VMware ACE

Features | Documentation | Knowledge Base | Discussion Forums

Configuring the Virtual Machines and Installing Software

To finish preparing your project, review the configuration of all virtual machines and be sure that the appropriate operating system and software are installed in each virtual machine.

Reviewing the Configuration of a Virtual Machine

Select a virtual machine in the project list. The display shows the virtual machine overview.

Devices

The Devices list provides an overview of the devices configured for this virtual machine and the basic settings for each device. The list includes the virtual machine's memory and such virtual devices as hard disks, CD-ROM drives, floppy disks, Ethernet adapters, USB controllers and audio devices.

To change the settings for an existing device, double-click the name of the device, then change the settings as needed.

To add a device click Edit virtual machine settings in the Commands list, click Add, then follow the instructions provided by the wizard.

Note: In this release, you may experience problems if you configure a virtual machine to use hardware such as a floppy disk or a CD-ROM drive but the host computer does not have corresponding hardware. Be sure the computers on which you plan to run this virtual machine have the physical devices needed to support those virtual devices — for example, CD-ROM drives, floppy disks, Ethernet adapters, USB controllers and audio devices.

Policies

The Policies list provides an overview of the policies set for this virtual machine.

To change the policies for the virtual machine, click Edit virtual machine policies in the Commands list, then change the settings as needed.

Notes

To add notes about this virtual machine, click inside the notes field and type. The notes are saved with the virtual machine configuration.

Installing an Operating System and Applications in the Virtual Machine

Before deploying virtual machines to your end users, be sure they have the necessary operating system and software installed.

If you created a new virtual machine and added it to the project, you must install a guest operating system in the virtual machine. The steps in this section describe how to install a Windows XP guest operating system from an installation CD. For notes on installing all supported guest operating systems, see the Guest Operating System Installation Guide, available from the VMware Web site or from the Help menu.

If you added an existing virtual machine, it may already have a guest operating system installed. Be sure the guest operating system has the appropriate updates.

If you are deploying a Windows virtual machine to multiple users, you must set up Sysprep in the guest operating system just as you would on a physical computer you intended to clone for a large deployment. Sysprep prepares the operating system for deployment by installing special software that reconfigures the operating system on the next boot.

Installing a Guest Operating System

A new virtual machine is like a physical computer with a blank hard disk. Before you can use it, you need to partition and format the virtual disk, and install an operating system. The operating system's installation program may handle the partitioning and formatting steps for you.

Installing a guest operating system inside your VMware ACE virtual machine is essentially the same as installing it on a physical computer. The basic steps for a typical operating system are:

Start VMware ACE.
Insert the installation CD-ROM or floppy disk for your guest operating system.
Note: In some host configurations, the virtual machine is not able to boot from the installation CD-ROM. You can work around that problem by creating an ISO image file from the installation CD-ROM. Use the Virtual Machine Control Panel to connect the virtual machine's CD drive to the ISO image file, then power on the virtual machine.
Power on your virtual machine by clicking the Power On button.
Follow the instructions provided by the operating system vendor.

Installing Windows XP

The next section provides notes on installing a Windows XP guest operating system.

Insert the Windows XP CD in the CD-ROM drive.
Note: If you plan to use a PXE server to install the guest operating system over a network connection, you do not need the operating system installation media. When you power on the virtual machine in the next step, the virtual machine detects the PXE server.
Power on the virtual machine to start installing Windows XP.
Follow the Windows XP installation steps as you would for a physical computer.
Install VMware Tools in the guest operating system.
Note: Be sure to install VMware Tools in the guest operating system. A number of key features in VMware ACE are provided by the VMware Tools package.

The installers for VMware Tools for Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and NetWare guest operating systems are built into VMware ACE Manager as ISO image files.

VMware Tools for Windows supports Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Longhorn guest operating systems.

