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Vmware workstation instructions for creating a virtual machine. Connecting to VMware vSphere. Downloading virtual machines

VMWare is software for virtualizing a computer and its components corporate level. With a virtual machine, you can install different operating systems and run them simultaneously. This can be very useful for testing various software, Linux distributions, improving security, or working with programs not supported by your operating system.

Before we do anything, we need to install the program itself. This is commercial software and is not distributed under an open source license. Moreover, there is a fee for companies to use VMware Pro. But for ordinary users there is a free version of VMWare Player with limited functionality.

With this edition of the program you can do everything you need ordinary users things like creating virtual machines, running them, setting up resources and a lot of other things. Restrictions are placed on features required by the developer, such as deploying machines on multiple computers or fine tuning network interfaces.

Due to the fact that the program does not have open source, you won't find it in the official repositories. Therefore, we will need to download the installer from the official website. Here you can find versions for Windows, Linux or MacOS.

Then you just need to run the installer and follow all the steps of the wizard. At one stage you will need to enter your Email address to register the program. We will not dwell further on the installation, since this is already described in the article.

2. Create a virtual machine

The first thing you will notice after launching the program is the interface. It is completely in English, but nothing can be done, there is no Russian language and there are no plans. To run your systems, you first need to create virtual machine. To do this, select "Create a New Virtual Machine":


On the first screen of the wizard you need to select installation disk for a car. This could be an ISO image saved in file system, or a real optical drive.

One great feature here that VirtualBox doesn't have is that VMware is able to automatically detect a system it knows and perform some configuration steps without user intervention. This makes installation very easy. And many different Linux systems and distributions are supported here.

If your operating system supports automatic setup, you will be prompted to enter a username and password for the new system:

Select maximum size hard drive, and whether it needs to be split into parts. Typically, if you don't plan to record it on small media, then there is no need to split:

Last screen, checking settings:

If you press the " "Customize Hardware", then you can configure various parameters hardware, but we will look at this point a little later:

Immediately after pressing the button "Finish" The new vmware virtual machine will start and the installation of the selected system will begin. You may not even have to configure anything during installation; VMWare will do everything itself.

3. Setting up a virtual machine

The default settings do not always suit us. Sometimes you need to change the parameters of various equipment. Select the virtual machine from the menu and click "Virtual Machine Settings" or select the same item from the menu bar for the running machine.

In the window that opens, you can configure various parameters for it. The first tab indicates the size of available RAM.

On the tab "Processor" you can change the processor parameters, namely the number of cores and enable support for AMD-V or Intel-VT virtualization.

On the tab "Disk" you can control virtual hard drive cars. You can view information about the used space, select a connection cable, and also mount the disk to a real system to view or change files on it.

Tabs "CD/DVD", "Floppy" allow you to configure optical disks, images and floppy disks connected to the virtual machine:

On the tab "Network Adapter" you can customize the way you connect to the network. NAT, Bridged and Host-Only options are available. But in most cases NAT is great. Here, all requests from the virtual machine go to the Internet, but the Internet cannot contact it. But in the local system, a connection can be established between the virtual machines and the host via IP and nothing additional needs to be configured here, unlike Virtualbox:

Tab "USB" allows you to configure the version of the USB stack used. Again, you don’t need to install anything additional:

On the tab "Display" You can configure the screen settings. You can select the number of monitors, enable 3D acceleration, screen expansion, and also set the amount of video memory. There is no limit on video memory at 128 Megabytes, which is very convenient.

Finally, in the section "Options" you can configure the machine name and additional inclusion and operation parameters:

3. Adding a device

Using a button "Add" in the settings window you can add a new device to the virtual machine, this could be HDD, network adapter or another type of storage device. New devices are added only like this:

For example, to add a hard drive, select next step masters "Hard Drive". Disk type - SCSI:

You can create a new disk, select an existing one, or even add real disk. To create a new disk, the settings are similar to what we have already seen when creating a virtual machine:

All that remains is to specify the name of the disk file and it will appear in the list:

What's interesting is that you can add disks and other components on the fly, while the VMware virtual machine is running. At times, using VMWare in this way can be very convenient.

4. Starting the machine

To start a switched off machine, click on it right click and select "Play Virtual Machine":

The download will then begin immediately. If during the WMVare splash screen you manage to click, grab the input focus, despite the many interfering pop-up windows and click F2, you will be taken to the BIOS menu where you can set the boot priority:

Here everything looks the same as in the BIOS of any regular computer.

3. Working in a virtual machine

By default, input focus is not captured when you hover over a machine. To grab focus you need to click inside the window. You can also use the keyboard shortcut to grab input focus Ctrl+G. To turn off capture and return to the main system, click Ctrl+Alt.

Guest OS additions can be installed here, and if the system is supported, they will be installed automatically, but they are of little use here, because the shared clipboard for Player versions are not supported. But the VMware shared folder is available.

To configure it, open the machine settings, go to the tab "Options", then "Shared Folders".

In field "Folder Sharing" select "Always Enabled":

Then click the button "Add" and select the desired folder:

Next, the newly created folder will appear in your virtual system. And if it doesn’t appear, then you may need to restart the machine.

