When the Add Virtual Machine Wizard starts, take the following steps to add a new virtual machine to the project:
- Select a guest operating system.
This panel asks which operating system you plan to install in the virtual machine. Select both an operating system and a version.
The Add Virtual Machine Wizard uses this information to select appropriate default values, such as the amount of memory needed. The wizard also uses this information when it names associated virtual machine files.
If the operating system you plan to use is not listed, select Other for both guest operating system and version.
The remaining steps assume you plan to install a Windows XP Professional guest operating system. You can find detailed installation notes for this and other guest operating systems in the VMware Guest Operating System Installation Guide, available on the VMware Web site or from the Help menu.
- Select a name and folder for the virtual machine.
The name specified here is used as the name of the folder where the files associated with this virtual machine are stored.
Each virtual machine should have its own folder. All associated files, such as the configuration file and the disk file, are placed in this folder.
The default folder for this Windows XP Professional virtual machine is C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\My Virtual Machines\Windows XP Professional.
- If you selected Typical as your configuration path, skip to step 6.
If you selected Custom as your configuration path, you may adjust the memory settings or accept the defaults.
When choosing the virtual machine memory settings, you need to consider the amount of memory required by the guest operating system and applications. You also need to consider the amount of RAM installed on your end users' computers and the amount of RAM required by the host operating system. Do not set the virtual machine memory below the amount recommended for the guest operating system. If you set virtual machine memory higher than that minimum, you should not set it so high that the host operating system cannot run comfortably. For common configurations, set the virtual machine memory no higher than half the amount of RAM you expect to find on end users' host computers.
Note: You cannot allocate more than 2GB of memory to a virtual machine if the
virtual machine's files are stored on a file system such as FAT32 that does not
support files greater than 2GB.
Click Next to continue.
- Configure the networking capabilities of the virtual machine.
If the package is to be installed on a host computer that is on a network and a separate IP address is available for the virtual machine (or it can get one automatically from a DHCP server), select Use bridged networking. This setting is most likely to be appropriate if the package is to be installed on a computer connected to an office network.
If the package is to be installed where no separate IP address is available for the virtual machine but the virtual machine must be able to connect to the Internet, select Use network address translation (NAT). NAT also allows the end user to share files between the virtual machine and the host operating system.
For more details about VMware ACE networking options, see Networking Virtual Machines.
- If you selected Typical as your configuration path, skip to step 11.
If you selected Custom as your configuration path, continue with the steps below to configure a disk for the virtual machine.
- Select the type of SCSI adapter you want to use with the virtual machine.
An IDE adapter and a SCSI adapter are installed in the virtual machine. You do not need to make any configuration choices for the IDE adapter. You can choose a BusLogic or an LSI Logic SCSI adapter. The default for your guest operating system is already selected. All guests except Windows Server 2003, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 and NetWare default to the BusLogic adapter.
The LSI Logic adapter has improved performance and works better with generic SCSI devices.
The choice of which SCSI adapter to use is separate from the choice to make the virtual disk an IDE or SCSI disk.
Older guest operating systems do not include a driver for the LSI Logic adapter. If you choose to use the LSI Logic adapter in an operating system that does not have a driver for it, you must download the driver from the LSI Logic Web site. See the VMware Guest Operating System Installation Guide for details about the driver and the guest operating system you plan to install in this virtual machine.
- Select the disk you want to use with the virtual machine.
Select Create a new virtual disk.
Virtual disks are appropriate for any virtual machines distributed in a package. By default, virtual disks start as small files on the host computer's hard drive, then expand as needed — up to the size you specify in a later step. That step also allows you to allocate all the disk space when the virtual disk is created, if you wish.
- Select whether to create an IDE or SCSI disk.
The wizard recommends the best choice based on the guest operating system you selected. All Linux distributions you can select in the wizard use SCSI virtual disks by default, as do Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003 and Longhorn. All Windows operating systems except Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003 and Longhorn use IDE virtual disks by default; NetWare, FreeBSD, MS-DOS and other guests default to IDE virtual disks.
- Specify the capacity of the virtual disk.
Enter the size of the virtual disk that you wish to create.
If you wish, select Allocate all disk space now.
Allocating all the space at the time you create the virtual disk gives somewhat better performance, but it requires as much disk space as the size you specify for the virtual disk.
If you do not select this option, the virtual disk's files start small and grow as needed, but they can never grow larger than the size you set here.
You can set a size between 0.1GB and 256GB for a SCSI virtual disk or 128GB for an IDE virtual disk. The default is 4GB.
You may also specify whether you want the virtual disk created as one large file or split into a set of 2GB files. You should split your virtual disk if it may be stored on a FAT32 file system.
Note: Because the Microsoft installer cannot install files larger than about 4.3GB,
you should also split the virtual disk if the disk is larger than 4GB. You may wish to
split the virtual disk even if it is smaller than 4GB. If you plan to distribute the
VMware ACE package on CD or DVD, the package installs more quickly if you
split the files. For the fastest package installation, be sure that the files that make
up the virtual disks are smaller than 4GB and smaller than the media used to
distribute the package. Thus you get best results if you split the virtual disk files
and distribute the package on DVD.
Make the Virtual Disk Big Enough
The virtual disk should be large enough to hold the guest operating system and all of the software that you intend to install, with room for data and growth.
You may prefer to increase total disk space by adding virtual disks to the virtual machine. You can install additional virtual disks using the virtual machine settings editor (VM > Settings). You must add any additional virtual disks after completing this wizard but before you create the package for distribution to your end users.
Consider this example: You need about 500MB of actual free space on the file system containing the virtual disk to install Windows Me and popular applications such as Microsoft Office inside the virtual machine. You can set up a single virtual disk to hold these files. Or you can split them up — installing the operating system on the first virtual disk and using a second virtual disk for applications or data files.
- If you selected Typical as your configuration path, click Finish and the wizard sets up the files needed for the virtual machine.
If you selected Custom as you configuration path, continue with the next step, specifying the location of the virtual disk's files.
If you want to specify which device node should be used by your SCSI or IDE virtual disk, click Advanced.
On the Specify Advanced Options panel, you can also specify a disk mode. This is useful in certain special-purpose configurations in which you want to exclude disks from the snapshot.
Normal disks are included in the snapshot. In most cases, you should use normal disks, leaving Independent unchecked.
Independent disks are not included in the snapshot.
Caution: The independent disk option should be used only by advanced users
who need it for special-purpose configurations.
You have the following options for an independent disk:
- When you click Finish, the wizard sets up the files needed for your virtual machine.
- The Ready to Complete panel appears.
Select Set policies after the wizard closes if you want to go directly to the policy editor and set policies for the virtual machines in the project.
Deselect Set policies after the wizard closes if you do not want to set policies for the virtual machines at this time.
Click Finish to complete the Add Virtual Machine Wizard.
