-
Identify the raw partition on which the guest operating system will be installed.
Check the guest operating system documentation regarding the type of partition on which the operating system can be installed. For example, operating systems like DOS, Windows 95 and Windows 98 must be installed on the first primary partition while others, like Linux, can be installed to a primary or extended partition on any part of the drive.
Identify an appropriate raw partition or disk for the guest operating system to use. Check that the raw partition is not mounted by the Linux host and not in use by others. Also, be sure the raw partition or disk does not have data you will need in the future; if it does, back up that data now.
-
Check the operating system partition mounts. Be sure the existing disk partitions that you plan to configure the virtual machine to use are not mounted by Linux.
-
Set the device group membership or device ownership.
The master raw disk device or devices need to be readable and writable by the user who runs GSX Server. On most distributions, the raw devices, such as /dev/hda (IDE raw disk) and /dev/sdb (SCSI raw disk) belong to group-id disk. If this is the case, you can add GSX Server users to the disk group. Another option is to change the owner of the device. Please think carefully of security in exploring different options here.
It is a good idea to grant GSX Server users access to all /dev/hd[abcd] raw devices that contain operating systems or boot managers and then rely on GSX Server's raw disk configuration files to guard access. This provides boot managers access to configuration and other files they may need to boot the operating systems. For example, LILO needs to read /boot on a Linux partition to boot a non-Linux operating system that may be on another drive.
-
Run the Configuration Wizard (File > Wizard).
-
When you reach the Disk Type Settings panel, select Use a physical disk. Click Next.
-
Select the read/write option only for the raw partition or disk (and its master boot record) on which you want to install the guest operating system. If the raw disk you plan to use has multiple partitions already on it, be aware that certain operating systems (DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98) must be installed on the first primary partition.
Caution: Corruption is possible if you allow the virtual machine to modify a partition that is simultaneously mounted under Linux. Since the virtual machine and guest operating system access an existing partition while the host continues to run Linux, it is critical that the virtual machine not be allowed to modify any partition mounted by the host or in use by another virtual machine. To safeguard against this problem, be sure the partition you mark read/write for the virtual machine is not mounted under the Linux host.
-
Complete the remaining steps in the wizard. On the review screen, note the path to the configuration (.cfg) file. You will need it in the next step.
-
Start a local console and manually change the controller/channel assignment selected by the wizard. Type vmware -G <config-file>.cfg, where <config-file> is the path to the configuration file created by the wizard.
-
Choose Settings > Configuration Editor and check that your IDE configuration specifies at least two raw disk description files. These files are named <configuration-name>.hda, <configuration-name>.hdb and so on.
-
Identify the description file for the raw disk to which you will install the new guest operating system. For example, if your physical machine has an unused disk on the secondary master IDE channel and you want to use this device for the virtual machine, you should see a file called
<configuration-name>.hdc next to the virtual machine's IDE 1:0 or S-M configuration entry.
-
Replace the name of the description file (.hda file) next to the virtual machine's IDE 0:0 channel with the name of the description file you identified in the previous step.
-
Remove the other raw disk description file(s) from the virtual machine's IDE configuration dialog box and click OK.
-
Click OK to save the changes and close the Configuration Editor.
-
At this point you are ready to begin installing the guest operating system on the raw disk you configured for the virtual machine. For more details, read the installation notes for various guest operating systems in Installing Guest Operating Systems.
