VMware GSX Server on Gentoo HOWTO

Edweirdo · Last edited by Edweirdo on Thu Aug 04, 2005 1:07 pm; edited 10 times in total

Version 1: Install VMware GSX Server 2.5.1 on Gentoo.
Version 1.1: Install VMware GSX Server 3.0 on Gentoo.
Version 1.1.1: Install VMware GSX Server 3.0 on Gentoo using the linux-2.6 kernel with the vmware-any-any patch.

Introduction

I had VMware GSX Server running under Red Hat 7.2 and I couldn't take how long it took to just boot, so I experiemented and upgraded to Gentoo and I couldn't believe how much faster the computer ran. Not to mention the ability to use a reiser file system.

I plan to describe what you need to do to run VMware GSX Server 3.0 using Gentoo stable.

Step 1

Install Gentoo Linux on a computer that can handle VMware. At least 1GIG of RAM and a good amount of disk space. (I have 4G of RAM and 200G of disk space). The required memory is only 256M, but I can't see how you can do anything with that.

VMware GSX Server 3.0 now supports both the Linux 2.4 and 2.6 kernel inside and out (as the host or a guest). However, I have had very bad performance with 2.6 so you may want to start with 2.4.

I did a stage1 install of Gentoo stable using the gentoo-sources or gentoo-dev-sources kernel and a reiser file system. About the only thing special you need in the kernel for VMware is RTC. You do need to remember to enable high memory though.

Step 2

Install supporting software for VMware. Once you have emerged system you have a basic setup. You can augment that setup with anything you want, but these are the things needed if you add nothing else.

vlack · n00b Joined: 01 Apr 2003 Posts: 59 Location: Austin, TX

Did anyone else notice that you went
Step 1
Step 2
Part 3
Step 5
Part 6
Part 7

?

<grin>

Edweirdo · Posted: Mon Sep 15, 2003 12:21 am Post subject:

Pardon me, I have a little problem with dyslexia. I don't know if that's an excuse or not, but that's my story and I'm sticking with it.
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axses · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 18 Mar 2003 Posts: 110

Hi

I have been using gsx server since 2.0 as well, and the ammount of ram you mention is not required. If it was a windows machine sure. My gsx server boxes have obly 768mb ddr ram on a fast machine . The machines do not have scsi , but they are tweeked and are running gentoo. (hdparm is your friend)

I find I can run 2 virtual machines on the gsx server and there isnt a problem. Where you get that ram count I do not know. :-)

In your step four , instead of creating those directories which vmware needs , I have created symlinks to my default runlevel. Once that is done , you can play with the startup scripts if you want them to work.

gsx server is a great product for testing and learning ,my first gentoo instal was in a vmware machine :-)

Edweirdo · Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2003 6:54 pm Post subject:

I generally have about 10 VMs running at a time. That's probably where I get the memory size from.
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tuxian · l33t Joined: 26 Jan 2004 Posts: 766 Location: Austria

Thanks you for the HOWTO, but i have a small problem.

I did "rc-update add vmware default" but vmware isn't startet at boot time.
I have to start it manually with "/etc/init.d/vmware start"

I don't have installed VMware-mui-3.x.tgz but I can't image that this is responsible for my problem.

tychop · n00b Joined: 20 Mar 2004 Posts: 8

I can't find xinitd ???

damn root # emerge -s xinitd
Searching...
[ Results for search key : xinitd ]
[ Applications found : 0 ]

How did you guys install xinitd?

(I run 2004.0 on an amd64)

tuxian · l33t Joined: 26 Jan 2004 Posts: 766 Location: Austria

tychop · n00b Joined: 20 Mar 2004 Posts: 8

the is no xinitd in my /etc/init.d

tuxian · l33t Joined: 26 Jan 2004 Posts: 766 Location: Austria

you did a mistake!

it's xinetd, not xinitd !

padrino121 · n00b Joined: 15 Feb 2003 Posts: 2

tuxian · l33t Joined: 26 Jan 2004 Posts: 766 Location: Austria

padrino121 · n00b Joined: 15 Feb 2003 Posts: 2

fmeeusen · n00b Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 13 Location: Albany, NY

Really appreciated all the help. It's working great on a first machine. Now to a problem on the second one:

Installed fine. From the Virtual Machine Console, added and configured a first virtual machine fine (accepted all defaults). Tried to start the machine and get the following window: "Error: The process exited with an error: End of error message" (real descriptive, huh?). On the gentoo server in /var/log/messages, I get this:

vmware-authd[1507]: The "/usr/lib/vmware/bin/vmware-vmx" process did not start properly. Exit 0xed00

Sounds like a security issue, but not sure how to tackle it. In /etc/services, "vmware-authd 902/tcp" has been added. Also commented out in /etc/xinet.d.conf "only_from = localhost as suggested earlier.

If it's worth anything, I also cannot connect to the Management Interface on this machine via a web browser (http://localhost:8222, or https://localhost:8333, or http://192.168.x.x:8222).

Any suggestions, please?

fmeeusen · n00b Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 13 Location: Albany, NY

Never mind. Resolved. Did a complete uninstall of GSX Server, emerge sync and emerge -u world. Reinstalled GSX Server and it worked as expected.

Not sure if that was the easiest fix, but it worked, and it got this system up to date.

tuxian · l33t Joined: 26 Jan 2004 Posts: 766 Location: Austria

rhoworth2 · n00b Joined: 10 Apr 2004 Posts: 10

Thanks for the great howto - I've been installing GSX 3.1.0, but the start-up scripts listed here don't work on my setup.

Instead, I add lines to /etc/conf.d/local.start e.g.:
/etc/init.d/vmware start
/etc/init.d/httpd.vmware start

...and don't forget to emerge apache
...and enable unload modules support in the kernel

BudgetDedicated · n00b Joined: 26 Apr 2004 Posts: 12 Location: NL

If you want to emulate anyway... usermode linux is your friend. And if you absolutely have to do it with a windows host, coLinux is your friend. I'm running both in rather demanding environments. I've hardly had any real problems with it. I believe it is also much more efficient.
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cpunchin · n00b Joined: 18 Feb 2004 Posts: 37

BTW: has anyone been able to make GSX run under AMD64 64-bits? I've seen several posts about this problem with no solution...

:roll:

bilan · n00b Joined: 21 Jul 2003 Posts: 17

Hello,

U said: "vmware-authd also needs Xwindows libraries (libX11), which is why xfree is installed"

But isnt it a way to install only the libraries needed, without emerging all the xfree ?

Thanks,

Edweirdo · Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:48 pm Post subject:

There may be but I don't know it. It doesn't take that long to emerge x11-org. Maybe 1 to 2 hours on a decent system. Besides, I hope you would run GSX on a decent system anyway.
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hetman · n00b Joined: 05 May 2003 Posts: 29 Location: Canada

are you able to run things like apache and webmin while running a gsx server?

how about configuring disc space, can u just specify a directory for the vm dsk files? im assuming it runs much like an esx server.

Edweirdo · Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2005 7:49 pm Post subject:

GSX server is an application that runs on top of an operating system.

ESX server is the operating system.

So, to answer your questions, yes, with GSX server you can run apache and webmin while running gsx server. You configure your disk like you do for a normal server and then when you create a VM the files get placed in directories on your server.

Hope that answers your questions.
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hetman · n00b Joined: 05 May 2003 Posts: 29 Location: Canada

sure does, thanks.
i was just unsure if apache would conflict with the gsx web interface

Edweirdo · Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 2:19 pm Post subject:

Nope, GSX web interface runs on port 8222.
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