Installing VMware Tools in a Windows Guest Operating System

The detailed steps for installing VMware Tools depend on the version of Windows you are running. The steps that follow show how to install VMware Tools in a Windows XP guest. Some steps that are automated in newer versions of Windows must be performed manually in Windows 9x and Windows NT.

Note: If you are running VMware ACE Manager on a Windows host and your virtual machine has only one CD-ROM drive, the CD-ROM drive must be configured as an IDE or SCSI CD-ROM drive. It cannot be configured as a generic SCSI device.

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

The remaining steps take place inside the virtual machine.

Note: You must log on to a Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 or Longhorn guest operating system as an administrator in order to install VMware Tools. Any user can install VMware Tools in a Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows Me guest operating system.

If you have autorun enabled in your guest operating system (the default setting for Windows operating systems), a dialog box appears after a few seconds. It asks if you want to install VMware Tools. Click Yes to launch the InstallShield wizard.
If autorun is not enabled, the dialog box does not appear automatically. If it doesn't appear, run the VMware Tools installer. Click Start > Run and enter D:\setup\setup.exe where D: is your first virtual CD-ROM drive.
Note: You do not use an actual CD-ROM to install VMware Tools, nor do you need to download the CD-ROM image or burn a physical CD-ROM of this image file. The VMware ACE software contains an ISO image that looks like a CD-ROM to your guest operating system and even appears as a CD-ROM in Windows Explorer. This image contains all the files needed to install VMware Tools in your guest operating system. When you finish installing VMware Tools, this image file no longer appears in your CD-ROM drive.
Follow the onscreen instructions.
Note: At some stages in the installation process, you may see Digital Signature Not Found dialog boxes. You can safely ignore the messages and click the button to continue installing these drivers.
On Windows Server 2003, Windows Me, Windows 98 SE and Windows 98 guests, the SVGA driver is installed automatically and the guest operating system uses it after it reboots. With Windows 2000 and Windows XP guests, you do not have to reboot to use the new driver.

Installing VMware Tools in a Linux Guest Operating System

Power on the virtual machine.
After the guest operating system has started, prepare your virtual machine to install VMware Tools.
Choose VM > Install VMware Tools.

The remaining steps take place inside the virtual machine.

You may install VMware Tools in text mode or from a terminal in an X window session.
As root (su -), mount the VMware Tools virtual CD-ROM image, change to a working directory (for example, /tmp), uncompress the installer, then unmount the CD-ROM image.
Note: You do not use an actual CD-ROM to install VMware Tools, nor do you need to download the CD-ROM image or burn a physical CD-ROM of this image file. The VMware ACE software contains an ISO image that looks like a CD-ROM to your guest operating system. This image contains all the files needed to install VMware Tools in your guest operating system.
Note: Some Linux distributions use different device names or organize the / dev directory differently. If your CD-ROM drive is not /dev/cdrom or if the mount point for a CD-ROM is not /mnt/cdrom, modify the following commands to reflect the conventions used by your distribution.
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom cd /tmp tar zxf /mnt/cdrom/vmware-linux-tools.tar.gz umount /mnt/cdrom
Run the VMware Tools installer.
cd vmware-tools-distrib ./vmware-install.pl
Respond to the questions the installer displays on the panel. Be sure to respond yes when the installer offers to run the configuration program.
Log off of the root account.
exit
Start X and your graphical environment if they are not already running.
Note: If this is the first time you have installed VMware Tools in this virtual machine, you must restart X to activate graphics and mouse features in the VMware Tools package.
In an X terminal, launch the VMware Tools application in the background.
vmware-toolbox &
Note: You may run VMware Tools as root or as a normal user. To shrink virtual disks, you must run VMware Tools as root (su -).

Starting VMware Tools Automatically in a Linux Guest Operating System

You may find it helpful to configure your guest operating system so VMware Tools starts when you start your X server. The steps for doing so vary depending on your Linux distribution and your desktop environment. Check your operating system documentation for the appropriate steps to take.

For example, in a Red Hat Linux 7.1 guest using GNOME, follow these steps.

