Skip navigation
VMware
Up to Discussions in VMware Player Archives
5,489 Views 4 Replies Last post: Oct 28, 2005 1:01 PM by rcardona2k RSS
rcardona2k Champion
rcardona2k
6,193 posts since
Oct 20, 2005
Currently Being Moderated

Oct 25, 2005 1:02 PM

Creating a VM in Player, easy?

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.

citizenDAK Novice
citizenDAK
28 posts since
Dec 8, 2004
Currently Being Moderated
1. Oct 25, 2005 1:44 PM in response to: rcardona2k
Re: Creating a VM in Player, easy?

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 )

rcardona2k Champion
rcardona2k
6,193 posts since
Oct 20, 2005
Currently Being Moderated
2. Oct 25, 2005 1:52 PM in response to: citizenDAK
Re: Creating a VM in Player, easy?

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.

bac Expert
bac
597 posts since
Dec 29, 2004
Currently Being Moderated
3. Oct 28, 2005 12:00 PM in response to: rcardona2k
Re: Creating a VM in Player, easy?

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.

rcardona2k Champion
rcardona2k
6,193 posts since
Oct 20, 2005
Currently Being Moderated
4. Oct 28, 2005 1:01 PM in response to: bac
Re: Creating a VM in Player, easy?

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.

Incoming Links

Bookmarked By (0)

Share This Page

Communities