Installing the VMware Management Interface

IT reseller takeaway: This book excerpt from Virtualization: From the Desktop to the Enterprise outlines prerequisites and steps for installing a VMware tool -- the VMware Management Interface -- which allows you or your customers to manage guest virtual machines.

The Management Interface requires that the libdb.so.3 library be installed first. You can search for it by issuing find / –name libdb.so.3 at the CLI. The operating system should respond with its location. The Management Interface comes as a TAR and is readily downloadable from VMware's Web site. Follow these steps:

1. To begin the install, go to the CLI or open a terminal window. If your user account doesn't have superuser permissions, you'll need to issue the su - command.

2. Next, browse to the location of the installation file. If it's on a CD-ROM, be sure to mount the CD-ROM first: mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

3. Create a temporary directory to extract the file: mkdir /tmp/vminterface

4. Now, copy the TAR to the temporary location: cp VMware-mui-.tar.gz /tmp/vminterface

5. Change to the directory holding the TAR archive: cd /tmp/vminterface

6. Extract the archive: tar xzf VMware-mui-<versionnumber>.tar.gz

7. Change your present working directory to the location of the installation directory: cd /tmp/vminterface/vmware-mui-distrib

8. Finally, run the installation script: ./vmware-install.pl

9. You'll be asked to read and accept the license agreement. Press Enter to display the agreement, and use the space bar to scroll through the agreement. Type yes, and then press Enter.

10. The script will ask for a directory to install the binaries. The default is normally sufficient.

11. You'll next be asked to supply the destination location of the initd directories. You can change the default if necessary.

12. Next, you'll be prompted for the location of the init scripts. Press Enter if the default is sufficient.

13. The install script will then provide a default location to install the Management Interface files. Press Enter to continue. If the directory doesn't exist, the script will ask if it's okay to create the directory.

14. You'll have to supply a location for the documentation files. The default is normally sufficient. Press Enter to continue. If the directory structure doesn't exist, the system will ask if it can create the directory. Select the default of Yes.

15. The script will finally end the installation by evoking the configuration script for the Management Interface.

16. The configuration script will ask you to set a limit for session timeouts. It defaults to 60 minutes. Press Enter to complete the install.

17. When finished installing the Management Interface, be sure to log off with exit.

With the Management User Interface (MUI) installed, it's time to test its functionality. Start X Windows, and launch the Management Interface.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Introduction: Installing and deploying VMs on enterprise servers
• Installing Microsoft Virtual Server
• Installing VMware GSX Server for Windows
• Installing VMware GSX Server for Linux
• Installing the VMware management interface
• Working with the VMware virtual machine console
• Changing GSX Server's remote console port number
• Installing VMware ESX Server
• Verifiying and viewing configuration files
• Using Linux survival commands
• Understanding MUI and SSL
• Configuring the ESX Server installation: Troubleshooting an ESX Server installation
• Configuring the ESX Server installation: A smooth ESX Server installation