Configuration Documentations

Using Shared Folders

http://www.vmware.com/support/ws55/doc/ws_running_shared_folders.html http://www.vmware.com/support/ws45/doc/running_sharefold_ws.html

With shared folders, you can easily share files among virtual machines and the host computer. To use shared folders, you must have the current version of VMware Tools installed in the guest operating system and you must use the virtual machine settings editor to specify which directories are to be shared.

To set up one or more shared folders for a virtual machine, be sure the virtual machine is open in Workstation and click its tab to make it the active virtual machine. Go to VM > Settings > Options and click Shared folders

In a Windows virtual machine, shared folders appear in My Network Places (Network Neighborhood in a Windows NT virtual machine) under VMware Shared Folders. For example, if you specify the name Test files for one of your shared folders, you can navigate to it by opening My Network Places > VMware Shared Folders > .host > Shared Folders > Test files.

You can also go directly to the folder using the UNC path \\.host\Shared Folders\Test files.

You can map a shared folder to a drive letter just as you would with a network share.

In a Linux virtual machine, shared folders appear under /mnt/hgfs. So the shared folder in this example would appear as /mnt/hgfs/Test files

Caution: Do not open a file in a shared folder from more than one application at a time. For example, you should not open the same file using an application on the host operating system and another application in the guest operating system. In some circumstances, doing so could cause data corruption in the file.

How to Install VMware Tools in Linux

http://www.petri.co.il/virtual_install_vmware_tools_in_linux.htm

By: David Davis

Without the VMware tools being installed, running any guest OS in VMware is more painful. You don't get the mouse synchronization that is so valuable, as well as a number of other performance options. Let's learn how to install these important tools in your VMware Server Linux Guest OS.

What are the VMware Tools?

In our article covering how to Install the VMware Tools in your Windows Guest OS, we talked about not only how to do this but the benefits of the VMware tools. The benefits of the VMware Tools are:

Improved video compatibility & performance
Mouse synchronization with the host operating system so that you don't have to keep releasing your mouse from the guest to go back to the host
Improved network compatibility & performance
Copy and paste between the host and guest

VMware tools is approximately a 6MB application (when installed, not on disk) that is installed in the GUEST OS directly. Neither the VMware console nor the host OS are required to participate in the installation.

Installing the VMware tools in a guest OS will be different for each of the different Linux OSs you might run. Installing the VMware Tools in Linux is much more unpredictable than installing them in the Windows OS.

How to Install the VMware Tools in Linux

The easiest way to know that the VMware tools are not installed is by your mouse getting stuck inside the VM when you click on the screen. To get it unstuck, you have to release it with the Alt-Ctrl keys. You will also see this at the bottom of the screen:

To install the VMware Tools, go to your VMware Server toolbar and click on VM, then Install VMware Tools, like this:

Next, you will see the following screen:

Click Install. You may see some delay. At this point, what happens in the background is that the VMware tools are mounted as an ISO CD drive on your virtual Linux machine. On your Host Computer (assuming it is running Windows) these tools are really located at:

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Server\linux.ISO

At this point, the you should see that the VMware Tools CD is now loaded and a windows comes up with the contents of that CDROM, like this:

To manually start this installation, right-click on the VMware Tools GZ file and click Extract To. You will see this:

Take the default of Desktop and click Extract

After the extraction, close all windows and go to your desktop. Open the vmware-tools-distrib folder.

Double-click on vmware-install.pl to execute it.

Select, Run in Terminal

The terminal window will appear. You will be asked a lot of questions. Ideally, you should be able to take all the defaults by pressing Enter. However, many times, things don't work as planned or as expected. Here is what part of this install process looks like:

When the process is done, you should should reboot your Linux system. When the system comes back up, click on the console of your Virtual Linux system and try to move your mouse out of the screen. If it gets stuck inside the screen, something went wrong (however, you may already know that from the installation process). However, hopefully, it does move out of the screen and onto your other applications. If that is the case, you know that the install went well (or at least the virtual mouse driver install went well - there are also virtual network, virtual video, and other virtual drivers that could have had install issues).

For the purposes of this demonstration, I installed the VMware Tools into SUSE Linux version 10.1. Make sure that you have the Kernel GNU C complier and Linux Kernel Sources loaded (called GCC). I loaded these with YaST. What you need loaded or the issues that you run into will vary from one Linux version to another Linux version. I have not run across a Linux yet where I didn't have to compile the VMware Tools and was able to run the simple RPM install. Thus, that is why I recommend that you not use the RPM install and go right to the .GZ file.

