema/ovf"
ovf:version="0.7.0"
vadk:version="1.1">

<References></References>


<Section xsi:type="ovf:AnnotationSection_Type">
<Info></Info>
<Annotation></Annotation>
</Section>

<Section xsi:type="ovf:ProductSection_Type" ovf:required="false">
<Info>VM ISV branding information</Info>
<Product>CentOS Linux 5.4</Product>
<Vendor>Independent Software Vendor, Inc.</Vendor>

<Version>1.0.0.0</Version>
<FullVersion>1.0.0.0 alpha</FullVersion>
<ProductUrl></ProductUrl>
<VendorUrl></VendorUrl>
<AppUrl>http://${app.ip}/</AppUrl>
<Category>Application</Category>
</Section>

<Section xsi:type="vadk:ExtendedProductSection_Type">
<Info></Info>
<vadk:VendorUUID></vadk:VendorUUID>
<vadk:ProductRID></vadk:ProductRID>
<vadk:AppUrlName>Application Home</vadk:AppUrlName>
<vadk:Logo></vadk:Logo>
<vadk:LogoUrl></vadk:LogoUrl>
<vadk:WelcomeText>${app.name} - ${app.version}

To manage this VM browse to ${vami.url}
</vadk:WelcomeText>

</Section>

<Section xsi:type="vadk:SSLCertificateSection_Type">
<Info></Info>
<vadk:CommonName>Self-Signed by YourCompany, Inc.</vadk:CommonName>
<vadk:OrganizationName>YourCompany, Inc.</vadk:OrganizationName>
<vadk:OrganizationalUnitName>VM Division</vadk:OrganizationalUnitName>
<vadk:CountryName>US</vadk:CountryName>
</Section>

<Section xsi:type="vadk:VAMISection_Type">
<Info>VAMI Specific Information</Info>
<vadk:Services>
<vadk:Service vadk:name="core" vadk:version="2.0.0.0" vadk:tabOrder="0"/>
<vadk:Service vadk:name="update" vadk:version="2.0.0.0" vadk:tabOrder="0"/>
<vadk:Service vadk:name="system" vadk:version="2.0.0.0" vadk:tabOrder="1"/>
<vadk:Service vadk:name="network" vadk:version="2.0.0.0" vadk:tabOrder="2"/>
</vadk:Services>
<vadk:WebServer vadk:httpsPort="5480"/>
<vadk:ViewCustomization>
<vadk:FooterLeft></vadk:FooterLeft>
<vadk:FooterCopyright></vadk:FooterCopyright>
</vadk:ViewCustomization>
<vadk:ShowEULA>true</vadk:ShowEULA>
</Section>

<Section xsi:type="vadk:ApplicationSection_Type">
<Info></Info>

<vadk:VMXFilename>VM.vmx</vadk:VMXFilename>

<vadk:DistributionFormat vadk:format="ovf" vadk:filename="VM" vadk:directory="VM"/>

<vadk:ApplicationPackages>
<vadk:url>http://http://VADK.localIP/ISV/appliancePackages</vadk:url>
<vadk:url>http://http://VADK.localIP/vmware-open-vm-tools/centos/5/3</vadk:url>
</vadk:ApplicationPackages>

<vadk:OSPackages> 
<vadk:Package vadk:name="openssh-server"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="openssh-clients"/>
</vadk:OSPackages>

<vadk:BootActions>
<vadk:FirstBoot>
#!/bin/bash
#Un comment to send the output of this script to a logfile
#exec > /opt/vmware/var/log/firstboot 2>&1

echo This script is executed on first boot only.

#Un comment to run subsequent boot script after first boot
#/opt/vmware/etc/isv/subsequentboot
</vadk:FirstBoot>
<vadk:SubsequentBoot>
#!/bin/bash
#Un comment to send the output of this script to a logfile
#exec > /opt/vmware/var/log/subsequentboot 2>&1

echo This script is executed on all boots, except the first one.
</vadk:SubsequentBoot>
</vadk:BootActions>

<vadk:Users>
<vadk:User vadk:username="root" vadk:password="" vadk:passwordFormat="plaintext"/>
</vadk:Users>
</Section>

<Section xsi:type="vadk:IpAssignmentSection_Type">
<Info>Supported IP assignment schemes</Info>
<vmw:IpAssignmentSection
ovf:required="false" vmw:protocols="IPv4" vmw:schemes="ovfenv,dhcp">
<Info>Supported IP assignment schemes</Info>
</vmw:IpAssignmentSection>
</Section>

<Section xsi:type="vadk:PropertySection_Type">
<Info/>
</Section>

<Section xsi:type="vadk:AnyOVFSection_Type">
<Info>
Unknown OVF elements in this element will be passed directly
to the OVF output descriptor without interpretation
</Info>
</Section>

<Section xsi:type="vadk:UpdateSection_Type">
<Info></Info>

<vadk:Repository vadk:url="" vadk:username=""
vadk:password="" vadk:passwordFormat="plaintext"/>



<vadk:Info></vadk:Info>



<vadk:PreInstallShellScript>#!/bin/sh
#Sample pre install update script
#This script will be executed with the following arguments:

$1 - version of VM before update
$2 - version of VM trying to be installed

echo "Installing update from version $1 to version $2"

#exit with value of 0 to allow update to continue
exit 0
</vadk:PreInstallShellScript>
<vadk:PostInstallShellScript>#!/bin/sh
#Sample post install update script
#This script will be executed with the following arguments:

$1 - version of VM before update
$2 - version of VM trying to be installed
$3 - status of update process

#
#The Status in $3 will indicate to success of failure of the update:

0 - all update steps are successful
1 - pre install script failed, package test and installation skipped
2 - pre install success, package test failed, installation skipped
4 - pre install and package test success, package installation failed

#
#A Status of 2 is likely caused by a package dependency conflict. A Status of 4
#is likely caused by a failed package install script.

if $3 -eq 0 ; then
echo "Finished installing version $2"
else
echo "Failed with status of $3 while installing version $2"
echo "VM version is still $1"
fi

#Exit with a value of 0 to allow the VM version to be changed and set the final
#update status to success.
exit 0
</vadk:PostInstallShellScript>

</Section>


<Section ovf:id="88" ovf:version="5" xsi:type="ovf:OperatingSystemSection_Type">
<Info>Guest Operating System</Info>
<Description>CentOS Linux 5.4</Description>
</Section>

