26 Apr 2012 Manual download and install of VMware Tools in linux
This post describes how you can download and install the latest version of VMware Tools to a linux guest from a ESXi 5.0 host. You need SSH access rights to a VMware host to follow this guide.
- Allow SSH access to the VMware host you are about to access.
- This can be done in the vSphere Client: Choose the VMware host you would like to access.
- Go to the Configuration tab and select Security Profile under Software. Edit Services Properties and start the SSH daemon.
- Verify that the firewall allows SSH traffic
- All the VMware Tools are located in the /vmimages/tools-isoimages/ folder on the host. Download the ISO-image with the tools you need
- Issue this command from a machine that has access to the VMware host.
sftp username@vmhost.tld:/vmimages/tools-isoimages/linux.iso
Type in your password and the download will start
- Issue this command from a machine that has access to the VMware host.
- Mount the ISO-file and copy the VMware Tools installer file to the desired VMware linux guest using SSH
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# mount linux.iso /media/cdrom/ -t iso9660 -o loop # scp /media/cdrom/VMwareTools-8.6.5-652272.tar.gz username@vmguest.tld:
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- Manual install of VMware Tools on a vmguest as a privileged user
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# tar xfz VMwareTools-8.6.5-652272.tar.gz # cd vmware-tools-distrib # ./vmware-install.pl
Follow the instructions and finish the installer. A reboot may be required to load the necessary kernel modules.
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Your VMware Tools are now installed and should work as it would on a normal VMware Tools installation.
This procedure can also be used on other operating systems. This is a list of all the VMware Tools ISO-images available in the /vmimages/tools-isoimages/ folder on a ESXi 5.0 host
sftp> ls -l -rwx------ 1 root root 12576768 Apr 13 09:17 darwin.iso -rwx------ 1 root root 256 Apr 13 09:17 darwin.iso.sig -rwx------ 1 root root 16021504 Apr 13 09:16 freebsd.iso -rwx------ 1 root root 256 Apr 13 09:18 freebsd.iso.sig -rwx------ 1 root root 65200128 Apr 13 09:15 linux.iso -rwx------ 1 root root 256 Apr 13 09:17 linux.iso.sig -rwx------ 1 root root 1738 Apr 13 09:17 linux_avr_manifest.txt -rwx------ 1 root root 540672 Apr 13 09:17 netware.iso -rwx------ 1 root root 256 Apr 13 09:16 netware.iso.sig -rwx------ 1 root root 13006848 Apr 13 09:17 solaris.iso -rwx------ 1 root root 256 Apr 13 09:16 solaris.iso.sig -rwx------ 1 root root 451 Apr 13 09:17 tools-key.pub -rwx------ 1 root root 13664256 Apr 13 09:18 winPre2k.iso -rwx------ 1 root root 256 Apr 13 09:17 winPre2k.iso.sig -rwx------ 1 root root 49 Apr 13 09:18 winPre2k_avr_manifest.txt -rwx------ 1 root root 62128128 Apr 13 09:17 windows.iso -rwx------ 1 root root 256 Apr 13 09:18 windows.iso.sig -rwx------ 1 root root 1069 Apr 13 09:17 windows_avr_manifest.txt
Tags: esxi5, firewall, sftp, VMware, VMware Tools, vSphere Client
Posted by Hans-Henry Jakobsen
29 Mar 2012 Import a VHD disk image file from XenApp 6 to VMware vSphere 5
This post describes how you can import a VHD disk image file from XenApp 6 to your VMware vSphere 5 environment in a few simple steps. I am writing this because VMware vCenter Converter Standalone Client version 4.3 does not support conversion of VHD image files, even though it has done so in previous versions. I guess this procedure can be used on VHD files in general, but I have not tried it.