5. Cloning the machine

Unfortunately, the free version does not support snapshots of the virtual machine, but you can clone it for later use. There is no tool for this. Just copy the machine folder to another location, and then when the time comes, open the menu "Open Virtual Machine" and select the desired folder:

Now setting up vmware workstation will not cause you problems and you know what this virtual machine is capable of and what it is not capable of.

conclusions

In this article we looked at how to use VMware Player. It's a great virtual machine, but I still prefer VirtualBox. Despite all its features, such as BIOS, automatic installation and graphic settings for almost everything, there are no basic functions such as a shared clipboard or system snapshots. What do you think about this? What do you use? Write in the comments!

When upgrading to the next version of the operating system Windows lines, some users are faced with the lack of support for their favorite applications in the new OS. Or it’s even more complicated - you have, for example, OS X, and you need applications that are compatible only with Windows.

On this moment exists a large number of“virtual machines” that can solve these inconveniences. For example, paid Parallel Desktop and VMWare Workstation, or free options such as Microsoft VirtualPC or VirtualBox from Oracle.

We have already talked about VirtualBox in articles:

  • Creating a virtual computer and installing Windows on it using VirtualBox;

Today I will talk about working with .

The process of installing a virtual machine is no different from the installation process regular programs, so you can skip it. After installation and reboot, the main program window will appear.

Everything in this emulator is easy to configure. On the left side are the virtual machines that you have installed. On the right is the “invitation” window of the program. With its help, you can create or open an existing virtual machine, connect to a remote server, and much more. At the top there are several panels containing controls.

Creating a virtual machine

In VMWare Workstation, you can choose several ways to create a virtual machine. To describe all possible functions, we will choose a selective method for creating a machine.

In the next window you must indicate compatibility with previous versions programs.

This is usually used for collaborative work on different configurations. The left side of the window displays the products compatible with this machine, and the right side displays the restrictions that apply to this configuration. Now this is not important, so we leave everything as it is.

The next step is to install the system on a virtual machine.

In this case, you can specify as a real drive hard drives, so virtual image. Or you can choose installation media later, right when the virtual machine starts.

Then you need to select the operating system you are going to install.

In accordance with your choice, the program will offer the optimal set of settings for a specific system. Next, you need to come up with a name for the virtual machine, as well as the folder in which it will be located.

Most modern computers have more than one processor core. In the program you can also set the number of cores that you want to use in the guest system.

Note: You should not give the virtual machine too many physical resources. The computer will run slower, and you will not get a big increase in the performance of the guest system.

At the next step, you need to specify the amount of RAM that will be allocated to the virtual operating system. The program will also warn you about the minimum amount of memory at which the system will function, and will also indicate a limit beyond which you should not go. IN in this case It is recommended to leave the value that the emulator program initially specified.

The next step is to specify the type of network you want to use.

In this case, if you do not understand network technologies, nothing needs to be changed. After installation, the virtual machine will have a network and you will not have to configure it separately.

The next step asks you to select the disk on which the system will be stored.

You can create a new virtual disk or use an existing one. You can also take part physical disk for the system to operate. In the first two cases, a virtual hard disk will be created in the form of a specific file or group of files. The configurator will then prompt you to select a type virtual disk. Since SCSI is either not supported on older systems or does not work well, it is advisable to choose the IDE interface.

Next, you need to specify the size of the future disk. In this case, we can specify a space slightly larger than what we need. In this case, you can allocate all the disk space at once, or you can fill it gradually so that empty place the virtual disk did not take up real gigabytes. For convenience, the program will offer you to split the disk into several files, or save everything in one.

In conclusion, it is worth familiarizing yourself with the parameters of the created VMWare Workstation virtual machine. If everything is in order, then click the “Done” button, otherwise you can go back and change any parameter.

The right side of the program now displays a black screen indicating that the virtual machine is disabled, as well as information about the virtual machine's hardware. The process of installing the system on a virtual machine should be skipped since it is no different from installing a real operating system.

Procedure for starting a virtual machine, pausing and shutting down

So now everything is ready to launch. If you already have a system on a virtual machine (VM), then you can simply launch it. Or install the system on a newly created machine.

There are two options:

  1. If there is a VM, then in the window on the main tab you need to select “Open” and select the VM (file with resolution .vnw).
  2. After adding (or after creating a new one), you need to start the VM by clicking on the start button, which is located at the top of the window under the “Edit” menu, or by selecting the menu item Virtual Machine - Power -> Resume, or by pressing the key combination Ctrl + B.

It is worth noting that the virtual machine can be paused. In this case, its full state at the time of shutdown will be preserved and the virtualizer program can be closed. After resuming operation, all windows open source software and even processes in memory will remain in the same state in which you left them. This is the most convenient option for using a virtual machine because... you don't have to wait for it to load. There are three ways to pause a VM:

  1. Click the “Pause” button at the top of the window, under the “Edit” menu
  2. Select the menu item Virtual Machine - Power - Suspend
  3. Press the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Z

There is also a less convenient way to shutdown a virtual machine and virtualizer program - shutdown the guest operating system as if you were shutting it down on regular computer. Moreover, if you turn off the machine using VMWare capabilities, the system will automatically shut down, as if you had pressed the Power button on the system unit.