Summary

In summary, anyone using VMware should install the VMware Tools, no matter what guest operating system they are using. These tools will make using VMware much easier and less frustrating. After you install the tools and use them for a while, if you go back to a machine that does not have them, you will immediately notice the difference. While installing the VMware Windows Tools is fairly predictable, predicting the possible snags when installing the Linux VMware Tools can be difficult. Good Luck to you! If you are looking for more training on VMware consider the VMware Server and Workstation Video training package.

documented on: 2007.08.04

VMWare 3.2 Setup & Configuration

Hit the <enter> key each time you are prompted to select the factory default answer. By default, the installation program installs:

    the executables         in /usr/bin,
    the manual pages        in /usr/man,
    the library files       in /usr/lib/vmware,
and the documentation files in /usr/doc/vmware

NB, <<:2003.03.29 Sat:>>

nope!

no files begins with v in /usr/man/ ls: /usr/man/v*: No such file or directory
no such directory as /usr/doc/vmware. Help in /usr/lib/vmware/help instead.

None of VMware Workstation's pre-built vmmon modules is suitable for your running kernel. Do you want this script to try to build the vmmon module for your system (you need to have a C compiler installed on your system)? [yes]

...

make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config0/vmmon-only' The module loads perfectly in the running kernel.

Trying to find a suitable vmnet module for your running kernel.

None of VMware Workstation's pre-built vmnet modules is suitable for your running kernel. Do you want this script to try to build the vmnet module for your system (you need to have a C compiler installed on your system)? [yes]

Extracting the sources of the vmnet module.

Building the vmnet module.

...

make: Leaving directory `/tmp/vmware-config0/vmnet-only' The module loads perfectly in the running kernel.

Do you want networking for your Virtual Machines? (yes/no/help) [yes]

Configuring a bridged network for vmnet0.

Configuring a NAT network for vmnet8.

Do you want this script to probe for an unused private subnet? (yes/no/help) [yes]

Probing for an unused private subnet (this can take some time).

The subnet 172.16.204.0/255.255.255.0 appears to be unused.

This system appears to have a DHCP server configured for normal use. Beware that you should teach it how not to interfere with VMware Workstation's DHCP server. There are two ways to do this:

1) Modify the file /etc/dhcpd.conf to add something like:

subnet 172.16.204.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
# Note: No range is given, vmnet-dhcpd will deal with this subnet.
}

2) Start your DHCP server with an explicit list of network interfaces to deal with (leaving out vmnet8). e.g.:

dhcpd eth0

Consult the dhcpd(8) and dhcpd.conf(5) manual pages for details.

Hit enter to continue.

Do you want to be able to use host-only networking in your Virtual Machines? [no]

Do you want this script to automatically configure your system to allow your Virtual Machines to access the host's filesystem? (yes/no/help) yes

Creating a host-only network on vmnet1. (this is required to share the host's filesystem).

Configuring a host-only network for vmnet1.

Do you want this script to probe for an unused private subnet? (yes/no/help)

This system appears to have a CIFS/SMB server (Samba) configured for normal use. If this server is intended to run, you need to make sure that it will not conflict with the Samba server setup on the private network (the one that we use to share the host's filesystem). Please check your /etc/samba/smb.conf file so that:

The "interfaces" line does not contain "192.168.120.1/255.255.255.0"
There is a "socket address" line that contains only your real host IP address
```
grep -5 interfaces /etc/samba/smb.conf
grep -5 "socket" /etc/samba/smb.conf
```

— default is ok.

Hit enter to continue.

Starting VMware services:
  Virtual machine monitor                                 [  OK  ]
  Virtual ethernet                                        [  OK  ]
  Bridged networking on /dev/vmnet0                       [  OK  ]
  Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet1 (background)        [  OK  ]
  Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet8 (background)        [  OK  ]
  NAT networking on /dev/vmnet8                           [  OK  ]

Networking Configurations in plain English

the network options available first for your VMWare client:

Bridged - This effectively means the the vmware client has it's own ethernet adaptor which co-exists with the ethernet adaptor of the vmware host. So if the VMWare host is 192.168.1.10, and the VMWare client is 192.168.1.11, then the vmware client can ping the host, and also access the outside world. The vmware client appears to the outside world and is accessible from the outside world as 192.168.1.11 - A few oddities occur here. If you ping the client 192.168.1.11, you get 2 ping responses!
NAT. - Imagine VMWare host is 192.168.1.10, and VMWare client is 192.168.1.11 With this, the client can happily ping the host. It can also access the outside world provided it designates the host 192.168.1.10 as the gateway, and traffic from the client appears to come from the host, and the client is not directly accessible from outside the WMWare host server, unless the host forwards specific ports on to the client.
Host Only - Communication can occur between the client and the host. Client is not visible to the outside world at all. To show what is going on, here is the ifconfig from the host(A linux host):

In brief, the bridged networking is the recommended method.

