Post #331,177
8/11/10 6:39:24 PM
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Ubuntu Server - Also VMware 2.0
Took a look at Ubuntu Server for possible use on a VMware job, because the software vendor liked the sound of "Ubuntu" better than "Debian" - and I dumped it like a hot potato.
Do those guys have a sane reason for dumping the SV init in version 9.x for something a lot more difficult to understand, then changing it substantially in 10.x so none of the on-line information worked any more?
Also tried installing VMware Server on CentOS (also suggested by the software vendor). It installed without complaint - but did not work right. No error messages on install or operation, but an examination of the logs showed it was throwing errors left and right.
So I put the VMware Server on Debian Lenny, and it worked fine - except for the CD-ROM which does not seem to work right anywhere. Even with VMware VSphere ESX enterprise server it didn't work right. On Debian it worked once, enough to install a guest OS, but I never got it to work again. Fortunately we do not need a CD-ROM.
Of course to get VMware Server to install completely on any up-to-date Linux you have to patch their configurator.
The software vendor supplied a guest image based on Mandrake v10 (old - before the change to Mandriva) and that seems to work fine. Since they do not support Digi Port Servers I installed that on the Debian host (.114), and the guest (.115) sends to it as a remote CUPS server. Works fine.
Incidentally, I have not been able to get VMware Web administration to work over the network from either Windows or Linux using Internet Explorer or Firefox-Iceweasel (yes, I had the plug-ins installed). Sometimes I get the log-in box, but after logging in it just does "Loading" forever. I have tried using both Debian and CentOS hosts. Fortunately the Web connection from the GUI on the host server does work.
Of course I also had trouble accessing VMware ESX with VSphere Client. The server needed to be up about 15 minutes before it could be seen from the Windows box, and sometimes the connection would just be lost, sometimes requiring a server reboot (and 15 minute wait).
Basically I describe VMware 2.0 as having "More bugs than a flea circus".
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Post #331,179
8/11/10 7:58:18 PM
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Upstart and VMWare.
Do those guys have a sane reason for dumping the SV init in version 9.x for something a lot more difficult to understand, then changing it substantially in 10.x so none of the on-line information worked any more?
Actually, yes. They wanted a desktop PC to start faster by running init scripts concurrently (with intelligent dependancy checking) instead of sequentially. I can tell you they've succeeded. A clean 10.04 install boots to a working desktop some three times faster than a clean 8.04 install. Shuts down faster, too.
The thing is called upstart and is configured by files in /etc/init. There are three scripts in there to run existing files in /etc/init.d/
I haven't tried VMWare on a Linux host; I used it on Windows XP and it felt a distinct step backwards from 1.x, though it ran without problems and I did useful work on it. On Linux, I recommend VirtualBox.
Wade.
Q:Is it proper to eat cheeseburgers with your fingers?
A:No, the fingers should be eaten separately.
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Post #331,180
8/11/10 8:19:11 PM
8/11/10 8:27:46 PM
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Well, that's mighty fine for a desktop . . .
. . but not needed for a server. But why didn't they get it right the first time? 10.0.4 does it differently, which is quite confusing.
But the main reason I rejected it is that I found people were having a lot of trouble getting VMware Server running on Ubuntu, and only the one patch needed for a smooth install on Debian Lenny.
Now that I have a patched version of the configurator I don't even need to mess with that.
And Virtual Box was out of the question. The software vendor distributes a VMware image, period, and won't support anything else.
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Post #331,184
8/11/10 9:06:44 PM
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extremely please with kvm on redhat
but of course there is an associated cost with that. For the no licensing cost for virtualization virtualbox is the way to go. I was way les than pleased with vmware on linux. Also note because of the fecked crap java in the interfaces I always install X on the server as well as firefox then
ssh -X -l root 192.168.0.1 then start firefox locally.
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Post #331,185
8/11/10 9:16:35 PM
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VMWare has other competencies
Run it bare metal on a machine (like Cisco made-for-this blade boxes), with a SAN for disk, and it's a sight to behold. Minutes to provision new instances (as opposed to weeks waiting for new hardware to come in), near instant failover, etc.
KVM for Linux, xxx for Solaris (I don't remember the name), HyperV for Windows... but you can run all of that in VMWare. Even Sparc Solaris for that matter.
But that's in an enterprise data center that needs that sort of thing.
Regards,
-scott
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
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Post #331,211
8/12/10 10:38:11 AM
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Basically...
Don't run VMWare server v2.0.x on CentOS newer than v5.3
If you *DO* want to run it on CentOS v5.latest (or are forced to)
You MUST do this.
Assumptions here is X86_64 processor and CentOS version for 5.x.
Download from CentOS v5.3 archive locations:
glibc-2.5-34.el5_3.1.x86_64.rpm
Extract "libc-2.5.so" from that rpm.
Make a directory called:
/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libc.so.6
Copy your "libc-2.5.so" into that directory as
/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libc.so.6/libc.so.6
Then edit: /usr/sbin/vmware-hostd
Make this the second to last line of the script:
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libc.so.6:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
And start as normal and watch you stability issues go away. Don't ask me how I know this.
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Post #331,212
8/12/10 10:51:45 AM
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How do you know this?
(Muah. You knew it was coming.)
-Mike
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Benjamin Franklin, 1759 Historical Review of Pennsylvania
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Post #331,214
8/12/10 11:26:42 AM
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pfiles and the debugger would be my guess.
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Post #331,220
8/12/10 12:34:29 PM
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and strace and gdb
Plus, once I found what it was looking for the VMWare forums actually had someone that figured it out as well.
That is where I got the editing of the file from.
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Post #331,223
8/12/10 1:20:02 PM
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Ah, good ol' strace
but I was always under the impression that gdb was the debugger... ;)
...and of course, there's always the win of being able to follow someone's footprints!
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Post #331,242
8/12/10 7:24:18 PM
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So they've built it against an older glibc?
That's more than a bit daft. And lazy. It shouldn't be hard to build it against something current.
Or is RedHat to blame? I wouldn't put it past them; they like doing little things that they think are "better" that everyone else ignores.
Wade.
Q:Is it proper to eat cheeseburgers with your fingers?
A:No, the fingers should be eaten separately.
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Post #331,247
8/12/10 9:38:14 PM
8/12/10 9:38:42 PM
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Its RedHat's issue... (and VMWare's)
5.4 introduced some seriously incompatible Virtualization tech to VMWare. Shortly after that VMWare decided to effectively abandon the product. EOL is September 2011.
Since VMware Server in in Maintenance Mode... IOW not to be updated anymore.
I'm not sure what I'm gonna use to replace it, as I don't wanna go redo things... deprecation is the only way.
Edited by folkert
Aug. 12, 2010, 09:38:42 PM EDT
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