You can shut down a virtual machine in the following ways:

  1. Click the “Stop Virtual Machine” button, which is located under the “Edit” menu
  2. Select the menu item Virtual Machine - Power - Power Off
  3. Press the key combination Ctrl+R

It is worth noting that sooner or later you will have to shutdown/reboot the VM because... “garbage” will accumulate in the guest operating system, which will disappear only after a reboot. It will gradually accumulate and eventually make the machine work slowly.

Everything is fine: the guest system is up and running, but it may not allow the mouse to leave its working window. In this case, if you want to leave the virtual system, you need to press the Ctrl+Alt key combination. However, there is a set of drivers that, by installing them, you do not have to do this. The system integrates into the host machine and you can switch between them without any problems.

You can do this as follows: go to the Virtual Machine menu - Install/reinstall the VMWare Tools package.

The VMWare Tools package installs drivers for sound cards, video adapters and other equipment.

It is important that VMWare Tools can work with several guest systems at the same time. In this case, each system will work independently of the others. Quantity at one time running systems limited only by the physical capabilities of your computer. And you, as a user, can switch between them using tabs.

There is a problem: let's say that the system has become unstable and you need to press the key combination Ctrl+Alt+Delete, but the task manager of the host system is called. You can send a similar combination to the guest system using the Virtual Machine menu - send the command Ctrl+Alt+Delete.

Everything is fine: the guest system is functioning and you are satisfied with almost everything, but there is one problem: the system screen is too small and this makes the work inconvenient. There are several ways to fix this problem:

1. If you have a large diagonal monitor, you can simply increase the screen resolution.

2. There is a more elegant approach: you can enable “single mode”. This is a mode for integrating the guest operating system into the main one. At the same time, you will be able to work in parallel with applications of both the host and guest systems. It is worth noting. That the entire screen will be used and the resolution of the guest system will be the same as that of the host. In order to switch to this mode, you need to click on the “Unified Mode” button, which is located in the menu under the “Tabs” menu, or go to the View - Unified Mode menu

3. It is possible to expand the operating system to full screen, completely covering the main workspace. This can be done by clicking on the " Full screen mode", which is located between the Virtual Machine and Tabs menu, or go to the View - Full Screen menu. You can also use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Enter. In this case, the VMWare Tools panel will appear at the top of the system, which will automatically hide if you do not hover over it.

So now we have working system. It is necessary to add to it network folders– in this case we will give the system access to the physical hard drive. To do this, you need to shut down the virtual machine.

The system on the virtual machine is the same as on the real one. Accordingly, you need to turn it off like a regular system.

After turning off, you need to click the “Change settings” button and go to the “Options” tab.

In it you need to find the “Shared Folders” option, set the switch to the “Always On” position and select the necessary shared folders for your system. Can be specified as separate folder, and so on hard section disk.

Apply the changes and boot the virtual machine. Externally the machine has a network, but internally a disk needs to be connected to the system. The easiest way to do this is to open “My Computer” and select “Map network drive.” All! The virtual system has access to real data.

There is another, simpler way to transfer files and folders: to transfer data inside a virtual machine, you just need to drag a file from the real system into it with the mouse.

Connecting removable devices to a virtual machine

Sometimes the question arises: “What to do?” if you want to connect a flash card, printer and other devices directly to the machine. In this case, the developers have provided a number of operations that can connect external USB devices.

You can view the list of devices that are available to the machine in the Virtual Machine - Devices menu. There you can also see a list of currently connected equipment. By checking the box next to required device, you connect it in the guest system; if you remove it, you disable it. It's simple!

For example, if you want to connect a drive to a virtual machine, you need to do the following:

  1. Connect the flash card to the computer and after a few moments it will appear in the “Devices” menu;
  2. Check the box next to the device and after some time you will see a system message stating that the device is connected.

Conclusion

Another important point: suppose that you reinstalled the operating system, but you still have the VMWare Workstation virtual machine. To run it, you need to open it in the program: Home - Open virtual machine. Then a window will appear upon startup.

In this case, you need to click the “I copied it” button. And the virtual machine will boot. Running virtual machine:

In conclusion, it is worth noting that a virtual system is a very useful and, at times, indispensable device. The undoubted advantages of a virtual machine are such features as:

  • If desired, you can virtualize any operating system and, accordingly, if the system is old, then old programs that are not able to run on it will work with it. modern equipment;
  • Each system is independent, which allows you to conduct experiments without fear of “killing” the OS;
  • You can create almost any hardware configuration and test the system's performance on it.

However, the medal also has downside– the VMWare Workstation program is paid and costs 8,300 rubles. Buy it or use analogues - it's up to you.

A virtual machine is a software or hardware system that emulates the operation of one or more operating systems(Windows, Linux, Mac). Since programs for creating virtual machines are equipped with different functionality, I would divide their use into home and for organizations. Home-made means the use of free software without technical support from developers and with limited functionality (but often this functionality is enough), for organizations it is full functionality with the ability to ask questions to the developers, but sometimes paying a lot of money for it. In this article I will describe the installation and operation of one of the programs for home use (not for commercial purposes), VMware Player. VMware Player - free for non-commercial use software, based on the VMware Workstation virtual machine (which in turn is a paid product).