<Section xsi:type="ovf:VirtualHardwareSection_Type">
<Info>Virtual Hardware Requirements</Info>
<System>
<vssd:VirtualSystemType>vmx-04</vssd:VirtualSystemType>
</System>
<Item>
<rasd:Caption>1 virtual CPU</rasd:Caption>
<rasd:Description>Number of virtual CPUs</rasd:Description>
<rasd:InstanceId>1</rasd:InstanceId>
<rasd:ResourceType>3</rasd:ResourceType>
<rasd:VirtualQuantity>1</rasd:VirtualQuantity>
</Item>
<Item>
<rasd:AllocationUnits>MegaBytes</rasd:AllocationUnits>
<rasd:Caption>512 MB of memory</rasd:Caption>
<rasd:Description>Memory Size</rasd:Description>
<rasd:InstanceId>2</rasd:InstanceId>
<rasd:ResourceType>4</rasd:ResourceType>
<rasd:VirtualQuantity>512</rasd:VirtualQuantity>
</Item>
<Item>
<rasd:AutomaticAllocation>true</rasd:AutomaticAllocation>
<rasd:Caption>Ethernet adapter on vmnet</rasd:Caption>
<rasd:Connection>Network 1</rasd:Connection>
<rasd:InstanceId>3</rasd:InstanceId>
<rasd:ResourceSubType>PCNet32</rasd:ResourceSubType>
<rasd:ResourceType>10</rasd:ResourceType>
</Item>
<Item>
<rasd:BusNumber>0</rasd:BusNumber>
<rasd:Caption>SCSI Controller 0 - LSI Logic</rasd:Caption>
<rasd:InstanceId>4</rasd:InstanceId>
<rasd:ResourceSubType>lsilogic</rasd:ResourceSubType>
<rasd:ResourceType>6</rasd:ResourceType>
</Item>
<Item>
<rasd:AddressOnParent>0</rasd:AddressOnParent>
<rasd:Caption>Harddisk 0</rasd:Caption>
<rasd:HostResource>/disk/system</rasd:HostResource>
<rasd:InstanceId>5</rasd:InstanceId>
<rasd:Parent>4</rasd:Parent>
<rasd:ResourceType>17</rasd:ResourceType>
</Item>
</Section>

<Section xsi:type="vadk:JEOSSection_Type">
<Info></Info>

<vadk:BootArgs>
append ks=http://VADK.unattendedCfgURL ksdevice=eth0
method=http://http://VADK.localIP/build/http://VADK.buildID/
initrd=initrd.img
ip=http://VADK.ip netmask=http://VADK.nm gateway=http://VADK.gw dns=http://VADK.ns1
lang=en_US keymap=us ramdisk_size=100000
divider=10 clocksource=acpi_pm
</vadk:BootArgs>

<vadk:BootArgsDHCP>
append ks=http://VADK.unattendedCfgURL
ksdevice=eth0 ip=dhcp
method=http://http://VADK.localIP/build/http://VADK.buildID/
initrd=initrd.img
lang=en_US keymap=us ramdisk_size=100000
divider=10 clocksource=acpi_pm
</vadk:BootArgsDHCP>

<vadk:BootFiles vadk:relPath="images/pxeboot" vadk:kernel="vmlinuz"/>

<vadk:UnattendedInstallTemplate>
http://VADK.vadkRoot/etc/build/templates/redhat/5/redhat5.xsl
</vadk:UnattendedInstallTemplate>

<vadk:PreInstallScript
vadk:template="http://VADK.vadkRoot/etc/build/templates/centos/5/preinstall.xsl"
vadk:output="http://VADK.stageDir/preinstall.sh"/>

<vadk:EVMInstallScript vadk:template="http://VADK.vadkRoot/etc/build/templates/redhat/5/evm_install.xsl"/>
<vadk:EVMConfigScript vadk:template="http://VADK.vadkRoot/etc/build/templates/redhat/5/evm_config.xsl"/>
<vadk:EVMCleanScript vadk:template="http://VADK.vadkRoot/etc/build/templates/redhat/5/evm_clean.xsl"/>

<vadk:PostScriptRepoList>RepositoryList</vadk:PostScriptRepoList>

<vadk:PostScriptPackageList>PackageList</vadk:PostScriptPackageList>

<vadk:VADKPackages vadk:path="http://http://VADK.localIP/build/http://VADK.buildID/repo/vadkPackages/"
vadk:sourceDir="http://VADK.vadkRoot/lib/build/include/centos/5/3/"
vadk:targetDir="http://VADK.stageDir/repo/vadkPackages/"/>

<vadk:ISO vadk:path="file:///opt/vmware/www/ISV/ISO/CentOS-5.4-i386-bin-DVD.iso"
vadk:md5sum="071e18754c2fb066c526672f9aea0515" vadk:containFiles=""/>

<vadk:Distribution vadk:vendor="CentOS" vadk:OSverMajor="5" vadk:OSverMinor="3"
vadk:arch="i386" vadk:smp="1" vadk:packageFormat="rpm"
vadk:packageManager="yum" vadk:packageRepoDir="packageRepoDir"/>

<vadk:OSPackages>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="bash"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="bind-utils"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="boost"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="chkconfig"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="coreutils"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="curl"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="dhclient"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="gawk"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="grep"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="initscripts"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="iptables"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="libicu"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="libxml2-python"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="module-init-tools"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="ncurses"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="net-tools"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="openssl"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="passwd"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="rpm"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="procps"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="sed"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="sudo"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="sysklogd"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="SysVinit"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="util-linux"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="wget"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="which"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="yum"/>
<vadk:Package vadk:name="yum-metadata-parser"/>
</vadk:OSPackages>
</Section>

<Section xsi:type="vadk:BuildSection_Type">
<Info></Info>
<vadk:ProvisioningSettings> 
<vadk:NetworkConnection></vadk:NetworkConnection>
<vadk:NetworkType>dhcp</vadk:NetworkType>
<vadk:IP></vadk:IP>
<vadk:Netmask></vadk:Netmask>
<vadk:Gateway></vadk:Gateway>
<vadk:DNS1></vadk:DNS1>
<vadk:DNS2></vadk:DNS2>
</vadk:ProvisioningSettings>


<vadk:ProvisioningEngine>
<vadk:VmhostLan vadk:hostname="" vadk:port="" vadk:hostOS=""
vadk:login="root" vadk:password="" vadk:passwordFormat="plaintext"
vadk:path="/tmp" vadk:datastore=""
vadk:datacenter="" vadk:managedESX=""
vadk:resourcePool=""
vadk:fileLogin="root" vadk:filePassword="" vadk:filePasswordFormat="plaintext"
vadk:fileProto="scp" vadk:filePath="/tmp"
vadk:vmrunPath="" vadk:wsXDisplay=".0"/>
<vadk:VmhostProduct vadk:name="" vadk:majorVersion=""/>
</vadk:ProvisioningEngine>


<vadk:ProvisioningTimeouts vadk:boot="600" vadk:poweroff="25" vadk:hang="7200" vadk:sshWaitTime="120" vadk:scpOperationTime="300" vadk:scpAutoYesWaitTime="2" vadk:systemCmdWaitTime="30" vadk:systemCmdMaxTime="7200"/>

<vadk:PreInstallShellScript>
#!/bin/bash
echo pre-install shell code
</vadk:PreInstallShellScript>

<vadk:PostInstallShellScript>
#!/bin/bash
echo post-install shell code
</vadk:PostInstallShellScript>



