Topic: VMWare on SME 8

[Tib]

Has anyone installed VMWare VMware-server-2.0.1 onto SME 8 Beta 4 ??

I have tried to install VMWare onto SME 8 and I get a dependance error

Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package VMware-server.i386 0:2.0.1-156745 set to be updated
---> Package smeserver-vmware-server.noarch 0:0.0.1-4.el4.sme set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: xorg-x11-libs for package: smeserver-vmware-server
--> Processing Dependency: xinetd for package: smeserver-vmware-server
--> Running transaction check
---> Package smeserver-vmware-server.noarch 0:0.0.1-4.el4.sme set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: xorg-x11-libs for package: smeserver-vmware-server
---> Package xinetd.i386 2:2.3.14-10.el5 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
smeserver-vmware-server-0.0.1-4.el4.sme.noarch from smecontribs has depsolving problems
  --> Missing Dependency: xorg-x11-libs is needed by package smeserver-vmware-server-0.0.1-4.el4.sme.noarch (smecontribs)
Error: Missing Dependency: xorg-x11-libs is needed by package smeserver-vmware-server-0.0.1-4.el4.sme.noarch (smecontribs)
 You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
 You could try running: package-cleanup --problems
                        package-cleanup --dupes
                        rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest
The program package-cleanup is found in the yum-utils package.

as you can see xorg-x11-libs is required ... but looking at SME 8 files xorg-x11-libs seems to be unavailable

Can someone please give me a guide on how to install VMWare onto SME 8 Beta4 ... or is the smeserver-vmware-server contrib not required any longer ??

Regards,
Tib

[arne]

Isn't it bether (and easier) to install Centos 64 as host and Sme 8.0 as guest ?

[Tib]

Isn't it bether (and easier) to install Centos 64 as host and Sme 8.0 as guest ?

I have had no problems running VMWare on SME7.4 ... I have found it easy.

I am sure once SME 8 goes into RC1 etc most contribs will be fixed to run with it.

I am running Beta 4 with all my favorite contribs as well as other programs .... it's just VMWare that is missing.

I have NolaPro, Shoutcast and Red5 all running no probs ... just require VMWare.

I would rather SME be the host system .... but in saying that ... you have lit a spark in my mind that I will have to look into.

Regards,
Tib.

[arne]

I have experimented a bith with both alternatives, and my end concusion were that the host system should be a minimized and "small and simple as possible" Centos 64. Then SME 74 and 8.0 both runned super as the guest. One very good thing is that you can do a full backup by just copy the virtual image, and you can also do a experiment and testing copy of the server the same way.

[Tib]

yes ... regarding backups I agree

But for some of the things I do in SME ... I require SME to be in server/gateway mode ... but I guess that is still more or less possible with that setup as well.

I will do some testing with that setup .... you may have opened my eyes a bit on a few things there

Regards,
Tib.

[arne]

What I ended up with, were to run a virtual installation of Smoothwall as the virtual gateway and then a sme1 as the "production" and sme2 at the test server, and then also a virtual Windows 2000 as the "remote controlled virtual Windows client" for admin and other purposes.

This gave all the options of the Smoothwall togeteher with all the options of the Sme server, and a Windows client, pluss actually also a Asterisk server, all running in one gateway box.

To my surprice it all runned completely stable for a year or so. (But only as a home server with rather little load.) I expect it to be to complex and to coplicated but, ther were less bugs than for my sme server only, actually no bugs at all, and completely stable.

The nice thing with the "thin as posible" host system, is that there is little that needs to be upgraded, and that can be broken. (All ip trafic enters "directely" to the virtual installations via bridging, and the host does in some way not "see" the traffic, passing trough, at all. The host system does not need to have a ip at all, so there is nothing to access or attack.)(At least it were my idea when I made this setup.)

Of cource it would be nice if someone knew how to make the the 8.0 as the host as well, so that there is some options .. 

[vpurger]

In short, if you install vmware-server-2.x you only need xinetd, but if you install vmware-server-1.x, then you need xinetd and libXtst.

After that install smeserver-vmware-server using - nodeps.

[Tib]

In short, if you install vmware-server-2.x you only need xinetd, but if you install vmware-server-1.x, then you need xinetd and libXtst.

After that install smeserver-vmware-server using - nodeps.

Thanks ... this worked

Regards,
Tib

[christian]

Hi Tib,
Seeing as you have worked though this, could you update the wiki with what is required to install on SME8?

and perhaps also update the status page for:
http://wiki.contribs.org/SME8.0_Contribs_QA

You should also also open a bug against smeserver-vmware-server with a note to remove the work-around notes once the bug is fixed.

it will help others.

[daniel]

I'm to the point of doing so many beta tests with exchange like softwares, that I need to start using VMWare on SME8b5.  I setup a new SME8b5 server with all patches applied, and started installing VMWare based on the wiki http://wiki.contribs.org/SME8.0_Contribs_QA#smeserver-vmware. 

After following the link about the libc.so.6 file I finally got things working, but the system seems to fail alot.  By fail I mean this error in IE8 -

The server could not complete a request (HTTP 12029 ).OKThe server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request. If this problem persists, please contact your system administrator

. A stop and restart of vmware seems to fix it till the next time.  Just getting into it though.  Question, In VMware 1.09 I was able to assign an entire hard drive to a virtual machine. I don't seem to be able to do that.  I have hard drives on /dev/sdb and /dev/sdc that I want to use to run virtual servers on instead of writing the datastore to /dev/sda in virtual datastore files.  Is this even possible in VM 2.0.2?

Also, in following the link to create the libc.so.6 file by copying the libc-2.5.so to libc.so.6.  I found libc-2.5.so already on the stock SME8b5 server in /lib.  I used it.  Should I have used another libc-2.5.so instead?  Things work but they don't seem stable in IE8 and I wondered if that was the problem.  Plus if I start the server with VMware starting, I can't get connected to it until I stop the VMserver from the console and restart it.  Another problem I have to work through.

Comments?

[mdo]

Also, in following the link to create the libc.so.6 file by copying the libc-2.5.so to libc.so.6.  I found libc-2.5.so already on the stock SME8b5 server in /lib.  I used it.  Should I have used another libc-2.5.so instead?

Yes, that's not the correct libc-2.5.so to be used. The two files are different here on my test server:

[root@mdo002sv ~]# ll /lib/libc-2.5.so
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1611564 Apr  3 02:00 /lib/libc-2.5.so
[root@mdo002sv ~]# ll /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libc.so.6/libc.so.6
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1603392 Feb 13 19:32 /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libc.so.6/libc.so.6

"mv lib/libc-2.5.so /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libc.so.6/libc.so.6" in the document clearly means to use the extracted lib and not the file that comes with the SME (CentOS) installation. That's the main purpose of the workaround.

[daniel]

Thank you, that fixed one of my issues.  I figured I had a 50/50 shot at it