First of all, download the installer from the manufacturer’s website VMware Player (at the time of writing latest version was VMware Player 5).
Launch it on your computer. In the welcome window, click "Next".

In the next window, leave the default path or indicate the location where the program will be installed and click "Next".


Then if you don't mind submitting data for improvement VMware works Player, leave a checkmark and click "Next". The checkbox does not affect the operation of the program in any way.


After that, you will choose to install shortcuts on the desktop and in the Start menu or not. You can leave everything as it is and click "Next".


If you are sure about the installation options, click "Continue".


At the end of the installation, a window indicating the successful installation of the program should appear, click "Finish".


When the program starts, a licensing window will appear, read the license and select Yes, I accept the terms in the license agreement(thereby you agree to the license) and click “OK.”


After this, the VMware Player console will launch, now let’s create a virtual machine, to do this, click on the right “Create a new virtual machine” .


In the new window that appears, select what you will install the operating system from, you can specify DVD drive which contains the disk with the system or indicate the path to the ISO image of the operating system.


Then a window will appear in which you can enter the license key, select the version to install and specify the computer administrator login and password. You can skip everything except the login, but it is written down by default, after you have entered everything you wanted, click "Next".


After this, enter the name of the virtual machine, which will be displayed in the VMware Player console and indicate where the virtual machine will be located locally; I recommend leaving the default path.


After this, specify the disk size for the virtual machine, in in this example I'm installing Windows 7 on a virtual machine, so the default is 60 GB, if you are satisfied with the disk size, you can leave this value, otherwise enter your values.


After this, a window will appear in front of you with all specified settings, if you think that everything is indicated correctly, click "Finish", otherwise with the button "Back" go back to the step where you would like to change the settings and make the changes.

After pressing the button "Finish" The installation of the operating system will start. It is worth noting that the installation will take place in automatic mode unlike VirtualBox.


If you want to make changes to an installed virtual machine, you need to select the virtual machine in the main VMware Player console (after turning it off) and click “Edit virtual machine settings”.

In the window that opens Virtual Machine Settings in the tab Hardware You can change the hardware, in particular add or reduce the amount of RAM, change the number of processors, add or remove a disk, change network settings or add a network adapter, etc.

In the tab Options, you can change the name displayed in the console, make it a shared folder, etc.

Today I will review the program Vmware Workstation 10, which will simulate another system on your PC or laptop. It doesn’t matter which one, from Windows series or Linux, or maybe even one or the other. It all depends on needs and desires. But first, a little introductory text so that the uninformed reader understands what we are actually talking about!

Well, let's get started. Starting from this article, I will post at least three links to download the programs I write about here. I know that very often many people have problems with this. And therefore it is worth considering this point.

You can download Vmware Workstation 10 here:

  • nnm-club.me - torrent (requires registration on the torrent);

I installed the repack version for myself, and I will use it to conduct reviews. It all starts with downloading, then click on exe file and carry out standard procedure installations. I will do small retreat and I’ll tell you what requirements this program has for your system, that is, what resources should be on the computer for normal use Vmware Workstation 10.

System requirements:

You must also have at least 10 GB of free space on your computer. hard space disk, you will need to install another system that requires a certain amount of disk space.

Analysis of Workstation 10 menu controls

We see 5 main VM menu items, although the main ones are rather the two on the left, and the right three are sort of auxiliary. I will write a little about each of them. so that you understand why they are needed and how you can apply them for yourself.

Creating a new virtual machine- the most important thing for us, here we will create a new virtual machine, indicate to it system parameters and all sorts of little things.

Opening a virtual machine- this is one of the cool features of this program, you can export and then open your installed system. Actually, this is the window for opening it.

Connecting to a remote server— you can use a virtual machine not only on your computer but also on remote server. And this is the actual button for connecting to a remote machine.

Virtualization physical machine — This is a quick and comfortable transition of your PC to a virtual environment. Although this is in the menu, it will not work for use with a 30-day trial or a broken repack. You need to register and obtain a license to download a special add-on that makes this transition.

Installing WIndows on a Workstation 10 Virtual Machine

We've sorted out the theoretical part and it's time to move on to the practice of installing the OS on a VM. Click on the icon for creating a new virtual machine. A window opens with the right to select the installation mode:

  • Normal mode
  • Selective

If you have not had experience with running a VM before, then use the normal mode, I will take it as an example. After clicking next, we move on to the next window, where you must carefully indicate the location from which our new OS will be installed. I advise you to read my post in order to have an idea of ​​how this is done. I will bet with ISO image on my computer, you indicate what is relevant to you. If you also install from an image, then you must also specify the path to the disk image on your computer. If the path you specified matches, then you will be given a record similar to the one in the screenshot below.

We go further, and as usual you will be asked for a key, as well as a personalized name and, if desired, a password for your future administrator account. Enter the data and continue. Now be careful, the program asks you to indicate the location where your new virtual machine will be installed; in simple terms, you indicate the disk where the free space for your virtual system will be taken from. The default drive is “C”, you can specify another one.

