VMware Server 2.0 RC 2 Release Notes

These release notes cover the following topics:

• What's New
• Known Issues

What's New

VMware Server 2.0 is a free virtualization product for Microsoft Windows and Linux servers that enables you to provision new server capacity by partitioning a physical server into multiple virtual machines.

For more detailed information about the features included in VMware Server 2.0, see the VMware Server Users Guide. Review the Known Issues section for additional information.

• VI Web Access: VI Web Access enables you to perform host and virtual machine configuration on VMware Server 2.0. This intuitive web-based interface provides a simple and flexible tool for virtual machine management.
• VMware Remote Console: VMware Remote Console enables you to interact with the guest operating system on the host or a remote system. After you install it as a Web browser add-on, it can run independently from VI Web Access. VMware Remote Console also allows you to connect and disconnect client CD/DVD and floppy devices.
• USB 2.0 Device Support: VMware Server now supports faster data transfer with USB devices plugged into the host system. If the guest operating system has appropriate USB 2.0 device drivers, you can use peripherals that require high-speed performance, such as speakers, webcams, next-generation printers and scanners, and fast storage devices.
• Increased RAM support: The maximum amount of memory that can be allocated per virtual machine has been raised from 3.6GB to 8GB. The amount of memory used by all virtual machines combined is limited only by the amount of the host computer's RAM.
• Improved 64-bit guest support: 64-bit guest operating systems that run on Intel EM64T VT-capable or AMD64 revision D or later processors are fully supported.
• Native 64-bit host support on Linux: VMware Server now runs natively on 64-bit Linux host operating systems.
• Quiesced backups of virtual machines: On Windows hosts, you can enable the VMware VSS Writer, which uses snapshots to maintain the data integrity of applications running inside the virtual machine when you take backups.
• VMCI Sockets interface: This feature provides a sockets interface for the Virtual Machine Communication Interface, which provides a faster means of communication among applications running on the host and in virtual machines. For more information, see the VMCI Sockets Programming Guide.
• Hot add and remove for SCSI hard disks: You can now add and remove SCSI virtual hard disks while the virtual machine is running in hardware version 7 virtual machines.

Known Issues

The following are known issues with VMware Server 2.0.

