How to setup VMware server 2.0.2 under CentOS 5.5 and CentOS 5.6

Jephe Wu - http://linuxtechres.blogspot.com

Update: Tested on CentOS5.6 64bit also on 20th May 2011

Objective: use VMware server 2.0.2 under CentOS 5.5 for installing virtual servers
Environment: CentOS 5.5 64bit, VMware server 2.0.2 for Linux 64bit


Steps:

1. Installation of VMware server
register and download VMware server, get the free license key through email after registeration.
After installation, there will be vmware service created, you can use 'service vmware stop/start' to stop/start service.

2. Configuration of VMware server
run /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl to answer yes all the way to the end. It will setup vmnet0(bridge), vmnet8(NAT) and vmnet1(host only).

3. Connect to VMware server through IE
I used IE 6.0 to test, firefox seems having some issues.

Problem 1: vmware-hostsd issue caused by newer glibc since CentOS 5.4
Solution: use old libc for vmware-hostd as follows:

According to http://communities.vmware.com/message/1364852, you can follows steps below:
login as root into vmware host server
# mkdir /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libc.so.6
# wget http://vault.centos.org/5.3/os/x86_64/CentOS/glibc-2.5-34.x86_64.rpm
or
# wget http://vault.centos.org/5.3/os/x86_64/CentOS/glibc-2.5-34.i686.rpm (for 32bit CentOS 5.5)
# rpm -Uvh --root=/tmp/ --nodeps glibc-2.5-34.x86_64.rpm
# cd /usr/lib/vmware/lib/libc.so.6
# mv /tmp/lib64/libc-2.5.so libc.so.6
# vi /usr/sbin/vmware-hostd
to add the following line before the last line.
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/vmware/lib/libc.so.6:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
# service vmware restart

Update:  According to my test, CentOS5.6 64bit has no issues with this, you don't have to do above for Vmware 2.0.2 to work with CentOS5.6 64bit


Problem 2: Failed to power on newly created vmware virtual server, the error message on the 'event' tab inside IE browser(https://ipaddress:8333) is:
The virtualization capability of your processor is already in use. Disable any other running hypervisors before running VMware Server.
Failed to initialize monitor device.   
Failed to power on: A general system error occurred:

Solution: disable kvm kernel module

[root@jephe ~]# lsmod | grep kvm
kvm_intel              86920  0
kvm                   226336  2 ksm,kvm_intel
[root@jephe ~]# rmmod ksm
[root@jephe ~]# rmmod kvm_intel
[root@jephe ~]# rmmod kvm
[root@jephe ~]# lsmod | grep kvm
[root@jephe ~]#
[root@jephe ~]# echo "rmmod ksm;rmmod kvm_intel;rmmod kvm" >> /etc/rc.local





4. FAQ
a. Applications running in a Windows guest experience screen drawing issues
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1261&sliceId=1&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&dialogID=132323100&stateId=0%200%20132321967

5. References:
a. http://communities.vmware.com/thread/230842
b. http://communities.vmware.com/message/1364852
c. https://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=26431