Now we indicate the maximum size for your VM, the default is 40 GB, and also check the box to split into several files or store data in one file. It also explains why this is needed. You decide and continue. You need to pay close attention to the following parameters already selected by default by the program.

512 MB of RAM is not enough for me and I want to add it, that’s what the button is for Equipment setup in which you specify the system parameters that will be available to your virtual machine. There you can edit the following settings:

  • Memory (RAM)
  • Number of processors used
  • CD/DVD ROM
  • Network adapter
  • USB controller
  • Sound card
  • Printer
  • Display

Now that’s all, click ready and watch how your OS begins to install. I was also prompted to add to devices WEB camera, this can be done later if desired. Well, the installation of the System itself is no different from any installation on a real Physical system, if you have difficulties with this, I provided a link above to an article about installing the system. So I make my own coffee, and you do what you prefer, we will continue after installing our system.

My installation is complete and I want to show you the main aspects when using the guest OS. Since it’s difficult to describe in words, I’ll take a screenshot and post it in this article.

With this, I will say goodbye to you, I wish you good luck and more knowledge in mastering new technologies.

With all respect, Andrew.

Virtual machines: several computers in one (+CD)

Gultyaev A.K.

Chapter 3

Virtual machinesVMware Workstation

Until Microsoft turned its attention to the virtual machine market, VMware was the undisputed leader in this market. However, it is still too early to say that the Virtual PC 2004 package has “relegated” VMware products to secondary roles. They remain very popular among users for three main reasons: due to truly successful technological solutions, due to the constant improvement of supported products and, most importantly, due to the support of a wide variety of types and versions of operating systems, both as hosts and as guests.

general characteristics

Currently, the VMware family of products designed for creating and managing virtual machines includes several representatives:

    VMware Workstation is an application for “desktop” systems that provides the creation and management of “regular” virtual machines. Potential users of this product are software developers and testers, teachers and other IT specialists.

    VMware ACE is an application for desktop systems that provides the creation of secure virtual machines (ACE stands for Assured Computing Environment). Each VM created with using VMware ACE is equipped with individual means of administration and protection against unauthorized access. The main contingent of users are employees of enterprises, each of whom needs to create their own secure environment on a physical computer common to everyone.

    VMware GSX Server is an enterprise-level server application designed to create virtual infrastructure enterprises, testing distributed applications, etc.

    VMware ESX Server is a server solution designed to create a virtual data storage infrastructure.

As in the second chapter of the book, we will be primarily interested in the tool for creating “desktop” virtual machines, namely VMware Workstation. The book presents the latest commercial version of the product - VMware Workstation 5.0. At the same time, a beta version of VMware Workstation 5.5 is available for review on the VMware website.

Features of workVMwareWorkstation

Each virtual machine created using VMware Workstation is a standalone computer with its own hardware resources, some of which are emulated in software, and some of which are “borrowed” from the host computer.

The virtual computer parameters are saved in a special VMX configuration file (in text format). This file (like other files that define the operation of the VM), if necessary, can be transferred to another host computer in order to reproduce the parameters of the virtual machine. However, VMware does not include standard means of connecting such “foreign” VMs to the console. To bypass this limitation, you can use some tricks, which are described in the “Creating and configuring a virtual machine” section.

Unlike Virtual PC, the name of the configuration file created by VMware does not match the name of the VM, but is determined by the type of guest OS specified during the creation of the VM. For example, the configuration files of all VMs running Windows 98 guest OS are called win98.vmx. The same applies to file names virtual hard disks: for Windows 98 they are all called Windows 98.vmdk. For this reason (as well as for some other reasons), the files of each VM must be placed in a separate folder.

The list of operating systems that can be installed on VMware virtual machines as guests is very extensive:

    from the Windows family: Windows 3.1x, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, as well as MS-DOS 6.22;

    from the Linux family: Mandrake Linux (versions 8.0 to 9.2 inclusive), Red Hat Linux (versions 7.0 to 9.0 inclusive), Red Hat Enterprise Linux (versions 2.1 and 3.0), Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1, SuSE Linux (versions with 7.3 to 9.0 inclusive), SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (7 and 8), Turbolinux 7, Turbolinux Workstation 8, Turbolinux Enterprise Server 8;

    from the family Novell NetWare: NetWare Server (versions 4.2, 5.1, 6.0, 6.5);

    FreeBSD OS (versions 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6.2, 4.8 and 5.0).

Due to such “versatility” of the VMware package, its developers were unable to optimize the standard VM configuration for all guest OSes. Therefore, for most of them, after installation you have to perform additional configuration of the VM (in particular, manually install the most suitable versions of drivers for some devices). Fortunately, the VMware Workstation distribution includes a help file, install.chm, containing details about the installation features of all listed guest operating systems.

Looking ahead a little, we note that the specified reference book can be opened directly from the VMware console window by selecting the Guest command in the Help menu Operating System Install Guide.