- Download and install StarWind V2V Image Convertor to convert the VHD image to a VMDK. V2V Image Convertor is free Windows software, but requires you to register before download
- Start the program and choose the virtual disk you would like to convert, in my case a VHD-file
- Next you need to decide the destination image format you would like to convert to, I choosed VMware ESX server image
- Select the destination for your new VMDK image file and start the conversion. This can take a while depending on the disk size
- When the conversien has finished createing two .vmdk files, copy them to your VMware storage.
- Open vSphere Client and create a new Virtual Machine with the configuration you desire in your VMware environment. Create it with a Hard disk. Do not power on this machine
- On the VMware file storage locate the new virtual machine folder and replace the converted-vhd-image-file-flat.vmdk file with the one already in there
- Netxt we need to edit the hard disk meta fila and copy the
# Extent description RW 102400000 VMFS "converted-vhd-image-file.vmdk"
value from the converted meta file converted-vhd-image-file.vmdk to the one VMware created to the new virtual machine
- You are now ready to power up your converted VHD to VMDK image file in a VMware virtual machine with hardware version 8
The full listing of my working converted-vhd-image-file.vmdk file is like this
# Disk DescriptorFile version=1 encoding="UTF-8" CID=fffffffe parentCID=ffffffff isNativeSnapshot="no" createType="vmfs" # Extent description RW 102400000 VMFS "converted-vhd-image-file-flat.vmdk" # The Disk Data Base #DDB ddb.virtualHWVersion = "8" ddb.longContentID = "660f859cd36ce88e4fd6e0bcfffffffe" ddb.uuid = "60 00 C2 9a c0 a3 63 b1-1f 85 fe 55 e8 1e 30 a5" ddb.geometry.cylinders = "5221" ddb.geometry.heads = "255" ddb.geometry.sectors = "63" ddb.thinProvisioned = "1" ddb.adapterType = "lsilogic"
Tags: esxi5, VMware, vsphere, xenapp
Posted by Hans-Henry Jakobsen
02 Oct 2010 Installing VMware Workstation 7.1.1 64 bit on Ubuntu 10.10
Installing the 64 bit VMware Workstation 7.1.1 on Ubuntu
# ./VMware-Workstation-Full-7.1.1-282343.x86_64.bundle
When you try to start VMware Workstation for the first time you will get the following error message
You have to read the log file to get the details why VMware would not start, in my case it is named /tmp/vmware-root/setup-24056.log
Oct 02 00:10:54.570: app-140471525164800| Your GCC version: 4.4 Oct 02 00:10:54.618: app-140471525164800| Trying to find a suitable PBM set for kernel 2.6.35-22-generic. Oct 02 00:10:54.622: app-140471525164800| Trying to find a suitable PBM set for kernel 2.6.35-22-generic. Oct 02 00:10:54.626: app-140471525164800| Trying to find a suitable PBM set for kernel 2.6.35-22-generic. Oct 02 00:10:54.628: app-140471525164800| Trying to find a suitable PBM set for kernel 2.6.35-22-generic. Oct 02 00:10:54.629: app-140471525164800| Trying to find a suitable PBM set for kernel 2.6.35-22-generic. Oct 02 00:10:54.734: app-140471525164800| Trying to find a suitable PBM set for kernel 2.6.35-22-generic. Oct 02 00:10:54.734: app-140471525164800| Building module vmmon. Oct 02 00:10:54.734: app-140471525164800| Extracting the sources of the vmmon module. Oct 02 00:10:54.744: app-140471525164800| Building module with command: /usr/bin/make -C /tmp/vmware-root/modules/vmmon-only auto-build SUPPORT_SMP=1 HEADER_DIR=/lib/modules/2.6.35-22-generic/build/include CC=/usr/bin/gcc GREP=/usr/bin/make IS_GCC_3=no VMCCVER=4.4.5 Oct 02 00:10:56.712: app-140471525164800| Failed to compile module vmmon!
You can see that the vmmon module will not compile.