Open the Startup Programs panel in the GNOME Control Center.
Main Menu (click the foot icon in the lower left corner of the screen) > Programs > Settings > Session > Startup Programs
Click Add.
In the Startup Command field, enter vmware-toolbox.
Click OK, click OK again, then close the GNOME Control Center.

The next time you start X, VMware Tools starts automatically.

Installing VMware Tools in a FreeBSD Guest Operating System

Power on the virtual machine.
Prepare your virtual machine to install VMware Tools.
Choose VM > Install VMware Tools.

The remaining steps take place inside the virtual machine, not on the host computer.

You may install VMware Tools in text mode or from a terminal in an X window session.
As root (su -), mount the VMware Tools virtual CD-ROM image, change to a working directory (for example, /tmp), uncompress the installer, then unmount the CD-ROM image.
Note: You do not use an actual CD-ROM to install VMware Tools, nor do you need to download the CD-ROM image or burn a physical CD-ROM of this image file. The VMware ACE software contains an ISO image that looks like a CD-ROM to your guest operating system. This image contains all the files needed to install VMware Tools in your guest operating system.
mount /cdrom cd /tmp tar zxf /cdrom/vmware-freebsd-tools.tar.gz umount /cdrom
Run the VMware Tools installer.
cd vmware-tools-distrib ./vmware-install.pl
Log off of the root account.
exit
Start X and your graphical environment if they are not already running.
Note: If this is the first time you have installed VMware Tools in this virtual machine, you must restart X to activate graphics and mouse features in the VMware Tools package.
In an X terminal, launch the VMware Tools application in the background.
vmware-toolbox &
Note: You may run VMware Tools as root or as a normal user. To shrink virtual disks, you must run VMware Tools as root (su -).

Note: In a FreeBSD 4.5 guest operating system, sometimes VMware Tools does not start after you install VMware Tools, reboot the guest operating system or start VMware Tools on the command line in the guest. An error message appears:

Shared object 'libc.so.3' not found.

The required library was not installed. This does not happen with full installations of FreeBSD 4.5, but does occur for minimal installations. To fix the problem of the missing library, take the following steps:

Insert and mount the FreeBSD 4.5 installation CD or access the ISO image file.
Change directories and run the installation script.
cd /cdrom/compat3x ./install.sh

Installing VMware Tools in a NetWare Guest Operating System

Power on the virtual machine.
Prepare your virtual machine to install VMware Tools.
Choose VM > Install VMware Tools.

The remaining steps take place inside the virtual machine.

Load the CD-ROM driver so the CD-ROM device mounts the ISO image as a volume. Do one of the following.
- In the system console for a NetWare 6.5 virtual machine, type
  LOAD CDDVD
- In the system console for a NetWare 6.0 or NetWare 5.1 virtual machine, type
  LOAD CD9660.NSS
When the driver finishes loading, you can begin installing VMware Tools. In the system console, type
vmwtools:\setup.ncf
When the installation finishes, the message VMware Tools for NetWare are now running appears in the Logger screen (NetWare 6.5 and NetWare 6.0 guests) or the Console screen (NetWare 5.1 guests).
Restart the guest operating system. In the system console, type
restart server

Configuring VMware Tools

This section shows the options available in a Windows XP guest operating system. Similar configuration options are available in VMware Tools for other guest operating systems.

When VMware Tools is running, an icon with the VMware boxes logo appears in the guest operating system's system tray by default. If you prefer to hide this icon, change the setting on the Options tab.

To open the VMware Tools control panel, double-click the VMware Tools icon in the system tray.

If the VMware Tools icon does not appear in the system tray, go to Start > Control Panel. Locate the VMware Tools icon and double-click it.

The Options tab shows the Miscellaneous Options.

