How to find the IP address of VMware virtual machine

When you run a virtual machine (VM) created by VMware Player or VMware Server, there can be circumstances where you don't have console access to the VM. For example, you could be running your VM without VMware Player GUI, or you may have trouble opening a remote console from VMware Server. If you don't have access to VM console, you will need to remotely ssh to the VM by using its IP address. But how do you find out its IP address in the first place?Read more »

How to start VMware server remote console without web interface

In VMware Server, console access for virtual machines (VMs) is obtained by using VM remote console plug-in of web browsers. However, as VMware Server is no longer supported by VMware, its remote console plug-in has not been usable in the latest web browsers. For example, VM remote console plug-in is broken for Firefox version 3.6 and higher. When you attempt to launch VM console window on the latest Firefox via console plugin, you will get an error saying "Cannot access virtual machine console. The request timed out."Read more »

How to install VMware Player on Ubuntu Desktop

VMware Player is a closed-source multi-platform virtualization software that is freely distributed by VMware. VMware Player has a convenient graphical user interface for virtual machine (VM) management, and with built-in NAT/bridged networking, there is no hassle in configuring VM networking, unlike other hypervisors such as KVM and Xen. Installing VMware Player on Ubuntu Desktop is straightforward, except that there are some caveats to take care of, which will be described in the following.Read more »

How to launch VMware Player VMs without GUI

If you are a user of VMware Player, you may have wondered whether it's possible to run VMware player without GUI. For example, when you are accessing VMware hosts via SSH remotely, you may want to run VMware Player in shell mode. While you can use X11 forwarding over SSH to launch VMware player's GUI from remote locations, it will be rather inconvenient if the SSH connection is slow. Furthermore, the VM launched inside VMware Player's GUI window will automatically be stopped when you close the VMware Player window.Read more »

How to enable SSH with ESXi 3.5

ESX is a well-known bare metal hypervisor from VMware that runs directly on a host machine without underlying operating system support. ESXi is a free version of ESX, and while ESXi has a less number of features than ESX, the free hypervisor is good enough for various experimental purposes. In particular, ESXi 3.5 is a 32-bit hypervisor that can be installed on 32-bit processors. Most existing hypervisors such as Xen, XenServer, KVM, ESX/ESXi 4.* are all 64-bit hypervisors requiring 64-bit processors.Read more »

How to clone a VM in VMware Server 2.0

When you need to create multiple VMs with vanilla Linux installed, cloning an existing VM saves you time with installation and configuration of new VMs. If you are using VMware Workstation, VM cloning process is streamlined with a built-in Clone Virtual Machine Wizard. However, if you are using VMware Server, it does not have such functionality, and you need to clone VMs manually. In order to clone a VM in VMware Server 2.0, you can follow these step-by-step instructions.Read more »