Installation guide

Table Of Contents
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Network booting a Linux virtual machine by connecting with the Linux Diskless option to a Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 3.0 AS server
NOTE Server does not support installation of a Windows XP guest operating system using PXE.
Install a Guest Operating System from Media
You can install a guest operating system from ISO or CD-ROM.
Procedure
1 Using the vSphere Client, log into the vCenter Server system or host on which the virtual machine resides.
2 Insert the installation CD-ROM for your guest operating system, or create an ISO image file from the
installation CD-ROM.
Using an ISO image is faster than using a CD-ROM.
3 Use the Virtual Machine Settings editor to connect the virtual machine’s CD-ROM drive to the ISO image
file and power on the virtual machine.
4 To power on your virtual machine, click the Power On button.
When a virtual machine is powered on, a green right arrow appears next to the virtual machine icon in
the inventory list.
5 Follow the installation instructions provided by the operating system vendor.
Installing and Upgrading VMware Tools
VMware Tools is a suite of utilities that enhances the performance of the virtual machine’s guest operating
system and improves management of the virtual machine.
Installing VMware Tools in the guest operating system is vital. Although the guest operating system can run
without VMware Tools, you lose important functionality and convenience.
When you install VMware Tools, you install:
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The VMware Tools service (VMwareService.exe on Windows guests or vmware-guestd on Linux and Solaris
guests). This service synchronizes the time in the guest operating system with the time in the host operating
system. On Windows guests, it also controls grabbing and releasing the mouse cursor.
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A set of VMware device drivers, including an SVGA display driver, the vmxnet networking driver for some
guest operating systems, the BusLogic SCSI driver for some guest operating systems, the memory control
driver for efficient memory allocation between virtual machines, the sync driver to quiesce I/O for
Consolidated Backup, and the VMware mouse driver.
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The VMware Tools control panel, which lets you modify settings, shrink virtual disks, and connect and
disconnect virtual devices.
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A set of scripts that helps you to automate guest operating system operations. The scripts run when the
virtual machine’s power state changes if you configure them to do so.
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The VMware user process (VMwareUser.exe on Windows guests or vmware-user on Linux and Solaris
guests), which enables you to copy and paste text between the guest and managed host operating systems.
On Linux and Solaris guests, this process controls grabbing and releasing the mouse cursor when the
SVGA driver is not installed.
The VMware Tools user process is not installed on NetWare operating systems. Instead, the vmwtool
program is installed. It controls the grabbing and releasing of the mouse cursor. It also allows you copy
and paste text.
Chapter 11 Creating Virtual Machines
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