VMware server configuration

Linux host

(a VMware server set up on Ubuntu server 7.04)


Installation;

-use seperate disks for the ISO files and the virtual machines, use the XFS filesystem for these as the performance is better with large files than with ext3
-add the commercial repository to /etc/apt/sources.list to install VMware through aptitude;
   deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu feisty-commercial main
   (remove the cdrom repository)
-remove the path or path variable before each pam_unix*.so in /etc/vmware/pam.d/vmware-authd and /etc/pam.d/vmware-authd
-if possible, use a seperate network card for VMware to seperate network traffic between host and guests


Disable DHCP service all host networks;

Open /usr/lib/vmware-server/net-services.sh, search for run_dhcpd="$5"
Change this to run_dhcpd="no" and during the initialisation of each virtual network dhcp is skipped.


Example configuration (/etc/vmware/locations);

answer BINDIR /usr/bin
answer INITDIR /etc
answer INITSCRIPTSDIR /etc/init.d
answer SBINDIR /usr/sbin
answer LIBDIR /usr/lib/vmware-server
answer DOCDIR /usr/share/doc/vmware-server
answer RUNDIR /var/run/vmware
answer RUN_CONFIGURATOR yes
answer AUTHDPORT 902
answer VMDIR /usr/vmware/machines

file /dev/parport0 1190057729
answer NETWORKING yes
file /dev/vmnet0
answer VNET_0_INTERFACE eth1
file /dev/vmnet1
answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 10.16.0.1
answer VNET_1_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
file /dev/vmnet2
answer VNET_2_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 10.8.0.1
answer VNET_2_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
file /dev/vmnet3
answer VNET_3_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 10.24.0.1
answer VNET_3_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
file /dev/vmnet4
answer VNET_4_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 10.4.0.1
answer VNET_4_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
file /dev/vmnet5
answer VNET_5_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 10.20.0.1
answer VNET_5_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
file /dev/vmnet6
answer VNET_6_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 10.12.0.1
answer VNET_6_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
file /dev/vmnet7
answer VNET_7_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 10.28.0.1
answer VNET_7_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
file /dev/vmnet8
answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 10.2.0.1
answer VNET_8_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
file /dev/vmnet9
answer VNET_9_HOSTONLY_HOSTADDR 10.18.0.1
answer VNET_9_HOSTONLY_NETMASK 255.255.255.0
file /etc/vmware/ssl/rui.key 1190057764
file /etc/vmware/ssl/rui.crt 1190057764
file /etc/vmware/config 1190057764


Here a seperate network card (eth1) is used for binding to /dev/vmnet0 (VNET_0).
This way the complete virtual environment can be seperated from the physical network by a virtual router, for example OpenBSD firewall or Microsoft ISA server.