Time synchronization between the virtual machine and the host operating system
Note: You can synchronize the time in the guest operating system with the time on the host operating system only when you set the clock in the guest operating system to a time earlier than the time set on the host.
Under some circumstances, the virtual machine may synchronize time with the host even though this item is not selected. If you want to disable time synchronization completely, open the virtual machine's configuration file (.vmx) in a text editor and set the following options to FALSE.
tools.syncTime tools.synchronize.restore time.synchronize.resume.disk time.synchronize.continue time.synchronize.shrink
Show VMware Tools in the taskbar

The Scripts tab (available only in Windows guests) lets you enable, disable and run scripts that are associated with the Suspend, Resume, Power On and Power Off buttons.

If the virtual machine is configured to use DHCP, the script that is executed when suspending a virtual machine releases the IP address of the virtual machine. The script that is executed when resuming a virtual machine renews the IP address of the virtual machine.

To run one of these scripts at some other time, select the script you want from the drop-down menu, then click Run Now.

To disable all scripts, deselect Use Scripts.

Note: Scripts cannot be run in Windows 95, NetWare or FreeBSD guest operating systems.

Note: Scripts in Windows NT and Windows Me guest operating systems do not release and renew the IP address.

The Shared Folders tab provides information on where to find your shared folders.

For more information on shared folders, see Using Shared Folders in VMware ACE Manager.

The Shrink tab gives you access to the controls you need if you wish to reclaim unused space in a virtual disk.

In some configurations, it is not possible to shrink virtual disks. If your virtual machine uses such a configuration, the Shrink tab displays information explaining why you cannot shrink your virtual disks.

Using the System Console to Configure VMware Tools in a NetWare Guest Operating System

You can configure certain virtual machine options such as time synchronization, CPU idling and device configuration with VMware Tools in a NetWare virtual machine using the system console. The VMware Tools command line program is called vmwtool. To see the options associated with this command, at the system console, type
vmwtool help

Each command in the following table must be entered into the system console after the VMware Tools command vmwtool. Use the following format:
vmwtool <command>


vmwtool Command	Definition
`help`	Displays a summary of VMware Tools commands and options in a NetWare guest.
`partitonlist`	Displays a list of all disk partitions in the virtual disk and whether or not a partition can be shrunk.
`shrink <partition>`	Shrinks the listed partitions. If no partitions are specified, then all partitions in the virtual disk are shrunk. The status of the shrink process appears at the bottom of the system console.
`devicelist`	Lists each removable device in the virtual machine, its device ID and whether the device is enabled or disabled. Removable devices include the virtual network adapter, CD-ROM and floppy drives.
`disabledevice <device name>`	Disables the specified device or devices in the virtual machine. If no device is specified, then all removable devices in the virtual machine are disabled.
`enabledevice <device name>`	Enables the specified device or devices in the virtual machine. If no device is specified, then all removable devices in the virtual machine are enabled.
`synctime [on\|off]`	Lets you turn on or off synchronization of time in the guest operating system with time on the host operating system. By default, time synchronization is turned off. Use this command without any options to view the current time synchronization status. You can synchronize the time in the guest operating system with time on the host operating system only when the time in the guest operating system is earlier than the time set in the host.
`idle [on\|off]`	Lets you turn on or off the CPU idler. By default, the idler is turned on. The CPU idler program is included in VMware Tools for NetWare guests. The idler program is needed because NetWare servers do not idle the CPU when the operating system is idle. As a result, a virtual machine takes CPU time from the host regardless of whether the NetWare server software is idle or busy.

Installing Application Software

If you plan to distribute application software in the virtual machine, be sure the correct software is installed.

You may install application software in the virtual machine just as you would on a physical computer — using a CD or an installer file on a network server, for example.

If you are installing from a file on the network, you may need to change the networking configuration of the virtual machine or network settings of the guest operating system in order to navigate to the installer file. If you need to make such changes, be sure to reconfigure the settings as needed after you finish installing the application software.

Prev Contents Last Next

VMware ACE

Configuring the Virtual Machines and Installing Software

Support Resources