[K12OSN] Re: K12OSN Digest, Vol 31, Issue 16

[John Lucas]

Well, my guess is that "this" is K12LTSP (you aren't clear). If so then the 
answer is yes, I am running it as I type this on the the VMWare Server host.

I have K12LTSP v5.0.0 installed from ISO images as a Virtual Machine under 
VMWare v1.0. The server host is a Dell Optiplex 240 with a 1.7Ghz CPU 1GB RAM 
and a 160GB HD running Fedora Core 4. I use this for testing and development, 
not production; it isn't big/powerful enough for more than a couple of 
clients, since I use the host as my primary workstation too. 

The virtual LTSP server is allocated 384MB RAM and 16GB disk. In addition to 
the LTSP server, I have an additional virtual machine set up as a diskless 
client: all you need is to change the VM's boot order to use PXE first, the 
rest is just like a "real" diskless terminal.

VMWare server is wonderful. It is also free. Two caveats: 1) Fedora is not 
officially supported as the Server Host but works fine as long as you have 
your kernel sources installed to generate new kernel modules; adding 
"kernel*" to your /etc/yum.conf exclude list will prevent breaking VMWare on 
updates. 2) by default on booting the server host computer, ALL of your 
defined virtual machines will be started. That is OK for the designed purpose 
of VMWare Server, but I have many more virtual machines defined than I could 
possibly run simultaneously, so I commented out these lines in 
my /etc/rc.d/init.d/vmware script:

#  if [ "`vmware_product`" = "wgs" -o "`vmware_product`" = "vserver" ];then
#         if [ -e $vmware_etc_dir/vm-list ]; then
#            vmware_exec 'Starting VMware virtual machines...' \
#               "$vmdb_answer_SBINDIR"/"$serverd" -s -d
#         fi
#      fi

This way I can pick which machine(s) I want to start in the VMWare Server 
console. I have Windows (2000 and XP pro), FreeBSD, IPCop, pfsense, and 
several Fedora virtual machines for various purposes (mail server, groupware 
server, jabber server etc). Virtual machines are ideal for developers and 
system integrators.

Running VMWare server allows be to build virtual machines that can be run by 
"VMPlayer" on a Windows 2000 or XP PC. I have a Fedora Core 5 virtual 
machine, built on my machine, installed on my wife's office computer, just in 
case I need to work from there. I haven't used Windows as a primary desktop 
since 1995, and I'm not going back :-}

On Saturday 09 September 2006 12:00, k12osn-request at redhat.com wrote:
> Message: 3
> Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2006 17:22:11 -0700
> From: "Mel Wade" <mel at melwade.com>
> Subject: [K12OSN] Virutal Server
> To: "Support list for open source software in schools."
>         <k12osn at redhat.com>
> Message-ID:
>         <43080f460609081722v69394248rddeabcebc228308 at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Has anyone put this in a Virutal Server (VMware)?  I'm getting ready to do
> this and just wondered if there is anything I should look out for before I
> begin.
>
> --
> Mel Wade
> "The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do." - BF
> Skinner
> www.melwade.com

-- 
        "History doesn't repeat itself; at best it rhymes."
                        - Mark Twain

| John Lucas                          MrJohnLucas at gmail.com               |
| St. Thomas, VI 00802                http://mrjohnlucas.googlepages.com/ |
| 18.3°N, 65°W                        AST (UTC-4)                         |