According to ArchWiki you have to compile and install a patch that enables you to compile the VMware modules:
For 2.6.35 kernel and VMware 7.x.x, there’s a script to patch the VMware sources
# cd /tmp # wget http://www.sputnick-area.net/scripts/vmware7.1.1-patch-kernel-2.6.35.bash # sudo chmod +x vmware7.1.1-patch-kernel-2.6.35.bash # sudo ./vmware7.1.1-patch-kernel-2.6.35.bash
Now you can install the modules. You can do this with either by launching VMware and letting it install the modules from there with the GUI or alternatively you can execute the command
# vmware-modconfig --console --install-all
Please note that this solution has not been tested on VMware 7.1.2
Tags: patch, VMware, VMware Workstation
Posted by Hans-Henry Jakobsen
14 Aug 2009 Getting VMware vSphere Client to run on Windows 7 RTM
This post describes how you can get your VMware vSphere Client version 4 running on a 32-bit Windows 7 (RTM) installation until VMware makes an update to fix this Microsoft .Net problem. Be aware that this method of getting the client to run is not recommended in a production environment since you are running the client in development mode.
First you need to edit the VpxClient.exe.config file located in your C:\Program Files\Vmware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher folder and make it look like the code below
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <configuration> <system.net> <connectionManagement> <clear/> <add address="*" maxconnection="8" /> </connectionManagement> </system.net> <appSettings> <add key = "protocolports" value = "https:443"/> </appSettings> <runtime> <developmentMode developerInstallation="true"/> </runtime> </configuration>
Next we have to ensure that you we the .Net system.dll from a non Windows 7 machine.
It’s possible to download the config file and the DLL filer from here.
Place the modified config file in your C:\Program Files\Vmware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher folder.
Then we create a new folder called Lib in the folder noted above and place the downloaded DLL file in the folder.
Reboot your PC and VMware vSphere Client should now work without any error messages.
Edit your system properties and create a new ‘Environment Variable” Name it “Devpath” with the value of C:\Program Files\VMware\Infrastructure\Virtual Infrastructure Client\Launcher\Lib. You can locate these variables under Control Panel –> System and Security –> System –> Advanced system settings
This post came to life after reading this thread on the VMware Communties discussion forum. The thread also describes how to make VMware vSphere Client to work on 64-bit Windows 7 but I’m not going to describe that in this post.
Tags: VMware, vSphere Client, Windows 7
Posted by Hans-Henry Jakobsen
07 Aug 2009 Suspend a VMware Workstation host from command line
This post gives a short description of how to suspend a VMware Workstation 6.5.x host on a Ubuntu 9.04 Workstation but it shouldn’t be any problem to follow it on other linux distributions. Lately I’ve experienced that one of my VMware hosts lock up and my mouse cursor stops responding. The keyboard doesn’t let me switch applications (Alt+Tab) because the Tab-key doesn’t respond. The solution to my problem was to suspend the virtual machine from the console.
- First you have to switch to a console by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 – This lets you login to a console.
- Suspend the virtual machine by issuing the following command from the console
# vmrun suspend /path/to/the/vmx-file/vmxfile.vmx
Switch back to your graphical desktop by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F7. You will now see that the suspend indicator is hard at work suspending the virtual machine that is causing problems. When the host has been suspended you can shutdown VMware Workstation as you normally do.
To make sure that VMware haven’t got any processes that are defunct stop and start the VMware daemon.
Note:
Remember to shut down or suspend all virtual machines before issuing the following commands from the console to avoid losing data
Stopping the VMware daemon
# /etc/init.d/vmware stop Stopping VMware services: Virtual machine communication interface done Virtual machine monitor done Blocking file system done
Starting the VMware daemon
# /etc/init.d/vmware start Starting VMware services: Virtual machine monitor done Virtual machine communication interface done Blocking file system done Virtual ethernet done Shared Memory Available done
Start VMware as you normally do and resume the host. The host should now work without any problems.
The vmrun command gives you other options as well like list, start, stop, reset and upgradevm, but I won’t describe the use of these in this post.
Tags: console, suspend, Ubuntu, vmrun, VMware, VMware Workstation
Posted by Hans-Henry Jakobsen