Networking Configurations

to (re-)configure, run vmware-config.pl (/usr/bin/vmware-config.pl).

file:///usr/lib/vmware/help/networking.htm

Bridged networking. If your host computer is on an Ethernet network, this is often the easiest way to give your virtual machine access to that network. With bridged networking, the virtual machine appears as an additional computer on the same physical Ethernet network as the host. A virtual machine with bridged networking may transparently use any of the services available on the network to which it is bridged, including: file servers, printers, gateways and so on. Likewise, any physical host or other virtual machine configured with bridged networking can use resources of that virtual machine. >>More information
```
# Networking bridged to real ethernet
ethernet0.present = TRUE
ethernet0.connectionType = bridged
```
```
# Networked to host only subnet
ethernet1.present = "FALSE"
ethernet1.connectionType = hostOnly
```
Bridged and host-only networking. On Linux hosts, you can select both bridged and host-only networking. If you chose to install Samba (host-only networking) when you installed VMware Workstation or if you already had Samba configured appropriately on your host the guest operating system can share files with the host using the facilities of the host-only network.
```
# Networking bridged to real ethernet
ethernet0.present = TRUE
ethernet0.connectionType = bridged
```
```
# Networked to host only subnet
ethernet1.present = TRUE
ethernet1.connectionType = hostOnly
```
Host-only networking. A type of network connection where the virtual machine is connected to the host operating system on a virtual private network, which normally is not visible outside the host. Multiple virtual machines configured with host-only networking on the same host are on the same network. >>More information
Network Address Translation (NAT). If you want to connect to the Internet or other TCP/IP network using the host computer's dial-up networking connection and you are not able to give your virtual machine an IP address on the external network, this is often the easiest way to give your virtual machine access to that network. The virtual machine does not have its own IP address on the external network. Instead, a separate private network is set up on the host computer. The virtual machine obtains an address on that network from the VMware virtual DHCP server.

Networking re-configurations

to (re-)configure, run vmware-config.pl (/usr/bin/vmware-config.pl).

Every time it has to build new .o files! Otherwise, the script will stop.

Removed lots, but vmnet8 is still on.

Starting VMware services:
  Virtual machine monitor                                 [  OK  ]
  Virtual ethernet                                        [  OK  ]
  Bridged networking on /dev/vmnet0                       [  OK  ]
  Host-only networking on /dev/vmnet8 (background)        [  OK  ]
  NAT networking on /dev/vmnet8                           [  OK  ]

