Putting VMware Server 1.04 on CentOS 5.1 x86_64

Since 2.0 is almost out, I imagine this will need a follow-up at some point. (Good…it’ll keep me focussed on blogging.) In the meantime, I decided to give the 64-bit world a whirl, as we’re evaluating moving to Exchange 2k7.

With my box racked up and plugged in, I grabbed the ISO for CentOS 5.1 and gave it a whirl. On a side note, it installed perfectly on a Dell PowerEdge 1950 w/ SAS disks in a RAID 5 array on a PERC5 card. In spite of some people having problems related to the RAID setup, mine went through flawlessly. (Apparently there is a known issue with multiple arrays on a single card and GRUB’s placement on the wrong array.)

After getting the OS up and running, I gave it a whirl using a FAQ I found at Nixcraft to install VMware server.

I did it once on a fully-updated install, complete with the updated kernel packages, and it bombed out. Going back, and using an updated kernel worked flawlessly. To sum up the process, here’s what to do:

1. Install CentOS. Make sure you have your gcc packages installed (under the Development trees during setup).
2. Grab the latest rpm from VMware and install: # rpm -ivh VMware-server-<version>.rpm
3.  Install some more needed libraries: yum install libXtst-devel libXrender-devel
4. Install xinetd: # yum install xinetd
5. Run your config: # vmware-config.pl

Boom…done.