</Section>


<Section xsi:type="ovf:NetworkSection_Type">
<Info>List of logical networks used in the package</Info>
<Network ovf:name="Network 1" ovf:id="vmnet">
<Description>Network 1</Description>
</Network>
</Section>

<Section xsi:type="ovf:DiskSection_Type">
<Info>List of the virtual disks and partitions needed</Info>
<Disk ovf:diskId="system" ovf:capacity="2048"
ovf:capacityAllocationUnits="MegaBytes"
ovf:fileRef="system.vmdk"
ovf:format="http://www.vmware.com/specifications/vmdk.html#sparse"
/>
</Section>

<Section xsi:type="vadk:DiskPartitionSection_Type">
<Info></Info>
<vadk:Partition vadk:diskId="system" vadk:bootable="1" vadk:fs="ext3" vadk:mount="/boot" vadk:size="128"/>
<vadk:Partition vadk:diskId="system" vadk:bootable="0" vadk:fs="ext3" vadk:mount="/" vadk:size="grow"/>
<vadk:Partition vadk:diskId="system" vadk:bootable="0" vadk:fs="swap" vadk:mount="" vadk:size="128"/>
</Section>

</ovf:Envelope>

Simple Q: Can I create Windows XP (x64) Virtual Appliance w VMWare Studio?

mattyche — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:50:09 GMT

Yes - our appication depends on Windows XP 64-Bit as and OS. Therefore it is necessary to build a Windows XP 64Bit Virtual Appliance. I would like to use Vmware Studio to do this, but would be open to doing it with whatever tools or add-ons are necessary. Do you know of any?

Error installing the Eclipse plugin

GoVikes — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:31:50 GMT

Thank you!

This is a lab environment and had no access to internet. I did not know it needed to download the dependencies, I thought they were included on the VMware Studio appliance. I gave the VM internet access and everything went fine after that. Thanks again.

International character support

chorgeas — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:06:11 GMT

The word "Anschließend" is not properly displayed in the Welcome Text box.

The answer is hidden somewhere in system environment variable. Because when I set the ENV variable to german in /etc/bashrc export LANG=german, I am able to paste "Anschließend" word properly in the file otherwise cryptic value is pasted in the file.

IP address not set at VM boot

blainek — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:59:12 GMT

Thanks chorgeas.

That should do the trick for me.

Is there a way to reduce VMWare Tools dependencies?

leong — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:26:10 GMT

You may try removing all the dependencies of redhat-lsb as a start; vmware-open-vm-tools needs redhat-lsb but probably not any (or most) of its dependencies. You would need to experiment a little bit. As for the command to remove the pkgs, yes that what I'd use.

Studio bug? Disk capacity truncated to two digits

leong — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:50:21 GMT

This unfortunately does look like a profile-display bug that needs to be addressed! Thnx for reporting it and sorry for the inconvenience! In the mean time, given the profile does carry the correct disk capacity value as from an intended save, pls disregard the display error and proceed with the appliance building. Bottom line, remember to verify the disk capacity value(s) directly from the xml file (/opt/vmware/var/lib/build/profiles/<profile>.xml) before building your appliances.

Error validating VM's Disk configuration

leong — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:38:07 GMT

Great! Thnx for the updates!

ESXi 4.0 as a build server doesn't work

leong — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:49:12 GMT

The vSphere Essentials licenses would allow your ESX/ESXi to work with Studio 2.0. FWIW about VMware licenses check out

http://blogs.vmware.com/esxi/2009/06/esxi-vs-esx-a-comparison-of-features.html

VMware Studio: Unable to connect to server. Please try again.

chorgeas — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:22:34 GMT

Please try following things.

1. Check the port number in browser i.e. https://VMwareStudioIP:5480/
2. User username as root and password what you have set in first boot of VMware Studio.
3. Try to ping your host machine from VMware Studio VA and vice versa.
4. If your VMware Studio is on hosted class product,
a. Set Ethernet Adaptor to Bridge and select ‘Connect at power on’ option in Virtual Machine settings.
b. Disable host machine firewall.

Cannot create Ubuntu profile

chorgeas — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:55:39 GMT

My suggestions are,

1. As mentioned in studio_developer.pdf, you can download the required ISO's from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ location.

studio_developer.pdf link = http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/studio/studio20/studio_developer.pdf
Section = "Operating System ISO Image"

2. After downloading the ISO file, copy it in /opt/vmware/www/ISV/ISO/ folder.

Validate or Build failing to find application packages

blainek — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:08:23 GMT

That was exactly it. I reconfigured and set the proxy config to n and validation worked immediately. I'll have to write that into my setup list.

Thanks for the help...back on track again.

Doubts in Using VMware Studio..

vnagaraja — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:51:49 GMT

Sorry, VMware Studio doesn't do that, and you cannot convert a VM into a OS ISO as far as I know.

Connection Wizard to ESX4 machine fails with "Connection refused"

blainek — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 02:39:36 GMT

It's amazing what some time and space away from a problem will do. I returned to the problem tonight to try out these suggestions and when I looked at the settings again, I realized I had used the wrong IP address in the connection host - I had put in the address for the VM into the field for the ESX host. No wonder the connection failed.

All my fault, sorry for taking up your time. The connection wizard worked once I put in the correct address and I'm running the build now.

Building OVF Based Appliances

vnagaraja — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:31:05 GMT

You can definitely use VMware Studio to build OVFs. Check out for more information: http://blogs.vmware.com/vapp/2009/08/configuring-ovf-properties-through-vmware-studio-20.html

Network Interface types on Studio-authored appliances

HMVM123 — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:41:57 GMT

Thanks, Vishwas, this is great. The ability to do so from the standard menu (and preserve during builds) is a feature request. As is the ability to give the Interfaces names, which I see I can edit in the ovf file too.

EULA on import and startup

vnagaraja — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:15:27 GMT

The only "configuration", or the tools installation information that we expose is the entry is in the application repository section in the build UI.
If you goto the Application tab you should see "http://http://VADK.localIP/vmware-open-vm-tools/centos/5/2", this refers to the path within Studio from where we install tools.

You could infact goto this webpage http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/index.html, where you may be able to find updates to vmware-tools for your OS. You can then download them and add it to your application repository and you get new tools.

Vishwas

Protect virtual appliances from duplication

nsolop — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:45:24 GMT

Hi tut thanks for your rsponse will try that!

Running studiocli via ssh -o using authorized_keys results in Epic Build Fail

Will DeHaan — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 22:06:33 GMT

Just call vabs.pl directly instead of studiocli, as in:

ssh root@vmstudio2 /opt/vmware/share/build/vabs.pl \ -cvp /tmp/profile.xml -i instance X

Attempting to change the Guest NIC drivers with a VIM Sh script HELP !

lamw — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:18:06 GMT

As mentioned, you'll want to look at using vSphere API in accomplishing this task using either the vSphere SDK for Perl or PowerCLI.

In either case, the proper way to melodramatically do this is to locate the VM(s) that you want to modify, shutdown the VM, add the new vmxnet adapter, remove the old and then power back on the VM and re-ip. When you remove the adapter or even adding a new adapter you'll get a new MAC Address, this may break any type of software you may have that licenses against a specific MAC. You of course, could record the previous MAC and then set it to preserve.

