Sebastian Mogilowskis Blog » Virtualization

VMWare Server 2 – Unable to build the vsock module

sebastian — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:55:42 +0000

Just a quick Post, the solution for the “Unable to build the vsock module” error message if you install VMWare Server 2 on Debian or Ubuntu:

tar xvf /usr/lib/vmware/modules/source/vsock.tar
cd vsock-only
sed -i 's/^\#include
//' autoconf/*.c
make
cp vsock.o /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/misc
ln -s vsock.o /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/misc/vsock.ko
depmod -a
invoke-rc.d vmware restart

VMWare Workstation / Player Installer 6.5.3 Hangs

sebastian — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 08:37:40 +0000

The installer of VMWare Workstation (and Player) hangs on Ubuntu Karmic 9.10.

“Cause: the installer runs vmware-modconfig-console which produces enough output with some kernels that the python engine deadlocks is command piplining during the compile.”

You need 2 consoles.

In the first one type:

sudo -i
while true; do killall -9 vmware-modconfig-console; sleep 1; done

In the second one start the installer:

sudo ./VMware-Workstation-6.5.3-185404.x86_64.bundle --ignore-errors

Note: Replace the bundle file name with your product (32-bit version for example).

After the installation stop the command in console one with “strg+c” and type:

vmware-modconfig --console --install-all

Now the installation is finished and you can use the installed VMWare product.

Links:

I found this workaround in the VMWare community forum: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/228949

VMWare Downloads: http://www.vmware.com/products/

VMWare Server 2 – RuntimeFault: Database temporarily unavailable or has network problems

sebastian — Fri, 29 May 2009 09:46:44 +0000

If you add a new User (New Permission) to the VMWare Server 2 via the VMware Infrastructure Web Access you may get the message “The server response included one or more errors” with the details “RuntimeFault: Database temporarily unavailable or has network problems”.

To fix this you first have to stop the VMWare management service:

/etc/init.d/vmware-mgmt stop

Now open the file “/etc/vmware/hostd/authorization.xml” and change the value of ‘<NextAceId>’ to 50 for example.

After that change you can start the VMWare management service again:

/etc/init.d/vmware-mgmt start

Now you can relogin into the VMware Infrastructure Web Access and add the new user. (If you get the error again, change the value of <NextAceId> again to a higher value)

VMWare Infrastructure Client with VMWare Server

sebastian — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:58:28 +0000

I had a lot of problems with the new webinterface of VMWare Server 2. The interface is very unstable and not very comfortable for the VMWare configuration. I need an alternative for the browser application.

The new VMWare Server 2 is very simular to the ESXi or ESX Server from VMWare so you can use the VMWare Infrastructure Client of this products to manage the VMWare Server 2.

But you can’t download VMWare Infrastructure Client from the VMWare page, you have to download the free ESXi Server together with the VMWare Infrastructure Client and download the Infrastructure Client from the machine where you installed the ESXi server. (If you know a better way to get the VMWare Infrastructure Client send me a message or post a comment below.)

Now you can connect to your VMWare Server 2 with the VMWare Infrastructure Client like connecting it to an ESXi or ESX. (Add the port 8333 to the servername like on the picture below.)

I’m sorry to say that VMWare Infrastructure Client don’t run on Ubuntu Linux. Here you find a small howto, but this will not work with an encrypted connection to the server. Without this encryption you can’t use it in an productive environment.
Update:

VMware relased a new version 4 of the ESXi. The VMWare infrastructure client is replaced by VMWare vSphere Client. You can download the new client direct from http://www.vmware.com/products/esxi. There a no significant changes in the new client, it works with the free VMWare server like the old client.