The following operating systems can be used as a host OS:

    from the Windows family: Windows 2000 Professional, Windows 2000 Server Service Pack 3 or 4, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, Windows XP (Home or Professional editions), Windows Server 2003 (Web Edition, Standard Edition, Enterprise Edition);

    from Linux family: Mandrake Linux (versions 8.2 and 9.0), Red Hat Linux (almost all versions supported as guest OSes) and SuSE Linux (versions 7.3 to 9.1 inclusive); more detailed information Supported Linux kernel versions can be found on the VMware website.

A virtual machine typically uses devices that connect to a real computer, such as printers, modems, and external storage devices (including CD/DVD readers and writers). Devices connected to the USB port are fully supported: you can use two USB 1.1 ports per VM if this interface is supported by the host and guest OS. Devices with SCSI interface(including scanners and streamers). True, as an “intermediary” between physical devices of this type connected to the host computer and the VM, a special driver (SCSI Generic driver) is required, which is additionally installed on the guest OS.

VMware, like Virtual PC 2004, allows you to allocate up to 3.6 GB of RAM to each VM (with the capacity of the real RAM of the host computer limited to 4 GB).

Working with virtual disks

VMware's capabilities for working with virtual hard disks are numerically superior to those of Virtual PC 2004. In particular, you can connect up to four virtual hard disks with an IDE interface and up to seven disks with a SCSI interface to each VM.

VMware offers two modes for allocating physical disk space for files virtual disks, similar to using fixed-size disks and dynamic disks in Virtual PC.

When connecting CD/DVD devices to the VM via IDE interface or SCSI, the available number of virtual hard disks is reduced accordingly. That is, for example, when you include one IDE CD/DVD device in the VM configuration, you can connect no more than three virtual hard disks with an IDE interface to the VM.

The first of these modes assumes that all the requested space is allocated immediately when creating a virtual disk (in the future, for brevity, we will call such disks fixed).

When using the second mode, the size of the virtual disk file increases gradually as new data is written to the disk and programs are installed. We will call disks created using this method dynamic.

It should be noted that in reality, information about each virtual disk in VMware is stored not in one file, but in at least two. The first of these files is not a data store, but a descriptor, and, as shown in Fig. 3.1, contains information about the disk (disk size, its geometry, etc.) and links to data files (the link to the data file is highlighted in the figure).

Rice. 3.1. Contents of the virtual disk descriptor file

There can be either one or several data files. This is due to the fact that VMware can create “multi-volume” disks. The size of each volume in this case will not exceed 2 GB. The reason is that not all file systems can handle larger files (for example, FAT16 cannot). When the virtual disk size exceeds the 2 GB limit, VMware automatically creates a new volume. The user decides whether the disk needs to be divided into volumes. The name of each data file must include a suffix such as -s001, -s002, etc. For example, the first data file for a virtual disk with a Windows 98 guest OS is called Windows 98 -s001.vmdk.

You can connect it to a VM as a hard drive physical hard the disk of the host computer or one of the partitions of this disk (a similar feature based on the use of a linked disk is also available in Virtual PC). In VMware, such a physical disk attached to a VM is called Raw Disk (in this case, this term can be translated as “raw disk”). The effect of using raw disks occurs in cases where several system partitions with different operating systems are created on a physical disk (that is, when the host computer is configured for multi-boot). A raw disk allows you to run one of the “real” alternative operating systems from under another real OS using the boot.ini boot file.

VMware Workstation only supports booting from a raw disk that is connected to the VM via the IDE interface. It is not possible to boot a guest OS from a disk that has a SCSI interface. In addition, partitions on which Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP are installed cannot be used as a raw disk. The use of dynamic volumes as raw disks, used in Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2003 for software implementation of RAID technology, is also not supported.

VMware implements a rollback mechanism (restoring some previous state of the VM and its disks), which differs from that used in Virtual PC. This mechanism is based on the creation of so-called snapshots(snapshot) of the virtual machine. This snapshot can be created at any time while working with VMware. You can then return to the locked state. All changes made in the past period will be canceled. If you wish, you can exclude any of the virtual disks from the “group snapshot”. More information about working with images is described in the “Working with a virtual machine” section.

The procedure for configuring virtual disks of various types is discussed in more detail in the “Creating and configuring a virtual machine” section.

Installation and configurationVMwareWorkstation

Installing VMware Workstation requires a somewhat more thoughtful and attentive attitude from the user than installing Virtual PC. This is explained by the fact that at the final stage VMware installations some settings are in progress basic parameters future virtual machines.

System requirements

The minimum requirements that the technical specifications of a host computer intended for installing VMware must meet depend on the range of guest operating systems for the virtual machines.

To operate VMware Workstation itself, the following computing resources are required:

    processor with x86 architecture and clock frequency not less than 500 MHz:

    Intel: Celeron, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium 4, Pentium M (including computers with Centrino mobile technology), Xeon (including the Prestonia model);

    AMD: Athlon, Athlon MP, Athlon XP, Duron, Opteron;

    multiprocessor systems and (as an experiment) AMD64 Opteron, Athlon 64 or Intel IA-32e CPU are also supported;

    The minimum required RAM capacity is 128 MB (preferably 256), excluding the needs of the host and guest OS, as well as active applications these OS;

    The amount of free hard disk space depends on the host OS used: for OS Windows family- 100 MB, for Linux OS - about 20 MB; additionally about 1 GB is required for each guest OS and its applications;

    Super VGA video adapter with a color depth of at least 8 bits (16 recommended);

    from physical drives supports work with hard IDE drives and SCSI, as well as with CD-ROM/RW and DVD-ROM/RW devices (both in read and write modes).