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
vGhetto Script Repository
VMware Code Central - Scripts/Sample code for Developers and Administrators
VMware Developer Comuunity
Twitter: @lamw

If you find this information useful, please award points for "correct" or "helpful".

How can I access VMware Studio via Eclipse through a proxy?

JVRDT — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 07:02:22 GMT

Windows XP, Java 1.6

Debugging application install

AlanJS — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:05:36 GMT

I wanted to folow up with my findings to share information. I did not do extensive testing, but enough to lead me to believe this suggestion did not work as hoped.

I changed my profile to look like this:

<vadk:ApplicationPackages>
<vadk:url>http://172.16.1.65/ISV/appliancePackages/3rdparty*1*/3rdparty-ssl-4.2-99.i586.rpm</vadk:url>
<vadk:url>http://172.16.1.65/ISV/appliancePackages/3rdparty*2*/3rdparty-apache2-4.2-99.i586.rpm</vadk:url>
<vadk:url>http://172.16.1.65/ISV/appliancePackages/3rdparty*3*/3rdparty-php4-4.2-99.i586.rpm</vadk:url>
<vadk:url>http://172.16.1.65/ISV/appliancePackages/3rdparty*4*/3rdparty-oracleSoftware-1.0-1.i586.rpm</vadk:url>
<vadk:url>http://172.16.1.65/ISV/appliancePackages/pre_chroot/onesign-4.2-99.i586.rpm</vadk:url>
</vadk:ApplicationPackages>

Here are the lines from the postinstall.log in the status directory which shows the order of install:

+ grep '<install>' postinstall.log +

<install> S3:0 packagevmware-studio-vami-network-2.0.0.0-0.i386
<install> S3:0 packagevmware-studio-init-2.0.0.1017-185256.noarch
<install> S3:0 packagevmware-studio-vami-core-2.0.0.0-0.i386
<install> S3:0 packagevmware-studio-vami-2.0.0.1017-185256.i386
<install> S3:0 packagevmware-studio-vami-servicebase-2.0.0.1017-185256.i386
<install> S3:0 packagevmware-studio-vami-system-2.0.0.0-0.i386
<install> S3:0 packagevmware-studio-vami-update-2.0.0.0-0.i386
<install> S3:0 packagevmware-studio-appliance-config-2.0.0.0-090914173127.noarch
<install> S4:0 package3rdparty-oracleSoftware-1.0-1.i586
* <install> S4:0 package3rdparty-php4-4.2-99.i586*
* <install> S4:0 package3rdparty-apache2-4.2-99.i586*
* <install> S4:0 packageonesign-4.2-99.i586*
* <install> S4:0 package3rdparty-ssl-4.2-99.i586*

The documentation is a bit confusing on controlling the order of the RPM install. I am going to try the suggestions of having a pre or post script handle the installion of my application. Changing the dependcies of the RPMs is a longer term effort. I do not want this virtual appliance effort to impact many existing processes that use the RPMs as built today.

Thanks

Alan

getting Virtual Disk state - persistent / non persistent

vnagaraja — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:20:03 GMT

This is VMware Studio product community. You should try posting this question to the vSphere C# SDK forum, I believe this link is the right one: http://communities.vmware.com/community/developer/codecentral/vsphere_ws_c

VMware Studio Readme

Corey_R — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:12:13 GMT

VMware Studio Readme

Create OVA file as part of build

vnagaraja — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:04:23 GMT

Sorry, currently VMware Studio only allows you to create appliances with supported OSes/distros and it also automates other parts (ex: installation of application packages,etc). We will try to support such scenarios in Studio in the future.

You may find the following useful.

vSphere SDK/powercli provided by VMware will be useful for automated creation of your VM (this will need some amount of scripting/programming).

VMware's ovftool will help packaging your VM into an OVA (this doesn't allow customization of text/and various other options in the OVF).

Vishwas

Communication with the virtual machine may have been interrupted

vnagaraja — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:29:17 GMT

Hi,

Looks like you are having issues powering VMs when using VMware Server product directly (and not while using VMware Studio) ? If yes, VMware Server forums may be of more help.
Could you give us more information: are you using VMware Studio 1.0? Are you using VMware Server 1.04,1.0.5, or 1.06 (other versions probably don't work with Studio 1.0 I mean)?

Also, could you try out VMware Studio 2.0 beta (it supports other platforms/products like ESX, vCenter, Server 2.0, WorkStation)?

Vishwas

Message was edited by: vnagaraja

Technology Exchange Developer Day - VMware Studio - Enabling Creation and Deployment of vApps

navadavuluri — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 07:03:22 GMT

Hi Thomas,

Some of the sessions will be video taped and will be made public to the community after the event @ www.developer.vmware.com

So, stay tuned!
Nava

Studio Session @ Technology Exchange - Developer Day - VMworld 2009 - August 31, 2009

navadavuluri — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:59:26 GMT

Here is the event site:

http://communities.vmware.com/community/developer/techexchange

Sessions/labs schedule:

http://blogs.vmware.com/developer/2009/07/vmware-technology-exchange-developer-day-sessions-schedule.html

twitter info: http://twitter.com/VMDeveloperday

OS Hard Disk size

kix1979 — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 13:55:24 GMT

We getting close to GA?

Thomas H. Bryant III
Director, Advanced Technology & Products
Vizioncore, Inc.
VMware Communities User Moderator

cant create or validate virtual appliance

rakshit — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 08:05:56 GMT

Thanks Nagaraja, for replying. You are right. I need studio to automate the VM packaging, and generate the ovf format. I need to create a VA for a customized version of my OS which runs on an x86 platform. VmWare Server works fine for me. So its an OS specific VA I want to achieve. It will be easier than me zipping the VM everytime I have a new release.

OVF inside the guest use

vnagaraja — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:43:04 GMT

The sample is the script vami_ovf_process, it is located in /opt/vmware/share/vami/. It is written in python, so if you don't mind writing python code you can use that code as a reference.

This is the in-guest script present on all linux VMs build by Studio.

vApp, ovf-en.xml - Samples?

martinamdisen — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 07:25:10 GMT

We have posted an example on the vApp blog.

change credentials in repository

vnagaraja — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:36:29 GMT

btw:
is it possible to use a md5 hash password in the service-deploy.xml file?

Thomas,

We authenticate with the webserver hosting the repository if a password is present, so you should be able to do this. It might require some work, as in finding the right authentication module for your webserver which can authenticate using the md5 hash password.

Vishwas

Is it possbile to mount /proc to /target/proc?

chorgeas — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 07:47:26 GMT

The problem is that the software (Postfix and MySQL Server) needs the /proc system because of start/stop scripts.