vmware answers database is at /etc/vmware/locations

% grep '^\(remove_\)*answer ' /etc/vmware/locations
answer BINDIR /usr/bin
answer LIBDIR /usr/lib/vmware
answer MANDIR /usr/share/man
answer DOCDIR /usr/share/doc/vmware
answer INITDIR /etc/rc.d
answer INITSCRIPTSDIR /etc/rc.d/init.d
answer RUN_CONFIGURATOR yes
answer EULA_AGREED yes
answer BUILDR_vmmon yes
answer HEADER_DIR /lib/modules/2.4.18-14/build/include
answer BUILDR_vmnet yes
answer NETWORKING yes
answer VNET_0_INTERFACE eth0
answer VNET_8_NAT yes
answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 172.16.204.1
answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 192.168.120.1
answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
answer VNET_1_SAMBA no
remove_answer VNET_1_SAMBA
answer VNET_1_SAMBA yes
remove_answer BUILDR_vmmon
answer BUILDR_vmmon yes
remove_answer HEADER_DIR
answer HEADER_DIR /lib/modules/2.4.18-14/build/include
remove_answer BUILDR_vmnet
answer BUILDR_vmnet yes
remove_answer VNET_0_INTERFACE
answer VNET_0_INTERFACE eth0
remove_answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR
answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 192.168.120.1
remove_answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_NETMASK
answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
remove_answer VNET_1_SAMBA
answer VNET_1_SAMBA yes
remove_answer VNET_8_NAT
answer VNET_8_NAT yes
remove_answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR
answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 172.16.204.1
remove_answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK
answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
remove_answer NETWORKING
answer NETWORKING yes
answer NETWORKING_EDITOR wizard
remove_answer BUILDR_vmmon
answer BUILDR_vmmon no
remove_answer BUILDR_vmmon
answer BUILDR_vmmon no
remove_answer BUILDR_vmmon
answer BUILDR_vmmon yes
remove_answer HEADER_DIR
answer HEADER_DIR /lib/modules/2.4.18-14/build/include
remove_answer BUILDR_vmnet
answer BUILDR_vmnet yes
remove_answer VNET_0_INTERFACE
answer VNET_0_INTERFACE eth0
remove_answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR
answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 192.168.120.1
remove_answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_NETMASK
answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
remove_answer VNET_1_SAMBA
answer VNET_1_SAMBA yes
remove_answer VNET_8_NAT
answer VNET_8_NAT yes
remove_answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR
answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 172.16.204.1
remove_answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK
answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
remove_answer NETWORKING
answer NETWORKING yes
remove_answer NETWORKING_EDITOR
answer NETWORKING_EDITOR editor
remove_answer VNET_0_INTERFACE
answer VNET_0_INTERFACE eth0
remove_answer VNET_8_NAT
answer VNET_8_NAT yes
remove_answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR
answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 172.16.204.1
remove_answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK
answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
remove_answer VNET_1_SAMBA
answer VNET_1_SAMBA no
remove_answer BUILDR_vmmon
answer BUILDR_vmmon yes
remove_answer HEADER_DIR
answer HEADER_DIR /lib/modules/2.4.18-14/build/include
remove_answer BUILDR_vmnet
answer BUILDR_vmnet yes
remove_answer VNET_0_INTERFACE
answer VNET_0_INTERFACE eth0
remove_answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR
answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 192.168.120.1
remove_answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_NETMASK
answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
remove_answer VNET_1_SAMBA
answer VNET_1_SAMBA no
remove_answer VNET_8_NAT
answer VNET_8_NAT yes
remove_answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR
answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 172.16.204.1
remove_answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK
answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
remove_answer NETWORKING
answer NETWORKING yes
remove_answer NETWORKING_EDITOR
answer NETWORKING_EDITOR wizard
remove_answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR
answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 172.16.204.1
remove_answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK
answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
remove_answer VNET_8_NAT
answer VNET_8_NAT yes
remove_answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR
answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 172.16.204.1
remove_answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK
answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
remove_answer VNET_1_SAMBA
answer VNET_1_SAMBA no
remove_answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR
remove_answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_NETMASK
remove_answer VNET_1_SAMBA
answer VNET_1_SAMBA no

service vmware stop
xsel -p >> /etc/vmware/locations
remove_answer VNET_8_NAT
remove_answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR
remove_answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK

OK!

% service vmware start
Starting VMware services:
  Virtual machine monitor                                 [  OK  ]
  Virtual ethernet                                        [  OK  ]
  Bridged networking on /dev/vmnet0                       [  OK  ]

Yes, bridged networking is all that I want. This is the cleanest VMware environment.

Using Samba for File Sharing on a Host-only Network

/usr/lib/vmware/help/networking_host_samba.htm /usr/lib/vmware/help/sharefiles_hos_gos.htm

If you already have Samba configured on your Linux host, the recommended approach is to modify that configuration so it includes the IP subnet used by the VMware Workstation virtual Ethernet adapter, VMnet1. In this case, you should not install the VMware Workstation Samba server when you are installing VMware Workstation on your host. When the configuration script prompts you Do you want this script to automatically configure your system to allow your virtual machines to access the host file system?, answer No.

You need to modify Samba on the Linux host operating system so it recognizes the vmnet8 switch, otherwise you cannot access the Linux file system. You need to do this even if you installed host-only networking (as Samba is installed when you install host-only networking with VMware Workstation).

To determine what subnet is being used by VMnet1, run /sbin/ifconfig vmnet1.

It may also be possible to run both your existing Samba server and the VMware Workstation Samba server at the same time.

If you are connecting to the Linux system from a Windows Me, Windows 98 or Windows 95 guest operating system, NetBEUI must be installed in the guest operating system in order to browse the file system.

Installing VMware Tools

VMware highly recommends that you install the VMware Tools suite within each virtual machine as soon as it is installed. It is very important that you install VMware Tools in the guest operating system. If you do not install VMware Tools, the graphics environment within the virtual machine is limited to VGA-mode graphics (640x480, 16 colors).

