VMWare Server (Host) and Guest Setup Procedure

Using VMWare Server 2 Web Interface

Important Note:

 To make a connection to login and use the remote console use these two commands:
 Make sure to enter both of these commands before logging into the https://localhost:8333.
   ssh -L 8333:localhost:8333 taro.unh.edu
   ssh -L 8334:localhost:8334 taro.unh.edu

VMWare Server (Host) Setup

Important Note:

 In the initial setup of vmware server make sure to change the following line 2 in the /etc/vmware/config
   authd.client.port = "902"
   to
   authd.client.port = "8334"

Important Note:

 When restarting VMWare Server 2.0 make sure to use these commands, to restart VMWare and the Web management server:
   /etc/init.d/vmware restart
   sudo /sbin/service vmware-mgmt restart

Xen (or Physical) Host to VMWare Server Host

 1. Shutdown the xen virtual machine and make a backup of the .img file.
 2. Make a tarball of roentgens filesystem
      This must be done as root
      tar -cvf machine.tar /lib /lib64 /etc /usr /bin /sbin /var /root 
 3. Set up an identical OS (CentOS 5.3) on VMWare Server.
 4. Mount the location of the tarball and extract to the /
      Make sure to backup the original OSs /etc/ to /etc.bak/
      tar -xvf machine.tar
 5. Files to copy back over from the /etc.bak/
      /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-*
      /etc/inittab
      /etc/fstab
      /etc/yum*
      /etc/X11*
 6. Turn roentgen on to prepare for rsync transfer.
      Make sure to shutdown all important services (httpd, mysqld, etc)
 7. Log on to roentgen as root and run the following command for each folder archived above.
      rsync -av --delete /src/(lib) newserver.unh.edu:/dest/(lib)>>rsync.(lib).log

Important Note: Make sure to have all the network scripts (/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/) correctly setup, remembering: Taro has two ports (UNH and Farm) and VMWare Server uses these to create two bridges (UNH-Bridge and Farm-Bridge). With the two bridges on Taro you do not need VLANs setup on the guest OS in VMWare Server.

Setting up VMWare Appliances

 1. Download the virtual appliance.
 2. Put the unpacked files in a directory accesible by VMWare Server.
    Note: Make sure that the preferences file (~/.vmware) in your /net/home directory 
          has the correct permissions to run the vmware server. 
          To change the permissions use this command:
            sudo chown username:npg /net/home/username/.vmware
 3. Start vmware server with this command:
      sudo vmware
 4. Select connect to localhost and click "Connect".
 5. In vmware server click "Open a virtual machine".
 6. Then "Browse" for the files (.vmx) you unpacked earlier.
    Now the server should be in the sidebar of the vmware server display.
 7. Before starting the machine click "Edit ..." and go through the settings.
    Note: Make sure to go through the setting and check for network to be set to bridge 
          and the hard disk size.
    If the hard drive has to be resized you can use the vmware-vdiskmanager.
    If you initially setup 2 physical interfaces in the vmware server setup, only
    one is bridged in the virtual machine, so in the settings add a ethernet interface
    that is connected to the vmnetx that is bridged with the 2nd interface.

 Important Note: Check to see what devices are bridged to what
   ps -ef |grep vmnet-bridge
     root      9267     1  0 14:34 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/vmnet-bridge -d /var/run/vmnet-bridge-0.pid /dev/vmnet0 eth0
     root      9275     1  0 14:34 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/vmnet-bridge -d /var/run/vmnet-bridge-2.pid /dev/vmnet2 eth1