If you are facing problem in installing Postfix and MySQL Server in Ubuntu. I have one suggestion,

If you are using Postfix and MySQL Server debian packages from Ubuntu DVD then instead of installing these packages separately you can add these packages in 'List of packages from OS install media' of Application tab of VMware Studio 1.0 web UI. And then write the Postfix and MySQL Server configuration script in post-install script in OS tab of VMware Studio 1.0 web UI. i.e. installation will get done by Studio.

For Postfix and MySQL Server configuration if you need /proc file system you can add the configuration script in firstboot script.

Currently I don't have Ubuntu 7.04/7.10/8.04 DVD but I think these packages comes with Ubuntu server not with the desktop.

The VMware Studio 2.0 Beta is release, from where you will get more number of operating systems and advance features than VMware Studio 1.0.

Problem with creating a virtual appliance with Ubuntu 8.0.4

Jogarem — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:42:37 GMT

I had this problem too and solved it by setting a static ip adress but in the gateway field I inserted the VMware Studio IP!!!!
This works great. .. And YES Studio und Server are both in the same network and connected to the same switch!

;o)

Regards
Thomas

vmware studio not cancelling a build

Jogarem — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:38:25 GMT

you can normally click on details when canceling. Search on your process list that this process is really away and if it is so this
message will disappear when you start a build again.

Virtual Appliance Timezone

draygen — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:02:01 GMT

Yeah, I'm excited about VMWare Studio 2.0 - however; its in Beta so it can't be used for production VM's.

I think I'm going to just stick with UTC and not worry about timezones , since our application handles the timekeeping via Java tzupdate.

I'm hoping that , at least for now - NTP added to the VA along with an ntp.conf with the settings recommended from VMware' s TimeKeeping guide would be enough for the VMWare Ready certification..

VMware Coffee Talk - VMware Studio 2.0 Live Webinar - June 24th 2009 - 9:00 - 10:00 AM PST

heyitspablo — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:29:41 GMT

Folks,

PDF slides available - please see attachment.

All recordings and pdfs will be available on our VMware Coffee Talk Blog

Link to Coffee Talk Blog
http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/DeveloperCenter/2009/07/01/announcing-the-vmware-coffee-talk-live-webinars-first-wed-of-the-month-900-am-1000-am-pst

Title: Studio 2.0: Build vApps and virtual appliances for the cloud
Date: Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Time: 9:00 am, Pacific Daylight Time (GMT -07:00, San Francisco)
Meeting Number: 929 034 081
Meeting Password: (This meeting does not require a password.)
More registration details below.

Abstract: VMware Studio 2.0 helps configure, build, deploy, customize and maintain vApps and virtual appliances. These solution stacks can be deployed on VMware vSphere 4.0 or in the cloud and can be managed from the VMware Studio web console or from VMware vCenter Server. In this webinar, software vendors, application developers and IT administrators will get an overview of vApps and virtual appliances followed by what's new in Studio 2.0. We will walk you through the entire build process by starting with an application created in Eclipse (via the Eclipse plug-in in Studio) and demonstrating how it can be packaged as either a vApp or virtual appliance in OVF format. The process will also reveal various automated tools available, for creating a clean out-of-box experience, such as specifying exact OS requirements, building an update repository, adding custom management services and adding existing VM builds as input.VMware Studio 2.0 is going to be available as a public beta starting June 29, 2009

Level: Beginner with basic understanding of Eclipse and Virtualization concepts.

Speaker Matthew Ford Sr. Member Technical Staff BIO

Build fails

A.Mikkelsen — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:23:18 GMT

Thanks....
/&%(&=¤)/&?//=(/?(/?
Now I can start all over

If you found this or any other answer useful please consider the use of the Helpful or correct buttons to award points.

Regards
A. Mikkelsen

Deploying appliance on vSphere, warnings

chorgeas — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:11:52 GMT

As per the comments from studio_relnotes10.html, Virtual appliances created with VMware Studio 1.0 can run on:

VMware Server 1.0.4, 1.0.5, 1.0.6, or 2.0.
VMware ESX 3.0.3 or 3.5 Update 2.
VMware ESXi Installable Update 2.
VMware Workstation 6.0.4.
VMware Player 2.0.4.
VMware Fusion 1.1.3.

reference : http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/studio/studio10/studio_relnotes10.html

So I think vSphere is not supported platform for the VA which is created by VMware Studio 1.0

appliance built with studio not working in VMware Workstation

chorgeas — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 07:45:11 GMT

OVF is basically meant for Hypervisor class i.e. ESX, ESXi.

Sorry for this wrong comment. Actually Workspace 6.5.x can also take OVF (via the embeded Converter).

Also I found that Virtual appliances created with VMware Studio 1.0 can run on:
* VMware Server 1.0.4, 1.0.5, 1.0.6, or 2.0.
* VMware ESX 3.0.3 or 3.5 Update 2.
* VMware ESXi Installable Update 2.
* VMware Workstation 6.0.4.
* VMware Player 2.0.4.
* VMware Fusion 1.1.3.

reference: http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/studio/studio10/studio_relnotes10.html

That means Workstation 6.5.x is not officially supported platform for the VA which is created by VMware Studio 1.0

Problem installing PostgreSQL-8.3 on Ubuntu 8.04 VMWare Studio generated VM

draygen — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:22:57 GMT

Thanks for the reply, the postgresql-8.3 install worked fine when I installed it as an OS package - I guess during this phase of installation it is able to retrieve all of the required dependencies and it installs them in the proper order.

It works great , now I just need to figure out why Tomcat 5.5 will not start during bootup, but starts fine if i manually start it up... But i guess this issue is for another thread

Thanks,

Brian

Screen displayed after appliance startup.

chorgeas — Fri, 29 May 2009 09:21:19 GMT

I'd like to include a link to our application's URL, something like http://<appliance ip>:1234

Please refer the http://communities.vmware.com/thread/204043 for the same.

VM EULA on import and boot

mkolcun — Wed, 27 May 2009 13:52:32 GMT

I've got it working, though it's a manual process.

remove the EULA from the Description page in vmware-studio
build the appliance
modify the output .OVF file and add the EULA xml section back in (copied from a previous OVF)

It works, but it's a bit of a hack.

The XML code that I inserted into the output .OVF file is below

<Section xsi:type="ovf:EulaSection_Type" xml:lang="en">
<Info>End User License Agreement</Info>
<License>CHANGE ME - EULA Text</License>
</Section>

Cygwin/OpenSSH

JMills — Wed, 27 May 2009 04:02:30 GMT

lshrivas wrote:

I am also facing same issues while creating virtual appliance from VmWare Studio.

I have Vmware server and Open SSH 4.2p1 on windows server2003 and when i try to do scp from

vmware studio machine I get Read from socket failed: Connection reset by peer.

Unfortunately the error message itself provides little useful information, all that is being reported back is that a TCP RST (Reset packet) was sent by the remote host, it doesn't indicate the reason. TCP RSTs can be sent because of any sort of normal session teardown, and just demonstrate that the remote TCP stack "closed" the connection cleanly (sending RST rather than ceasing to send any traffic at all).

