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6 Replies Last post: Apr 22, 2007 9:30 AM by gbishop  

vmware server os posted: Apr 18, 2007 3:05 PM

Click to view alex905's profile Novice
alex905
13 posts since
Jul 15, 2006
i was plannig on useing the fre vmware server on my dv machine to make everyhting easier. but as i cant make my own os or mod one well i was hopeing somone has done it for me. is thier such a thing for free. maybe not on this site but on another. a base os with just vmware and needed tools.

Re: vmware server os

1. Apr 18, 2007 11:04 PM in response to: alex905
Click to view larstr's profile Virtuoso vExpert
larstr
2,410 posts since
Mar 11, 2004
"dv machine"? "dv" as in digital video?

I'm not aware of any live cd's that come with VMware Servers preinstalled andThere are some distros that ship packages that will let you install VMware Server. Gentoo is one of these.

However, I would recommend to use a supported host os, or one that is closely related to a supported one (such as CentOS).

There are many howto's out there for different distros and if you know one of the supported distros, it would probably be best to use that one. VMware Server isn't really that hard to install if you choose a supported os, you just have to make sure the needed libraries and kernel headers are installed.

Lars

Re: vmware server os

2. Apr 19, 2007 10:44 AM in response to: alex905
Click to view jasperbr's profile Novice
jasperbr
15 posts since
Apr 23, 2006
What I've done in the past for a similar setup is use Ubuntu server edition and install VMware server on it. You have to install X windows as VMware needs parts of it but you can then edit the configs not to automatically load it. Once you do that you can set the box out of the way with power and a network connection and run it remotely. If you want a dedicated OS for VMware you have to go with VI3. The closest you'll get otherwise is a stripped linux install. Though you'll need to become proficient with linux to do it.

Re: vmware server os

3. Apr 21, 2007 11:02 AM in response to: alex905
Click to view alex905's profile Novice
alex905
13 posts since
Jul 15, 2006
sorry its a typo i ment dev. what i was thinking was something like centos but will only what you needed to run vmware. i run vmware now on cent os but cent os takes up to much of my servers resorces. so i was wondering if someone has ever just made a os for vmware to minimalize impact on the host machine. if not is thir a list with all the tools that are needed for vmware so i can customize my cent os install.

Re: vmware server os

4. Apr 22, 2007 2:11 AM in response to: alex905
Click to view larstr's profile Virtuoso vExpert
larstr
2,410 posts since
Mar 11, 2004
I don't think there are any distros out there yet that are created only for VMware purposes. It's however possible to tune existing distros like this:

Minimal Services on CentOS 4.4 Mini-HowTo

Lars

Re: vmware server os

5. Apr 22, 2007 6:09 AM in response to: alex905
Click to view alex905's profile Novice
alex905
13 posts since
Jul 15, 2006
thanks that was what i was looking for.

Re: vmware server os

6. Apr 22, 2007 9:34 AM in response to: larstr
Click to view gbishop's profile Hot Shot
gbishop
170 posts since
Feb 12, 2006
that guide is fairly good, however make sure you do not turn off xinetd as vmware server depends on it. here's my minimal list of services running on our CentOS 4.4 hosts..

acpid
crond
httpd.vmware
irqbalance
kudzu
network
snmpd
sshd
syslog
vmware
xinetd

you could strip it down more, but that should be a good starting point. cheers

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