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4 Replies Last post: Oct 28, 2005 1:01 PM by rcardona2k

Creating a VM in Player, easy?

Oct 25, 2005 1:02 PM

rcardona2k 4,691 posts since
Oct 20, 2005

I saw a blog post which suggested creating a new VM in Player was fairly easy. The suggestion was to download the Browser Appliance VM, then change boot order with ESC to boot off a CD-ROM, and insert an OS Install CD before booting. This will bring up the OS installer which should let you delete all partitions and create a fresh partition.

Obviously this won't let you re-size the disk, but this seems to work. I tried a couple of OS's: XP and Windows 2003. Windows 2003 worked fine. But XP didn't have the SCSI driver for the primary disk. The floppy for the SCSI driver is downloadable though.

I'm guessing I could install any Linux variant so long as I have a bootable CD.

I realize the value of Player is not to hide the Create VM function but to offer a virtualization platform for free.

I'm curious as to others 'Create VM' experiments.

Re: Creating a VM in Player, easy? Oct 25, 2005 1:44 PM

citizenDAK 28 posts since
Dec 8, 2004

humm... doesn't seem quite ethical, to try "cheating" the system?

The first roadblock I can think of is: Is it even possible to obtain the VMware-Tools installer (legally) without buying Workstation (or GSX/ESX)? I think those drivers are needed to get decent performance from the VM.

Cheers to VMware for releasing the Player! (It's definitely helping me to convince management of the usefulness of VM's )

Re: Creating a VM in Player, easy? Oct 25, 2005 1:52 PM

in response to: citizenDAK

rcardona2k 4,691 posts since
Oct 20, 2005

CitizenDAK,
I respectfully disagree. What's cheating in this scenario? In there's nothing in the Player terms about installing an OS in a VM. I have licenses to the OS I'm installing.

I don't have to re-install, if I have a Windows image, I could just as easily run sysprep on the image giving it a whole new identity.

Finally, I didn't say anything in the message about obtaining VMware Tools illegally, although I am a licensee of Workstation, GSX and ESX. The Virtual Server images I've converted work fine in Player without the Tools, except for input capture that requires Ctrl-Alt to escape the Player window.

Re: Creating a VM in Player, easy? Oct 28, 2005 12:00 PM

in response to: rcardona2k

bac 597 posts since
Dec 29, 2004

VMware does not place any licensing restrictions on the use of the VMware
Tools. The whole idea with Player is that you can take a VM (with the VMware
Tools installed) and distribute it however you like.

(Obviously, it's up to you to make sure you are in compliance with the OS
licensing for any VM that you use or distribute.)

Currently Player does not support the installation of the VMware Tools in
virtual machines, since the expectation is that Player will be primarily used for
running VMs created with one of our other products (and thus the Tools will
already be installed). Adding support for Tools installation in Player is a
feature we could consider for a future release, but for the time being it is not
supported.

As far as VMware is concerned, it is not "cheating" to replace the OS in an
existing VM with another OS. It's up to you to make sure you are properly
licensed for whatever OS you install.

Re: Creating a VM in Player, easy? Oct 28, 2005 1:01 PM

in response to: bac

rcardona2k 4,691 posts since
Oct 20, 2005

Thank you for an semi-official clarification of this. I don't believe the way I described creating a VM will be a major source of new VMs for Player. There's enough value in purchasing Workstation for creation.

I am hoping that vendors do build a community of VMs in VMTN where you get the preferred system configuration and application configuration in one complete offering.

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Creating a VM in Player, easy?

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