You'll need to run scp with at least minimal verbosity enabled (single *-v*) if not detailed verbosity (multiple *-v*) to get any sort of useful information on when, and maybe why the session was torn down.

creating first vmware appliance

boarder428 — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 06:04:29 GMT

thanks for the info.

How to create Red Hat 4 AS x64 bit Virtual Appliance via VMware Studio?

chorgeas — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 07:32:32 GMT

The Red Hat 4 AS x64 bit is not supported by VMware Studio 1.0.

If you just want to build a VA, and don't care about management tools, you might be able to modify the existing Red Hat Linux appliance template.

I have tried the following procedure for RHEL3.8 to build Virtual Appliance (VA). This procedure can be use to build VA but I observed that the pre, post, first boot and subsequent boot scripts are not get executed during VA creation. Also my application package is not getting installed in VA during VA creation. You can give a try to build VA for 64 bit using VMware Studio 1.0.

1. mkdir p /opt/vmware/lib/build/include/rhel/3/8 and make same soft links as RHEL 5.1
2. mkdir p /opt/vmware/etc/build/templates/redhat/3/8
3. cp /opt/vmware/etc/build/templates/redhat/5/redhat5.xsl /opt/vmware/etc/build/templates/redhat/3/
4. mv /opt/vmware/etc/build/templates/redhat/3/redhat5.xsl /opt/vmware/etc/build/templates/redhat/3/redhat3.xsl
5. Using redhat-config-kickstart prepared kickstart configuration in working RHEL3.8 VM.
6. Replace the RHEL5.1 kickstart configuration with redhat3.8 in redhat3.xsl file.
7. Make necessary OS changes in RHEL3.8 build profile file. [RHEL5.1 => RHEL3.8]
8. All other things are similar as RHEL5.1 including vmware tools.
9. Build the VA using VMware Studio.

Writing your own operating system

PeterJ1983 — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:56:43 GMT

JMills,

Thanks too for your response, I couldn't decide which forum, maybe we should ask vmware to start a forum for OS development tactics and strategies with vmware.

I just took a quick look at the menuetOS.net site it looks pretty impressive what they have achieved.

I'm still very much a beginner to OS development but I am determined to give it a go and document my findings of using vmware products.

Thanks again

Peter

File permission

JMills — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 06:14:58 GMT

Some followup from one of the folks on the VMware Studio 1.0 engineering team.
Contextual edits I have added are marked with [ ] brackets.

They should not be [0]777, they should be [0]644, writable by owner [only].

I've just tested this, and after unzip'ing, the files have these modes:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 vaeng01 vaeng01 1035 2009-04-09 10:22 Appliance.vmx
-rw-r--r-- 1 vaeng01 vaeng01 25034752 2009-04-09 10:23 data1-s001.vmdk
-rw-r--r-- 1 vaeng01 vaeng01 419 2009-04-09 09:44 data1.vmdk
-rw-r--r-- 1 vaeng01 vaeng01 22806528 2009-04-09 10:23 system-s001.vmdk
-rw-r--r-- 1 vaeng01 vaeng01 922746880 2009-04-09 10:23 system-s002.vmdk
-rw-r--r-- 1 vaeng01 vaeng01 456 2009-04-09 09:44 system.vmdk

This is exactly correct. We had to set the execute bits on the vmx file for [some
behavioral quirk in] Server 1.0, but all the others are [0]644, writable [only] by the
person that extracted the zip file (me).

Note that the user's umask plays a large part in what the modes will be; his umask
is probably set incorrectly [or the user account which was used to extract the file is
not the same one being used to run the virtual appliance].

VMware vSphere 4 has been announced ... what about VMware Studio compatibility?

JMills — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:45:13 GMT

Now that VMware vSphere 4 (vCenter Server 4 + ESX / ESXi 4) can be discussed without NDA, the next question of course is "What about VMware Studio compatibility?"

The answer is two-fold, because vSphere 4 has support for both OVF 0.9 (VMware draft implementations) and OVF 1.0 (DMTF ratified standard DSP0243 1.0.0) bundles:

VMware Studio 1.0

Out of the box, virtual appliances created with VMware Studio 1.0 (build 620) as OVF bundles can be imported ("deployed" in vSphere 4 parlance) without modification to a vSphere 4 host* using the vSphere 4 client.

HOWEVER...

If the import occurs via a vCenter Server 4 instance, the "Product" data within that OVF bundle will be used to add vApp properties to that virtual appliance, and the vApp bit will be set to "true".

If the import occurs via an ESX / ESXi 4 host directly (whether managed or standalone), the "Product" data will be silently discarded, and the vApp bit will be left set to "false".

Several additional "Product" data elements are capable of being parsed into vApp properties, but I will reserve that for a separate post which delves into further detail on vApp properties exclusively.

VMware Studio 2.0

VMware Studio 2.0 (as mentioned in message 1207318 in this thread http://communities.vmware.com/message/1207318 ) will incorporate support for OVF 1.0, officially known as DMTF DSP0243 1.0.0 -- which adds a number of extensibility options necessary for more complex vApp constructs.

(*) "vSphere 4 host" == A VMware vCenter Server 4 managed ESX / ESXi host, or an ESX / ESXi 4 host in "Single Server" mode

How to specify machine ID in OVF

JMills — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 05:16:04 GMT

MS-

"A VMware host can send the machine id located in the *.vmx file to the guest."

Technically the virtual machine monitor (VMM) exposes the machine.id value to the guest based on the in-memory representation of the .vmx file data. Assuming of course you were referring to machine.id value itself and not the behavior of smbios.reflectHost functionality.

Back to the topic at hand...

The implementation of OVF within VMware Studio 1.0 and VMware ESX / ESXi 3.5.0 is based on the Open Virtualization Format standard proposal drafts (loosely versioned 0.9), far predating the recent ratification by the DMTF of OVF as DSP0243 1.0.0 (~Q1 2009). Certain nice-to-have features such as extensibility for virtualization platform specific directives (machine.id = "...." for VMware native VMX as an example) were not included in those early drafts, and are therefore unavailable.

In short, even if you were able to include that data in an OVF bundle using VMware Studio 1.0, it would not be propagated during import and conversion to VMware native VMX format using the VI Client connecting to an ESX / ESXi 3.5.0 host.

Welcome Text...

chorgeas — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 09:35:29 GMT

There might be some other way to add the text in welcome screen but following is my workaround for this problem.

By default the machine IP is shown in welcome screen of Virtual Appliance created by VMware Studio. But if you want to add your application name with the IP address and port number, then you can edit the /opt/vmware/etc/isv/textscript file in runtime as follows.

1. Write a small shell script for finding the IP address as follows and add your text along with the IP address.
#/bin/bash
ifconfig | grep Bcast | awk '{ print $2 }' | awk -F ":" '{ print "you can access XYZ application at http://"$2 ":9999" }' >> /opt/vmware/etc/isv/textscript
exit 0
2. Put the shell script in VMware Studio's first boot.

If you think your Virtual Appliance might change the IP in subsequent boot then write the whole textscript using shell script and put that script in VMware Studio's subsequent boot area or /etc/rc.local to execute on every boot.