If you plan to run several VMs with different OSes simultaneously, then their requirements for RAM capacity must, of course, be summed up.

Installation procedureVMwareWorkstation

The size of the VMware Workstation 5.0 distribution is about 60 MB.

You can begin the installation procedure in one of two ways:

    by manually launching the Setup.exe file;

    by specifying this file as an installation file in the Add or Remove Programs window.

In both cases, a wizard will start, using the Windows Installer installation program in its work.

You can get a free 30-day evaluation of VMware Workstation from the Microsoft website. The web version of the distribution is a single exe file (VMware-workstation- version number.exe). For the evaluation version of VMware Workstation to be fully functional, you must obtain the appropriate registration key from the developer's website.

After you accept the license agreement, you will need to determine whether you need shortcuts to launch VMware from the desktop, taskbar, and Start menu. In the next step, you can select the installation directory for VMware Workstation (by default, the program is installed on system disk to the Program Files folder).

After selecting the installation directory, click the Next button.

After this, the installer will scan the host OS parameters and may not like some of them. For example, if the AutoRun function for CD/DVD disks is enabled on the host computer, a warning will appear on the screen that it can lead to unpredictable effects when the host OS interacts with the virtual machine (Fig. 3.2). Therefore, it is better to allow the installation program to disable this function (leaving it in initial position Yes disable autorun checkbox).

Once you have decided on the autorun feature, click the Install button.

Rice. 3.2. The VMware Workstation installation wizard suggests disabling the CD/DVD autorun feature

During the installation of VMware Workstation on the host OS, auxiliary drivers (necessary, in particular, for working with USB and SCSI devices) are also installed. If you are installing VMware Workstation on Windows environment XP SP1/2, then some of these drivers may be untested for compatibility with Windows XP, which the installation program will not fail to warn you about (Fig. 3.3).

Rice. 3.3. Some of the installed drivers may not be tested for compatibility with Windows XP

Since VMware software products work very correctly, you can safely continue with the installation.

Before completing its work, the wizard will prompt you to enter registration information (user name, organization name, product serial number).

The installation procedure ends with the creation of the corresponding program group in the Start menu, which includes two shortcuts (Fig. 3.4):

    Manage Virtual Networks - shortcut to launch the basic settings configuration panel virtual networks created by VMware (this panel is discussed in the section “ Networking capabilities VMware Workstation virtual machines”);

    VMware Workstation - a shortcut to launch the VMware Workstation control panel (analogous to the VM console used in Virtual PC).

Rice. 3.4. Software group for running VMware Workstation components

To increase the efficiency and convenience of working with VMware, it is recommended that after creating a VM and installing a guest OS on it, install the VMware Tools package of additional tools. Installation of a set of extensions is carried out for each of the virtual machines individually, so the description this step See the section “Creating and configuring a virtual machine”.

As stated above, the VMware installer uses Windows service Installer. Thanks to this, in case of damage or removal, you can program files VMware restores the functionality of the application without reinstalling it. To do this you need to do the following.

Rice. 3.5. VMware program in the Add or Remove Programs window

1.Launch the Add or Remove Programs component, select the appropriate item in the list of applications and click the Change button (Fig. 3.5).

2. Make sure that the Repair switch is selected in the window that opens, and click the Next button (Fig. 3.6).

3.In the next installation wizard window, click the Install button.

Rice. 3.6. The first step in VMware recovery

To remove VMware Workstation from the host computer, you need to run the Add or Remove Programs component, select the appropriate item in the list of applications and click the Remove button.

SettingsVMwareWorkstation

When you launch VMware Workstation for the first time, two windows appear on the screen: in the foreground is a window with “everyday tips,” and behind it is the main VMware Workstation window. We can completely do without advice from VMware developers, so let’s move on directly to working with the main window (Fig. 3.7).

Its interface is described in sufficient detail in the section “Creating and configuring a virtual machine,” and now we will focus on only one menu of this window - Edit, or more precisely, on the Preferences command of this menu.

This command provides access to the main parameters of VMware, which are distributed across seven tabs of the dialog box (Fig. 3.8).

    indicate the need to store a list of VMs that worked in the previous session by checking the Remember opened virtual machines between sessions checkbox; in this case, the next time you start VMware, the right side of the main window will present tabs for all VMs that remained open when the previous session ended;

Rice. 3.7. VMware Workstation main window in its original state

Rice. 3.8. VMware Workstation Configuration Window

The first tab, Workspace, allows you to:

    select the default folder used to store data about created virtual machines (in original condition this is the My Documents folder of the active user);

    indicate the need to store a list of VMs that worked in the previous session by checking the Remember opened virtual machines between sessions checkbox; in this case, the next time you start VMware, the right side of the main window will present tabs for VMs that remained open when the previous session ended;

    indicate the need and set the frequency automatic update VMware over the Internet.

