Ubuntu-server 6.06 LTS plus vmware server and other vmware server notes
What follows are some notes taken on vmware server. Most are related to an install on ubuntu-server (NO GUI INSTALLED)…. the main point of this is to have the host system take as FEW resources away from the guests as possible.
This requires a few x libraries – but not full blown X gui.
Post install I added
openssh-server
for my own convenience in remote access to the system.
In order to get the vmware install and vmare-mui install to work, I needed…
(*NOTE – first you should alter /etc/apt/sources.list to enable universe (and universe security updates). I also enabled multiverse (backports). After which, I did a few apt-get install ….. ‘s to get all of the following.
linux-headers-`uname -r`
build-essential
make
gcc
libxi6
libdb2 (from universe for mui interface)
xinetd
libxrender1
libxt6
libxtst6
libsm6
libc6-dev
libstdc++6
perl
perl-modules
x11-common
libxau6
libx11
libice6
libxext6
*(some of these installed on their own with others.. and I’m leaving out some that apt-get handled without intervention.)
The memory use of the core (host) OS WITHOUT X (base ubuntu-server install + openssh server + the above list) is ~84 MB
With an xubuntu-desktop install on top of ubuntu-server the host OS memory use is around 152MB (200-250 with a user logged in.) – so is it worth 64-128 MB of memory gained to give up the ability to do LOCAL vmware administration console tasks? I mean in effect, if you have no gui on the vmware-server you do EVERYTHING froma remote console to the server – if that’s worth the tradeoff for you I guess you’re good – otherwise you might lean things down with wdm instead of gdm for the xubuntu desktop manager and instead of xfce4 fluxbox, icewm or blackbox would be a bit lighter. I think I’d still go with ubuntu-server though for the long-term (5 year) server security updates. Just add on whichever gui you like (if you like.) – with wdm I saw about 132MB memory used (host) – 127MB (host) after login (??). All of these stats are taken through the vmware web interface where it splits the vm memory usage and the host memory usage.
(By the way – vmware-server install within a vmware-server guest OS does work. The only thing you can’t do is bridge the primary ethernet card (if it’s already bridged to the host’s ethernet card.))