OVF - How much does VMware support?

asahai — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:15:10 GMT

VMware Studio 1.0 supports OVF 0.9 only. VMware Studio 1.0 was released at VMworld 2008 (Sept 2008) last year when OVF 1.0 was not decided upon as a standard. The next version of Studio i.e. Studio 2.0 will support OVF 1.0.

Error on web access - 'Toolbar' is null or not an object.

Yossian — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:44:09 GMT

Hi all.

many thanks for your help.

I solved the problem by recreating the web access link of the hosts that gave this error message.

Using the new link, the problem was gone..

Thanks Again

Jo.

Where to download latest vmware tools?

wesleyd — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 09:32:37 GMT

It turns out it's possible to download vmware tools here now:
http://www.vmware.com/download/packages.html
http://packages.vmware.com/tools

Unfortunately the sources aren't there, so I guess if you're not using a standard kernel and a standard linux distro: bummer.

However it's not all doom and gloom. It looks like those packages are just open-vm-tools!!!

Also, this conversation has been pointed out to me:
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_name=48C15444.3000904@feds.uwaterloo.ca&forum_name=open-vm-tools-discuss

We ship a kernel that vmware doesn't provide a binary package for. We used to compile the "latest" vmware tools, where "latest" meant "the version in the most recent esxi we have running".

From now on, we'll probably just use open-vm-tools...

Post-install script debugging for Virtual Appliance

Hrits — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:36:32 GMT

Thx:)

Installing sun java packages - Ubuntu

tut — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:14:28 GMT

Did you do that by modifying the Java packages? I would like to know, because I'm working on an Eclipse appliance. (Eclipse requires Java.) Thanks!

Creation of virtual appliance using VMware Studio

chorgeas — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:49:40 GMT

My goal, as I mentioned, is to create a basic virtual appliance using the VMware studio.

It would be greatly appreciated if you can highlight the steps I should follow, and the required OS\VM platform for these steps.

Following are the generalized steps you should follow to create Virtual Appliance (VA)

1. Make sure which operating system is compatible for your application.
2. Your application should be in rpm/deb format.
3. Download the Operating system (OS) iso from the links given in VMware Stuio admin guide and put in Studio’s /opt/vmware/www/ISV/ISO folder.
4. Copy your application in application package repositories folder.
5. Share the ssh keys between VMware Studio and your host OS.
6. Create the build profile manually mentioned in VMware Studio admin guide.
7. Validate the profile using VMware studio web console.
8. Build the profile using VMware studio web console.

Following is the link where you can download the VMware Studio admin guide.

http://vmware.com/files/pdf/vmware_studio_adminguide.pdf

unable to load pxelinux.0 file

srikanthchouta — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:04:21 GMT

thanks buddy..it worked..awesome.

Studio 1.0 Feature Requests

kix1979 — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:29:33 GMT

Responded

Thomas H. Bryant III
Director, Advanced Technology & Products
Vizioncore, Inc.
VMware Communities User Moderator

Creation of appliance from an existing VM

tut — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:46:10 GMT

Satish, when I first encountered VMware Studio, that's how I expected it would work. However the design was to require a standard OS and a known set of packages, so the resulting virtual appliance can be fully reproducible, highly portable, and field-updatable. I don't know if you have noticed, but often when cloning or transporting a virtual machine, many of the local customizations disappear, or things stop working. That is a drawback that VMware Studio strives to solve. It is possible to imagine easier ways to formulate package dependencies, but for now, we are hoping you understand the trade-off.

A new OVF tool is available, conforming to the 1.0 instead of 0.9 standard. I think it still does what you want. http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/1013

Create a signed OVA from Studio's OVF files?

Will DeHaan — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 22:42:26 GMT

Thanks Tut.

The self-signed cert created by Studio is destined for use by the end user.

The cert needed to sign an OVA is the appliance creators and should not be self-signed.

I'll post in the Converter forum to find out if that can validate & convert a signed OVA let alone create one.

Best,

/Will

Duplicate disk names

kix1979 — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:58:46 GMT

It boots fine now, after the partition issues and a few other things. I rebuilt Studio from scratch, made my manual changes to use SLES 10SP2 x86_64, but no support, so no suprise that it builds and the network is DOA when it boots. Once I can work through that, I can install my BIN files (no RPMs available which sucks) and I have a VA. All and all it's a bit weird the way everything works and how locked down the app is, but it's a great thing overall. It has a ton of promise.

Thomas H. Bryant III
Director, Advanced Technology & Products
Vizioncore, Inc.
VMware Communities User Moderator

Installing openjdk on ubuntu? Please help!!!!!

pinootto — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:35:47 GMT

Did you solve the java installation on ubuntu?

I did it successfully in the following way:

- download the jre (or jdk) bin file from the sun website

- install it inside the vmware studio

- make a post-installation script for setting the JAVA_HOME and PATH

- make a .deb package of the installed jre (or jdk), by using the mkpkg program

- copy the .deb package into the appliancePackages directory

In this way the java installation is silent and vmware studio is working without problem.

SLES 10 SP1 support

JMills — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 12:42:45 GMT

tut wrote:

Stefaan, I am sorry to report that VMware has no plans to support SLES 10 SP1 64-bit (nor 32-bit), only SP2 64-bit. Studio 1.0 supports SLES 10 SP2 32-bit.

In this context, "Supports" is the Caps-S definition, meaning "VMware Supported" rather than "can be made to work".

That is a very interesting post by Will DeHaan!

Amusing phrasing as well in the 05 Nov 2008 post, but that's another story.

tut wrote:

I really don't know what XML changes would be needed between SLES 10 SP2 and SP1.

The XML changes would likely be limited to a different MD5sum value, and some package version data.

The other changes would be the tougher part, given that the VMware Studio VA specific packages (VMware Tools, web management, instrumentation) built for SLES 10 SP2 may not be directly compatible with SLES10 SP1/x86_64.

VMware Studio with VMware Server 2.0

tut — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 21:05:51 GMT

No, except insofar as you could have a computer with dual-boot, one with Linux or Windows running VMware Server 2.0, the other with Linux or Windows running VMware Server 1.0.6. Sorry.

Actually, Server 1.0.x is required for provisioning. You can run VMware Studio on other VMware products, such as Workstation 6.5, and provision on a remote VMware Server 1.0.6.

MD5 and custom ISOs to use as the OS

JMills — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 10:11:17 GMT

tut wrote:
Satish,

I would not recommend that.

The Ubuntu (and other Linux) operating systems are already fairly stripped-down
and JeOS like. In the documentation, Guide to Building and Implementing Virtual Appliances,
note the use of JeOS in Figure 1-2.

To expand on this some...

The current structure of VMware Studio (i.e., version 1.0) is such that we are reliant on a very specific kernel package for each Supported Guest OS Template in order to install things such as VMware Tools components. We do not recompile the components "on-the-fly" during VA provisioning.

