VMware Server
VMware Server is a version of IBM’s virtualization software. Unlike Workstation, VMware Server only needs an activation key free, you no longer get by registering at the site of VMware in order to use this program without paying a Euro.
Requirements
As a host operating system supports both Windows and Linux.
The processors are recommended Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium 4, Pentium M Xeon EM64T and the. Among the AMD Athlon are, Athlon MP, Athlon XP, Athlon 64, Turion 64 and Opteron. The minimum memory is 512MB, while the maximum is 4GB for processors that do not support the extension of PAE and 2GB memory addresses when using Linux kernels 2.2.x
The Windows operating systems supported are Windows Server 2003 Enterprise and Windows Server 2000. The list of systems includes the penguin Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.0, Red Hat Linux 9.0, Red Hat Linux 8.0, Red Hat Linux 7.3, SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10, SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9, SuSE Linux 9.2, Suse Linux 9.3, SuSE Linux 10, SuSE Linux 10.1, openSUSE 10.2, Mandriva Linux 2006, Ubuntu Linux 5.04, 5.10, 6.06, 6.10. Kernel 2.2.14-5.0 is not supported. For both families of operating systems are required Perl 5.005xe a browser including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape Navigator.
The virtual machines that are supported are those that can be used as a host more: Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 6a, Windows Me, Windows 98, Windows 95, Windows 3.1, MS-DOS 6.x, TurboLinux, Novell Desktop Linux, NetWare, FreeBSD, Solaris 10.
Installation
Attention to two different versions of VMware do not live together peacefully on the same host operating system, so if you install VMware Server will not be able to install the Workstation.
The installation plan to install VMware Server on the computer that will run the virtual machine and another installation of the VMware Server Console on a client computer to manage virtual machines remotely.
Using a Microsoft operating system as a server simply run the installer for VMware, choose the type of installation.
That includes full VMware Server, VMware Management Interface, VMware Server Console, API VmCOM, VmPerl API, the API programming and VMware Disk Mount Utility.
After the procedure, the software will be installed.
For systems with Linux you can use the package already compiled for VMware Server also if you want to use the Console (VMware-mui-. Tar.gz) and the Management Interface (VMware-server-console-. i386.rpm) you should download the relevant packages from the VMware site.
It begins with the command as root
# rpm -Uhv Vmware-server-.i386.rpm
In the end, you must enter
$ vmware-config.pl
and answer questions.
To install the VMware Management Interface you should copy the gz file in the tmp directory, then unzip and run the vmware-install.pl vmware-mui in the folder-distrib. When the configuration is finished you can start installing the Server Console.
The installation of VMware Server Console on a Windows host is resolved by running the installer, while Linux will need to download the zip file from the VMware site and unpack it in the tmp directory inside there are two files: one is the packet format rpm and the other is a tar.gz archive to be used on systems that do not use the packet format designed by Red Hat
To end the procedure is necessary to execute the command
$ vmware-config-console.pl
Answer the questions.
To install the console on a client workstation or on another computer from which you connect to the server, you must first install the VMware Server Console programming APIs, the API and a Windows client VMPerl also VmCOM API.
Logging of security and virtual machine
With VMware virtual machines can be managed remotely with using VMware Management Interface, which is a Web tool, or using the Server Console, similar to a remote assistance software.
Shut down a virtual machine: permits
There are four different levels of access to virtual machines: Exploring the virtual machine, interaction with the virtual machine, configuration, administration of virtual machine and host.
To explore the virtual machine is the ability to connect to the virtual machine to check if you turned on or off, but you can not interact with it. To explore a permissions must be set to Read in its configuration file with a. Vmx
Interact with the virtual machine is to have the opportunity to change the status (on, off, suspend, restart) and connect or disconnect removable devices, but can not be added or removed other hardware. To access this level in the configuration file permissions to be Read and Execute.
Having permission to configure the virtual machine you can add or remove virtual hardware. The permits are to be imostati Read and Write.
To administer a virtual machine and the host running VMware Server requires Read, Execute, Write, for that particular virtual machine, using Windows user account must be a member of the Administrators group, but with Linux you need root access to folders containing the files of the virtual machine. The administrator can change the amount of memory available to the various instances, or change the type of network between virtual machines.
When you create a virtual machine by default this is inaccessible to other users (not explored), then to make it accessible to others must change the permissions to the configuration file on the machine.
To change the permissions on Windows, the administrator (the only authorized) looks for the configuration file of the virtual machine, clicking the right button select Properties from the popup menu (Properties), click the Security tab (security). Here you can choose which groups and which users are allowed to give or revoke, restrict access or activate other.
If you use Linux, the procedure is a bit ‘more laborious.
When you create a virtual machine, the user becomes the owner (owner) of file configuration and get the permissions Read, Write, Execute. That belongs to the primary group the user is granted Read and Execute, while other users or members of groups to which the owner is only left Read.
When you install VMware Server is possible via the configuration program vmware-config.pl when setting permissions to change the behavior.
Authentication
When you connect to a virtual machine using the Console or the Management Interface is a request for user name and password. If authentication is successful you will have access to exist virtual machine using the permissions you have. Both the user name and password for the network travel appropriately encrypted by default, the administrator or root user can disable SSL if you do not want to use this service.
Logging
Using Windows as a host logging information is sent to the Event Viewer. The activities that are logged are: change of state of a virtual machine, the removal or inserimeno a virtual machine in the list of virtual machines available to a user, deleting a virtual machine, and of course every message warning or communication originated from VMware Server.
To observe this operating system for logging in Event Viewer, just log which is located under Start> Administrative Tools> Event Viewer.
Among choose the Application log to see the events generated by VMware Server.
To change the type of logging you must modify the virtual machine configuration file (.vmx) by changing variables eventlog.win.message = TRUE and FALSE = FALSE TRUE eentlog.win.register.
To set the logging of all virtual machines managed by the host can modify the VMware Server config.ini which is typically located in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\VMware\VMware Server
Soon there will be additional articles about VMware Server.