Solutions - VMware - Tips in Using VMware Server
VMware Server is a free virtualization product. It enables companies to partition a physical server into multiple virtual machines. This product requires to run on either Windows or Linux operating system.
On the other hand,
VMware ESXi and
VMware vSphere 4 can run directly on hardware. VI3 is recommended for production systems because of improved performance.
Download VMware Server
In general, we recommend to
download the latest VMware Server (VMware Server 2.0.2 or the previous version 1.0.10) and use it because newer versions usually have fixed common issues experienced by other users. In particular for version 1.0, ServiceTech suggests to use version 1.0.2 or later. We find that the newer version is more stable in high loading situations, and fixed some issues for Windows Vista.
Version | Release Date | User Interface |
|---|
| 2.0.2 build 203138 | October 26, 2009 | Web Browser |
| 1.0.10 build 203137 | October 26, 2009 | Client Program |
Remote Management
You can use a web browser to connect the VMware Server by HTTPS to the default port 8333. For example,
https://<vmware_server>:8333/
After logging in, you can perform configuration tasks, check the performance as well as access the consoles. Hurray!
VMware Tools
After the installation of guest operating system, it is recommended to install the VMware Tools. It consists of the necessary drivers, and will usually improve the display and mouse performance. Also, you can then copy and paste with the guest OS.
First, select
VM >
Install VMware Tools, for Windows, a setup wizard would appear.
For Linux, you should then mount the CD-ROM and install the package manually. e.g.
mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
ls -l /mnt/cdrom
You should see a .rpm file and a .tar.gz file. You can either use "rpm" command, or uncompress the .tar.gz file to install the VMware Tools.
Troubleshooting Common Problems
Virtual Disk Expansion
One feature we find rather useful in VMware Server is that it allows the expansion of virtual disks with the
vmware-vdiskmanager command. After the expansion, the guest operating system will see the unallocated disk space after booting up. For Windows, you may use the
diskpart command to extend the partition. The
diskpart command sometimes might return errors depending on the Windows version and service pack, in this case you may check the
Microsoft support site.
Time Inaccuracy
Since virtual machines share the resources from the host hardware, which includes the processor, it may cause slight errors in the virtual machine system time. From ServiceTech experience, the time inaccuracy is more significant for multi-core processor machines. The VMware knowledge base has articles to adjust the time difference, which covers
Windows hosts and
Linux hosts.
Unable to Boot up after Moving Virtual Machines
After moving Virtual Machines from a computer to another, the virtual machine might sometimes refuse to boot up. A dialog box appears with the message "The guest operating system you are running is using the Physical Address Extension (PAE) processor option".
We find that this is most likely caused by mismatched host and guest operating systems (for example, a Windows 2000 Workstation with a Windows Server 2003 guest). We found that VMware knowledge base article 1539 fixed the problem for us. You might use Notepad to edit the .vmx file for the virtual machine and add the following line (have a backup first!), or check with VMware support.
paevm = "TRUE"
Keeping Updated
Technology is always changing and it is important to keep informed on the latest news. The
VMware Communities is a good starting point for exploring technical articles and patch updates.
Last but not least, we hope that you enjoy the tips we have shared here!