The primary reasoning for using a "respun" ISO image based on an existing Supported Guest OS Template is to include updated OS level packages (a la "slipstreaming" for Microsoft Windows) rather than have to maintain an archive of updated packages which must be pushed out to the VA in the post-install phase. I have a tough time explaining the tradeoffs of respin vs. standalone archive without a whiteboard, but it can amount to a significant reduction in the volume of data exchanged over the network during VA provisioning, and typically a reduction in the overall provisioning time as well.

I do have a nice hands-on example including the archive methodology, but haven't yet had an opportunity since VMworld to finalize it for public consumption.

VMWARE studio with VMWARE server

satishkn — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 09:08:22 GMT

Hi,

quick update -

I was able to debug the problem I was facing.

The problem I was facing was because of the combination of the following:

1) Firewall was coming in the way of communication between Studio and the system hosting the VMWARE Server (for SSH).

2) User accounts between SSH server and the system weren't synchronized properly.

Thanks for the suggestions.

-Satish

Could not find kernel image: ubuntu-installer/i386/linux

dannyh — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 20:56:16 GMT

Currently VMware Studio doesn’t support building an
appliance without VMware tools and the embedded management agent. Theoretically
the end user can tweak the profile and control the tasks and customization that
are specific to the OS. This is controlled in the <Section
xsi:type="vadk:JEOSSection_Type"> element of the profile. As I mentioned
before, customizing this element is not officially supported by VMware Studio
but feel free to explore and customize for your needs.

We are exploring a way for users to use a newer minor version
of the OS, without waiting for a newer version of VMware Studio.

Which version of the OS is critical for you at the moment?

module vmxnet not found

brent_ski — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:36:47 GMT

Thank you. I thought I had followed the URL that was given in the guide. I guess not. I will give it a try and let you know.

thanks, again.

build [error] ISO image checksum match failed for CentOS-5.2-i386-bin-DVD.iso

brent_ski — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 21:01:37 GMT

To get around you can put a null value in your /opt/vmware/etc/build/templates/your/distro/build_profile.xml if you do not care about the checksum being correct. Search the file for md5sum and then delete the value from between the quotes.

Communication with the virtual machine may have been interrupted

leong — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 20:13:02 GMT

Is this problem reproducible?

If yes, try building the appliance again via command line and this time with the --debug flag so that the transient vm is being kept for debugging.

studiocli -v --debug -c -p /opt/vmware/var/lib/build/profiles/<yourprofile.xml>

When the build stops with the same failure, open a VMware Server console and connect to 10.0.0.12 along with the same login/pw that you entered in the build profile, then try to launch the targeted transient vm under /tmp. If this test also fails, that probably means the login that you use for the VMware Server isn't adequate for the operation. You want to use an user that can pass this test.

Windows appliances for intra-company use

Komal Mangtani — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:42:24 GMT

Windows support is in the roadmap.

Stay tuned,

Komal

Studio Network Configuration, Server Requirement

JMills — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:27:34 GMT

JMills wrote:

nick.couchman wrote:

The network configuration on the appliance build is very, very limited.

The ONLY Server 1.x machine that I have here does not have it's bridged
network interface set up on vmnet0, which causes all of the builds to
fail because the newly built ((transient)) appliance can't communicate
with the Studio ((authoring environment)) server. Maybe someone knows
a way to edit the XML file and put in parameters that will allow me
to use interfaces other than vmnet0 and vmnet1?

I will look into how (and where) "bridged" "host-only" and "nat" are translated
during a VA provisioning cycle, I don't recall that section of code off the top of
my head. In the VA profile itself, we're still using textual representations rather
than explicit vmnet# virtual switch numbers.

Unfortunately the mapping between textual representations and explicit vmnet# virtual switch numbers ("bridged" (vmnet0), "hostonly" (vmnet1), and "nat" (vmnet8)) is handled in multiple locations (some deep within the core of our current codebase). Altering this behavior (e.g., to remap "bridged" to vmnet9) would not be as simple as applying a patch to the VMware Studio runtime scripts.

Getting Started with VMWare Studio

JMills — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 02:05:40 GMT

JMills wrote:

The provisioning target will also need an ssh daemon running in the Host OS capable of handling inbound scp and ssh requests -- I'll hunt down a cross-reference for one particular ssh daemon for Win32.

http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/studio/index.html

... Documentation
... Guide to Building and Implementing Virtual Appliances (URL) -- Information about how to build virtual appliances using VMware Studio.

At page 41, there is a quick run-through of a Win32 ssh daemon implementation -- Appendix A: Installing SSH on Windows.

Validation fails not finding bootable partition

Paul_Chen — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:37:04 GMT

leong wrote:

When you use the web console to create profile and build appliances, there is a dependency on how the browser interpretes a given xml (profile). Since both Safari and Firefox (3.x) are not officially supported, it's possible that the problem you're seeing has association with that (interpretation issue)!

I just tried with Firefox 2.0.0.17 on the same OS X machine, and it validates fine. So it does appear that it's an issue with Safari and Firefox 3.x. Good to know what is causing the problem.

Thanks for your help, leong!

Paul

Hacking VMware Studio

Will DeHaan — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:47:36 GMT

Hey folks I've been using VMware Studio with great success at work.

At present I'm integrating Studio's command line interfaces into an automated build and test system and have modified appliance payloads, built with custom ISO images and more.

I'm documenting some of the tweaks I've made over on a blog site and am soliciting questions about using Studio. It's really flexible just by modifying XML and XSL configuration and template files--I'm impressed.

Blog is here: http://vmwstudio.blogspot.com/

Best,

Will

VMWare Studio in VMware Fusion?

leong — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 19:11:08 GMT

ESX provisioning is certainly one of the more popular requests and we have taken note about it.

centos 4 support ?

leong — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:31:03 GMT

The runtime components built into the appliances created by VMware Studio have certain dependencies for each version of the Guest OS; and that is the main reason for now it does not claim to be supporting any other OSes than what were listed in the built-in template build profiles. Hope that you can find a workaround for running your app in an CentOS 5 env.

Read Before Posting

Tubo — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 01:52:45 GMT

Welcome to the VMware Studio Communities Forum

Tubo — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 01:29:10 GMT

Welcome to the VMware Studio 1.0 Communities Forum. This interactive portal is designed to serve as a resource to VMware Studio customers, software developers and hardware appliance vendors. Your comments, suggestions and input are very important to the continued success of VMware Studio!

To begin, familiarize yourself with our Read Before Posting page, then browse our list of participant entries below. Select the subject heading to read the posting and click Reply to post a comment. To add content, select one of the action items on the left of this page. Feel free to browse, post and discuss issues relevant to VMware Studio. Product support documentation will be uploaded to this site periodically.

VMware Studio is available as a free download. Additional information about VMware Studio 1.0 can be obtained on the VMware Studio product web page, the Virtual Appliance Solutions White Paper, the User’s Guide, the Admin Guide, and the Release Notes.

Thank you for your participation in the VMware Studio 1.0 Communities Forum!