With the VMware Tools SVGA driver installed, VMware Workstation supports up to 32-bit displays and high display resolution with significantly faster overall graphics performance.

Other tools in the package make it more convenient to use your virtual machine by supporting the following enhancements. Note that these enhancements are available only when VMware Tools is running.

Time synchronization between host and guest
Automatic grab and release of the mouse cursor
Copying and pasting between the host and the guest or from one virtual machine to another
Improved networking performance

The cursor settings allow you to move the mouse cursor smoothly between the virtual machine and the host graphical user interface. The cursor settings also allow you to copy and paste text buffers between virtual machines and the host and from one virtual machine to another.

Install in Windows Guest OS

Power on the virtual machine.
When the guest operating system starts, prepare your virtual machine to install VMware Tools.
```
Choose Settings > VMware Tools Install.
```

A dialog box appears after a few seconds. It asks if you want to install VMware Tools. If autorun is not enabled, the dialog box does not appear automatically. You can manually run the VMware Tools installer. Click Start > Run and enter D:\setup\setup.exe where D: is your first virtual CD-ROM drive.

configure a virtual machine to run from an existing raw disk partition

VMware recommends booting the guest operating system natively on the computer and creating a hardware profile for the virtual machine before proceeding.

Start VMware Workstation.
Select File > Configuration Wizard to start the Wizard.
Create a new virtual machine using the Wizard and select Use a physical disk when asked to choose the disk type.
Click Done to create the new virtual machine.

After creating the virtual machine, start Workstation and check the configuration by typing the following command:

vmware <config-file>.cfg

where <config-file> is the path of the configuration file created by the Wizard.

set up real and virtual hardware profiles.

Each virtual machine provides a platform that consists of the following set of virtual devices:

Virtual CD-ROM
Virtual IDE hard disk drives
Virtual SCSI drives
Standard PCI graphics adapter
Standard floppy disk drive
Intel 82371 PCI Bus Master IDE controller (includes primary and secondary IDE controllers)
BusLogic BT-958 compatible SCSI host adapter
Standard 101/102-key keyboard
PS/2-compatible mouse
AMD PCNET Family Ethernet adapter (PCI-ISA)
Serial ports (COM1-COM4)
Parallel ports (LPT1-LPT2)
Sound Blaster 16-compatible sound card

This set of virtual devices is different from the set of real hardware devices and is independent of the underlying hardware with a few exceptions (the processor itself is such an exception). This feature provides a stable platform and allows operating system images installed within a virtual machine to be migrated to other virtual machines, regardless of the configuration of the real machine.

Microsoft operating systems have the notion of hardware profiles. Each hardware profile is associated with a set of known devices. If more than one hardware profile exists, the user is prompted to choose between different hardware profiles at boot time.

Enabling Sound

file:///usr/lib/vmware/help/devices_sound.htm

Select "Creative Labs Sound Blaster 16 or AWE-32".

Running an Existing Windows 2000/XP/.NET

Running a Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows .NET Server Virtual Machine from an Existing Multiple-Boot Installation on Computers with ACPI

http://www.vmware.com/support/ws3/doc/ws32_disks8.html#1009931

The Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows .NET Server kernels support Advanced Configuration and Power Management (ACPI), a power management interface that replaces the earlier APM.

If you have installed Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows .NET Server on a computer with ACPI features and then try to set up a VMware Workstation virtual machine running from a raw disk, this can cause VMware Workstation to crash with an error message that says "Error CPL0 Stack, Shutdown" or "INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE."

Extract the uniprocessor hal.dll along with NTOSKRNL.EXE and rename the extracted files as follows:

expand D:\I386\HAL.DL_ C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\VMHAL.DLL

expand D:\I386\NTOSKRNL.EX_ C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\VMOSKRNL.EXE

where D: is the drive letter used by your CD-ROM drive and C: is where your
WINNT folder resides.

Add the following to the end of the new boot option:
```
/KERNEL=VMOSKRNL.EXE /HAL=VMHAL.DLL
```

documented on: 2003.01.28

VMWare FAQ

Q: Can I swap my VMware Workstation for Linux license for a VMware Workstation for Windows Operating Systems license? A: No.

Q: Can I upgrade from a VMware Workstation for Windows Operating Systems license to a VMware Workstation for Linux systems license or vice versa? A: No.

documented on: 2003.01.28