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Virtual

Virtualization

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Virtualize

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VM

VMware

VirtualBox xVM (Sun)

xVM (Sun)

Virtual PC (Microsoft)

VMware Server

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VMware ESX

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VMware GSX

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Xen (Citrix)

XenSource (Citrix)

Amazon EC2

Amazon S3

GoGrid (ServePath)

Cloud Computing

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Desktop Virtualization

Virtual Desktop Interface

Bare Metal

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Virtual Iron

1) Required packages

libx11-6
libx11-dev
libxtst6
xlibs-dev
xinetd

linux-headers (for currently installed kernel)
build-essential

gcc
binutils-doc
cpp-doc
make
manpages-dev
autoconf
automake1.9
libtool
flex
bison
gdb
gcc-doc
gcc-4.0-doc
libc6-dev-amd64
lib64gcc1

(also perl, if not already on the system).

2) apt-get commands to install required packages

# apt-get install libx11-6 libx11-dev libxtst6 xlibs-dev xinetd wget

# apt-get install linux-headers-`uname -r` build-essential

# apt-get install gcc binutils-doc cpp-doc make manpages-dev autoconf automake1.9 libtool flex bison gdb gcc-doc gcc-4.0-doc libc6-dev-amd64 lib64gcc1

You must find the *.vmx file (ex: FreeBSD.vmx)

Add this into the file:

ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet"

Extra: Might as well add the gigabit interface instead and configure accordingly.

ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"

1. Open the VMware Server Console

2. Edit virtual machine settings -> Options -> Startup/Shutdown.

3. Under Virtual machine account, select
"Local system account"

4. Under Virtual Startup / Shutdown options, select
"Power on virtual machine"

** Shutdown options available also, but be very careful if VMware tools is not installed.

We all have used at least one piece of trial software that ended after a certain amount of time or a certain date. With virtualization, you can now run some of these applications (or systems) within a virtual environment pretty much forever. When it expires, reload the original snapshot of the software.

Example:

You have a utility similar to PKZip. You will create a bare virtual system with that as the main program. Then make a snapshot or backup the virtual machine.

When the software expires, reload the snapshot or backup.

** Note ** Some virtualization add-ons like VMware Tools can synchronization the time between the host and the guest. Normally this is a good thing. For the purpose of this exercise, do not install these tools. Please do install the necessary tools to optimize the Virtual Machine -- just skip the time synchronization options.