I am a long term fan of VMWare Fusion, and I have followed with interest the various beta of VMWare Fusion. Today, I have installed the 2.0 final release, and I immediatly see that something has changed. Things seems to go faster, snappier and slicker. So, if you own a Mac and wants to go into the desktop virtualization world, try out VMWare Fusion.
Virtualization
Wednesday, September 17 2008
VMWare Fusion 2.0 is out, and it goes fast
By letiemble on Wednesday, September 17 2008, 10:31
Monday, February 5 2007
Troubleshooting VMWare server on a headless Linux server
By letiemble on Monday, February 5 2007, 14:24
Problem : When I launch my virtual machine, I cannot get a display.
Solution : Be sure that the permissions of the vmx file are correct : read/write/execute permissions must be set for the user running the VMWare server.
Monday, December 11 2006
How-To Xen 3.0 on Debian Etch
By letiemble on Monday, December 11 2006, 23:42
Here are my notes on the installation of Xen 3.0 on a Debian Etch operating system.
Debian installation
Make a vanilla install of Debian Etch. Select only the base system packages.
Xen installation
Install the following packages
- xen-hypervisor-3.0.3-1-i386
- xen-utils-3.0.3-1-i386
- xen-docs-3.0
- xen-tools
- linux-image-xen-686
This can be done with the following commands :
aptitude -y update
aptitude -y upgrade
aptitude -y install xen-hypervisor-3.0.3-1-i386 xen-utils-3.0.3-1-i386 xen-docs-3.0 xen-tools linux-image-xen-686
The entry in the /boot/grub/menu.lst is created automatically. You can now reboot on the new Xen kernel.
Xen guest OS creation
Here is the command line to create a Debian Etch guest system (backed by a sparse file) :
xen-create-image \
--initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.17-2-xen-686 \
--kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-2-xen-686 \
--memory 32 \
--size 1Gb \
--noswap \
--dist etch \
--debootstrap \
--mirror http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian \
--dhcp \
--dir /srv/xen \
--hostname vm00
Xen guest OS creation
Here is the command line to create a Debian Etch guest system (backed by a LVM partition create on "vg0" Volume Group) :
xen-create-image \
--initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.17-2-xen-686 \
--kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-2-xen-686 \
--memory 32 \
--size 1Gb \
--noswap \
--dist etch \
--debootstrap \
--mirror http://ftp.fr.debian.org/debian \
--dhcp \
--lvm vg0 \
--hostname vm00
Saturday, November 18 2006
VMWare Server as a replacement for VMWare Player
By letiemble on Saturday, November 18 2006, 14:38
If you already have used VMWare Player, you must have noticed that it is perfect to play existing virtual machine. But if you want to create a new virtual machine from scratch, you have to dig in the vmx file, create a blank virtual hard disk (using QEMU for example) and do various things. But, an easy way to do exists. As VMWare now offers VMWare server for free, the basic idea is to use it and its console to create new virtual machines. The console has a very handy creation wizard that helps a lot. So if you want to create various virtual machine, then VMWare server is a simple and free solution.
Tuesday, February 14 2006
Solaris 10/x86 on VMWare Player
By letiemble on Tuesday, February 14 2006, 12:35
Some days ago, I wanted to try Solaris 10. The fastest way to do was to use a virtual machine. As there is no VMWare support from Sun, I created my own image.
If you google a bit, you will find how to create this kind of custom image. John Bokma has done a great job to show step by step how to build an image for Windows XP Pro. So I followed the same steps and build a blank image to install Solaris 10.
Creating a blank image for an install involves to steps :
- Creating a compressed virtual hard drive file. This is done with an utility found in Qemu, called
qemu-img.exe. The typical command line is"qemu-img.exe create -f vmdk Solaris10.vmdk 10G"(for Solaris, I choose a 10Go drive size to be able to make a default install). - Creating a descriptor file for VMWare Player. This is done with NotePad or WordPad. This is mostly a copy-and-paste job.
With this blank image and the Solaris 10 DVD (which I downloaded), you have all you need to launch VMWare Player and install Solaris 10.
I don't want provide complete image of Solaris 10 as I have no place to store it and no rights to do it. But for the lazy one, I provide the following images :
- a blank image to boot Solaris 10. Memory is 512Mo and drive size is 10Go.
- a blank image to boot Windows XP Pro. Memory is 256Mo and drive size is 10Go.
Solaris 10/x86 on VMWare Player and Virtual PC
By letiemble on Tuesday, February 14 2006, 12:30
I have been using extensively VMWare player and Virtual PC for a month now. They both have their advantages and their drawbacks but they both run well on my PC. A few days ago, I wanted to try Solaris 10 as a virtual machine. Why a virtual machine ? Because all the burden of getting a dedicated machine is skipped and the impact on performance is acceptable when using an OS occasionally.
That's when I try to boot the Solaris DVD that I realized that there was a big difference between VMWare Player and Virtual PC : the later won't boot the DVD. Why ? I don't know and I really don't have much time to find out why. Virtual PC just hangs after the kernel bootstrap, consuming all the CPU, wihtout any feedback.
But VMWare Player dit it and without any problems. Here are some screenshots (installation and use).
 |
| Booting |
 |
 |
| Graphical Installation | Updating Solaris 10 |
 |
 |
| Login Screen | Web Browsing |
A few notes about the installation :
- It is pretty long, so be patient.
- Once installed, run Sun Update Manager to get the latest patches and drivers.
- I found the screen resolution too small. To change it, open a Terminal and run the
"/usr/X11/bin/xorgcfg"command. Select the graphic card, choose "Configure" and select the "VMWare VMWare0710" video driver. Select a decent monitor. Logout. The X Server should restart with a bigger resolution.
In the future, if I need to install a custom OS, I will go with VMWare Player without any further hesitations.