Author: Falko Timme
This tutorial provides step-by-step instructions on how to install VMware Server 2 on an Ubuntu 8.04 desktop system. With VMware Server you can create and run guest operating systems ("virtual machines") such as Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, etc. under a host operating system. This has the benefit that you can run multiple operating systems on the same hardware which saves a lot of money, and you can move virtual machines from one VMware Server to the next one (or to a system that has the VMware Player which is also free).Also, with VMware Server you can let your old Windows desktop (that you previously converted into a VMware virtual machine with VMware Converter, as described in this tutorial: http://www.howtoforge.com/vmware_converter_windows_linux) run under your Ubuntu desktop. This can be useful if you depend on some applications that exist for Windows only, or if you want to switch to Linux slowly.
I want to say first that this is not the only way of setting up such a system. There are many ways of achieving this goal but this is the way I take. I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you! {.......}
1 Preliminary Note
I'm using the user name falko with the home directory /home/falko here - please adjust this appropriately.
2 Installing VMware Server
To download VMware Server, go to http://www.vmware.com/products/server/ and click on Download Now:
On the next page, log in with your existing VMware account or create a new one:
Then download the VMware Server for Linux TAR image (not the RPM image!) to your desktop (e.g. to /home/falko/Desktop):
Then open a terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal):
Run the following command to install some necessary packages:
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` build-essential xinetd
Then go to the location where you saved the VMware Server .tar.gz file, e.g. /home/falko/Desktop (replace falko with your own username!):cd /home/falko/Desktop
Unpack the VMware Server .tar.gz file and run the installer:tar xvfz VMware-server-*.tar.gz
cd vmware-server-distrib
sudo ./vmware-install.pl
The installer will ask you a lot of questions. You can always accept the default values simply by hitting cd vmware-server-distrib
sudo ./vmware-install.pl
When the installer asks you
In which directory do you want to keep your virtual machine files?
[/var/lib/vmware/Virtual Machines]
you can either accept the default value or specify a location that has enough free space to store your virtual machines.[/var/lib/vmware/Virtual Machines]
At the end of the installation, you will be asked to enter a serial number:
Please enter your 20-character serial number.
Type XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX or 'Enter' to cancel:
Fill in your serial number for VMware Server.After the successful installation, you can delete the VMware Server download file and the installation directory:
cd /home/falko/Desktop
rm -f VMware-server*
rm -fr vmware-server-distrib/
If you have accepted all default values during the installation, root is now the VMware Server login name. On Ubuntu, root has no password by default, therefore we create a password now:rm -f VMware-server*
rm -fr vmware-server-distrib/
sudo passwd root
VMware Server 2 does not have a desktop application for managing virtual machines - this is now done through a browser (e.g. Firefox). You can access the management interface over HTTPS (https://If you're using Firefox 3 and use HTTPS, Firefox will complain about the self-signed certificate, therefore you must tell Firefox to accept the certificate.
Afterwards, you will see the VMware Server login form. Type in root and the password you've just created:
This is how the VMware Server web interface looks. The structure is similar to the old VMware Server 1 desktop application, so the usage of the web interface is pretty straightforward.