• When attempting to install VMware Server on a Windows host, you might see the message Please verify the md5 hash value of this executable and then press 'Yes' to continue.
  Workaround: This message is sometimes displayed when the installer package size is large. You can check the md5 hash value to verify the package before you continue the installation. The md5 hash values are listed on the VMware Server 2.0 download page.
• When attempting to install VMware Server on a Windows 2003 Server host, you might see the error message Error 1718. File installer_name.msi was rejected by digital signature policy.
  Workaround: For more information and possible workarounds, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925336. Make sure that your operating system has all the latest updates applied.
• When attempting to install VMware Server on a Windows 2003 Server host, you might see the error message System Administrator has set policies to prevent this installation.
  Workaround: Right-click the installer file, choose Run as, and enter the Administrator username and password. Additional configuration steps might be required. See http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=590630&SiteID=17.
• When upgrading on a Windows host, the installer might prompt you to reboot the system. After the system is rebooted, you might see the message This installation package could not be opened. Verify that the package exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows Installer Package.
  Workaround: Manually restart the installation from the VMware Server installer executable.
• The default VI Web Access HTTP connection port is 8222 and the default HTTPS port is 8333. If you use these defaults, or any values other than 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HTTPS), you must specify the port number when you connect to VMware Server using VI Web Access. You must also allow connection to these ports through your firewall.
  An example URL to connect to VI Web Access is http://server_host:8222
  If you want to use ports 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HTTPS), override the default values during installation.
  Note: If you are running IIS or Apache web server on the default ports, specify alternate HTTP and HTTP ports when prompted by the Windows installer or vmware-config.pl. Alternatively, stop IIS's default Web site or any other Web site running on these ports. On Linux, shut down Apache or any other application using these ports and make sure they are not configured to restart automatically.
• On Windows, the VMware Server desktop and Start menu shortcuts use the NetBIOS name in the connection URL. This might cause VI Web Access to fail to connect to VMware Server. VMware Remote Console connections might also fail, with the error Error opening the remote virtual machine machine_name: The host name could not be resolved.
  Workaround: Enter the correct host name as the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) when prompted by the Windows installer. Or, if the URL specified in the shortcut does not work, use the correct host name, IP address, or localhost, as appropriate, in the connection URL. You can also manually enter the short name and the FQDN, or localhost, in the /etc/hosts file.
• When you connect to VI Web Access using Firefox 3, a Security Connection Error is displayed, indicating that the VMware Server host is using an invalid security certificate. The certificate is not trusted because it is self signed.
  Workaround:
  To allow VI Web Access to connect to the host:
  1. Click Or you can add an exception.
  2. Click Add Exception.
  3. Click Get Certificate.
  4. Verify that Permanently store this exception is selected.
  5. Click Confirm Security Exception.
• The VMware Remote Console add-on is listed in the Manage Add-ons dialog box of Internet Explorer 7, but, unlike the RC1 and beta versions of the add-on, you can no longer delete the add-on from the Manage Add-ons dialog box.
  Workaround: Install and uninstall the VMware Remote Console add-on using Add/Remove Programs. The add-on is now installed as a Windows executable.
• When you run vmware-config.pl or upgrade from RC1, custom bridged (mapped) network settings are not preserved.
  Workaround: Write down the settings you used to map virtual networks to specific physical or virtual adapters.
  To reconfigure the network adapters, edit the netmap.conf file as follows:
  1. Stop the vmware processes by entering the command/etc/init.d/vmware stop
  2. Open the /etc/vmware/netmap.conf network mapping file in a text editor.
  3. Edit the settings and save your changes.
  4. Start the vmware processes by entering the command /etc/init.d/vmware start
• Automatic VMware Tools upgrade appears to hang in Linux guests.
  Workaround: Upgrade VMware Tools interactively. Alternatively, if you upgrade VMware Tools automatically and the upgrade appears to hang, click Eject Installer after a few minutes and verify that VMware Tools installation is completed and the new version of VMware Tools is installed.
• In RHEL 4.6 AS 64-bit guests, mouse behavior is not correct after VMware Tools is installed.
  Workaround: Restart the guest or the Xsession after VMware Tools is installed.
• In RHEL 4.x guests, the mouse and keyboard might freeze after VMware Tools is upgraded from RC1 in a hardware version 6 or 7 virtual machine.
  Workaround: Restart the guest after VMware Tools is upgraded.
• In Netware 6 guests with VMware Tools installed, it is not possible to transfer control of the mouse from VMware Remote Console back to your computer unless you press Ctrl+Alt.
• For a virtual CD-ROM device, if you have legacy (ATAPI) emulation enabled when you install a Solaris guest operating system from CD, you might see warning messages indicating that the medium is incompatible.
  Workaround: You can safely ignore the warnings. If you edit the CD/DVD drive in VI Web Access and select Access the drive directly instead of Use ATAPI emulation, the warnings are not displayed.
• The vmnet-netifup daemons do not terminate when VMware Server is stopped.
  Workaround: Disable IPv6 on your host.
• If you create quiesced backups and you set overwrite.snapshots to TRUE in the VMware VSS Writer configuration file, existing snapshots for all virtual machines on that host are overwritten unless the snapshots are locked.
  Workaround: Lock any snapshots that you don't want to overwrite in the Configure VM Snapshots tab.
• On Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 with SELinux enabled, the host agent will not start due to library loading errors.
  Workaround: Use the chcon command to change the security context for any libraries that fail to load, for example:
  chcon -t texrel_shlib_t /usr/lib/vmware/vmacore/libvmacore.so.1.0.
• On Linux hosts, USB devices are not correctly released from a powered off virtual machine. It is possible to connect released devices to another virtual machine, but then neither virtual machine can successfully use the devices when both virtual machines are powered on.
  Workaround: Do not attempt to share a USB device between virtual machines. Manually disconnect the USB device before you connect it to a different virtual machine.
• If you manually modified /etc/vmware/hostd/config.xml after installing VMware Server 2 Beta 1, you might see the error Web Service not available when you attempt to log in to VI Web Access after you upgrade to Beta 2, RC 1, or RC2.
  Workaround: Edit the config.xml file to the correct settings. You can copy the correct settings from the file NEW_config.xml.
• If you use Avira AntiVir antivirus software on Windows hosts, you might have problems running virtual machines.
• If you have a legacy version of Neoteris Secure Application Manager installed on a client system where you are running VMware Remote Console, VMware Remote Console may fail to connect to a virtual machine on a Windows host.
  Workaround: Uninstall Neoteris Secure Application Manager and upgrade to the most recent version, available through Juniper Networks.
• When you attempt to install a new version of the VMware Remote Console add-on over an existing version in Internet Explorer version 7.0.5730.11, a message indicating that the installation was canceled is displayed, and the installation fails. It is not possible to delete the add-on.
  Workaround: Upgrade Internet Explorer to a more recent version.
• On some Linux guest systems, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and Suse 9.3, the guest operating system binds virtual network adapters to specific MAC addresses. When the MAC address changes (for example, when the virtual machine is cloned), you must update the associated guest operating system configuration.
• On Windows hosts, the sound drivers are not installed in some Windows guests. Sound does not work in these guests.
• If you are not using the default ports (8222/8333) for VI Web Access, clicking Help from the virtual network editor on the host displays a failure to load page error in the Web browser instead of the appropriate help page.
  Workaround: Change port number in the help URL or access the virtual network editor help from VI Web Access.