Controls located on the Input, Hot keys, and Priority tabs determine how virtual machines and the host OS use the mouse and keyboard. These controls are described in more detail in the “Configuring external devices” subsection of the “Creating and configuring a virtual machine” section.

The Display tab allows you to select the most appropriate display option for the main VMware window, as well as the virtual machine window when working in full screen mode (Fig. 3.9).

The controls available on the Memory tab determine how RAM is allocated between the VMware host computer and the running VM (Figure 3.10).

The Reserved Memory slider allows you to specify how much physical RAM VMware is allowed to use for its “own needs” and for running virtual machines. The minimum value of this parameter corresponds to the minimum amount of RAM at which VMware can operate, the maximum value is determined by the remaining part of the RAM that is minimally necessary for the operation of the host OS. Moving the slider in one direction or another reduces the performance of either VMware and running VMs, or the host OS and its applications. However, you should keep in mind that VMware does not immediately take over all the space allocated to it: it is allocated by the VM monitor as needed.

Rice. 3.9. Display tab of the VMware Workstation setup window

Rice. 3.10.

The Additional Memory switch group allows you to somewhat soften the restrictions on the amount of RAM used for the benefit of VMware:

    Fit all virtual machine memory into reserved host RAM - launched VMs can only use the physical RAM available to VMware; if, when starting the next VM (or a new application inside the VM), it turns out that there is no free memory, then the launch will not take place, and a corresponding message will appear on the screen;

    Allow some virtual machine memory to be swapped - if when starting the next VM (or a new application inside the VM) it turns out that there is no free memory, then VMware will allow the host OS to move some of the data from the RAM to the hard drive (to system file swap); this will allow VMware to use the freed-up part of the RAM to launch another VM (or a new application inside the VM), however, the performance of all VMs will decrease due to the time spent on swapping;

    Allow most virtual machine memory to be swapped - if when starting the next VM (or a new application inside the VM) it turns out that there is no free memory, then VMware will allow the host OS to move a significant part of the data from the RAM to the hard drive.

It should be kept in mind that for each VM you can individually set the amount of RAM used. However, the upper limit of allocated memory depends on the maximum total RAM volume specified by the Reserved Memory slider.

The next tab in the VMware Configuration window is called Lockout. The elements available on it allow you to control user access to basic capabilities VMware (Figure 3.11).

In the initial state, security settings are disabled - the Enable administrative lockout checkbox is cleared. This means that a user with any account, who has the right to run VMware, is also allowed to change the operating parameters of VMware. To restrict access to certain VMware features to only those users who know the lock password, do the following:

1.Select the Enable administrative lockout checkbox.

2.In the Password and Confirm password fields, enter the “secret word”.

3.Select the checkboxes for the functions to which access should be blocked:

    Create new teams and virtual machines - creating new virtual machines;

    Edit teams and virtual machine configurations - changing the configuration of a virtual machine;

    Manage virtual networks - management of virtual networks.

Rice. 3.11. Memory tab of the VMware Workstation setup window

As mentioned, the parameters set in the VMware Workstation configuration window apply to all newly created VMs. Some of them can be further adjusted for each VM individually after its creation.

Creating and setting up a virtualcars

Unlike Virtual PC, in its initial state, the main VMware window combines both the virtual machine control panel and the VM “monitor screens” (they are added as tabs on the right side of the window when creating a VM).

Virtual Machine Control Panel

Virtual machine controls are distributed across three areas of the main VMware window (see Figure 3.7):

    at the top of the window there is a menu bar and a toolbar, which contains buttons for launching the most frequently used commands;

    on the left side of the window there is a Favorites panel, which serves to display a list of the most “popular” virtual machines; the panel can be closed by clicking on the button with a cross; to open it again, you need to select the Favorites command from the View menu;

    the right, larger part of the window is occupied by the Home tab (initial position), as well as tabs of running VMs (if any).

After at least one VM is launched, icons appear in the window's status bar that provide access to the parameters of the VM's external devices (similar to how similar icons are used in Virtual PC).

The buttons located on the window toolbar are, in turn, divided into four groups (Fig. 3.12).

    The first four (on the left) buttons control the state of the active VM (the one that is selected in the list or whose tab is open on the right side of the window):

    Powers off - stop the VM (the button is available if the selected VM is up and running);

    Suspends - transfer the VM to inactive mode; while the VM is suspended, all operations performed by the guest OS or its applications are interrupted; Visually, the window (tab) of a suspended VM looks almost the same as the window of a stopped VM (how exactly is described in the subsection “Creating a virtual machine”);

    Powers On - starts the VM, as well as resumes the VM in pause mode (the button is available if the selected VM is not yet running or is in pause mode);

    Resets - “hot” restart of the VM (the action of the button is similar to the action of the button of the same name on a real computer).

    The following three buttons provide a snapshot of the VM state and return to the selected state if necessary:

    Snapshot - creating a snapshot of the VM state;

    Revert - return to the VM state saved as a snapshot;

    Manage snapshots - opens an additional window to select the desired snapshot.

    Two buttons control the size of the VM window.