Fusion

 View Only
Expand all | Collapse all

Managing Tools for PowerPC??

  • 1.  Managing Tools for PowerPC??

    Posted Mar 07, 2007 11:12 AM

    Hi,

    I know that the virtualisation only works on Intel Macs.

    Thing is, I only want to \_manage_ my virtual machines (e.g. running in VMWare Server on Linux) from my IBook. So the only thing I need, is the server console or something equal running on PowerPC.

    Are there any plans for this?



  • 2.  RE: Managing Tools for PowerPC??

    Posted Mar 07, 2007 12:01 PM

    >Are there any plans for this?

    I'll let VMware answer the plans portion of your question and provide an alternative.

    You can run Microsoft Virtual PC on OS X/PPC and install either a small Windows or Linux image with the VMware Server management tools and this would not be so bad for managing your VMs. I ran Microsoft VPC for years successfully on a PowerBook G4 as a VPN+RDP terminal. Yes I see the irony of running a Microsoft (nee Connectix) product to manage VMware Server. Microsoft VPC is the only commercially viable x86 emulation product for PowerPC - or you could also try going down a Bochs route. You can get VPC very inexpensively on eBay with everyone switching to Intel.

    You can also enable VNC-level access to VMware Server machines and use a VNC Client for OS X (PPC) to access those machines. You can not power-on a machine this way but if the machine is on you can control the KVM. Just to clarify the actual guest VMs do not need VNC installed. The VNC I'm describing is a console feature built into VMware Server. There is more information on this option in the VMware Server forum.

    Finally, iirc, the VMware Server console runs over X windows. You can install/enable X11 for OS X and open up your display (xhost+) this way you can run an X server on your Mac for the VMware Server gui. This would not work well over the Internet but would be fine on a LAN.

    You have a lot of choices for managing VMware Server from a PowerPC machine hopefully one of them will appeal to you.



  • 3.  RE: Managing Tools for PowerPC??

    Posted Mar 07, 2007 02:57 PM

    Finally, iirc, the VMware Server console runs over X

    windows. You can install/enable X11 for OS X and

    open up your display (xhost+) this way you can run an

    X server on your Mac for the VMware Server gui. This

    would not work well over the Internet but would be

    fine on a LAN.

    It does work, but you have to be careful with it. I've seen VMware grab the mouse and not let it go until you hid X11 (CMD-H). Also it can work over the internet if you use SSH instead of a direct X query. You have to use trusted X11 forwarding (ssh -Y) and SSH starting in an xterm instead of Terminal.app. You don't have to turn off X's security measures with xhost this way.



  • 4.  RE: Managing Tools for PowerPC??

    Posted Mar 07, 2007 03:21 PM

    Thanks for the info. I knew it was possible to forward-tunnel X over ssh, my statement was more about the performance of X over the Internet. I hear Console performance is particularly laggy and possibly unusable.

    Thanks for the security tips on X/ssh, I'm an ancient X windows user. I installed X11 more for novelty than real-world usage. On my trusted networks xhost just works. :smileyhappy: Obviously over the Internet, you want to have all of the security ssh and trusted terminals provide.



  • 5.  RE: Managing Tools for PowerPC??

    Posted Mar 07, 2007 06:13 PM

    The other benefit that SSH X forwarding allows is that using simple X queries over the network may fail if you enable OS X's firewall. With SSH, since all that traffic goes over the tunnel that's not a problem.



  • 6.  RE: Managing Tools for PowerPC??

    Posted Mar 07, 2007 02:04 PM

    VMware Fusion is a Mac end user application for the consumer market and as such not have a separate console, it has only the applications included user interface.

    Richard pointed out a number of great ways to administrate VMware Server for Linux from the iBook that should meet your needs.

    Pat



  • 7.  RE: Managing Tools for PowerPC??

    Posted Mar 07, 2007 03:24 PM

    Thing is, I only want to \_manage_ my virtual machines

    (e.g. running in VMWare Server on Linux) from my

    IBook. So the only thing I need, is the server

    console or something equal running on PowerPC.

    Why can't you just use the web-based MUI? It is an optional download and separate install for Linux-hosted VMware Servers. Install it, then just point your browser to http://serverip:8222 or https://serverip:8333



  • 8.  RE: Managing Tools for PowerPC??
    Best Answer

    Posted Mar 07, 2007 03:56 PM

    Doesn't work in Safari or Firefox.



  • 9.  RE: Managing Tools for PowerPC??

    Posted Mar 07, 2007 06:03 PM

    Not only does the web interface not work for a server console on OS X, but the options for controlling the VMs are too limiting to get anything useful done with it. I don't know which Server product you are asking about, but with ESX server I had to install the Windows-only client software to have any useful control over the ESX server box. Still, with that, I spent a couple hours reading docs and poking around and couldn't come up with a way to clone a VM, so the sole purpose of the client ended up being its ability to create a user in the wheel group other than root so I could ssh into the ESX server itself. Once at the command-line, its easy to go clone a VM or do whatever else without some enterprisey GUI in the way.



  • 10.  RE: Managing Tools for PowerPC??

    Posted Mar 07, 2007 04:05 PM

    Unfortunately as SMB writes, the Active X / XPCOM ABI binaries in the VMware Server Web MUI do not run on a PowerPC Mac. They will run however in a VPC Windows or Linux image per my original reply.



  • 11.  RE: Managing Tools for PowerPC??

    Posted Mar 07, 2007 04:46 PM

    thanks a lot for all the infos and advises!

    it's a pitty, that the web interface won't work on mac.

    so i think i will go with the vnc solution and manage the rest via ssh.

    again, thanks a lot!