CentOS virt - Dec 2007 - open-vm-tools for latest CentOS-4 and CentOS-5 kernel-vms

All,

There are some (very much) testing open-vm-tools RPMS for both the
CentOS-4 and CentOS-5 i386 and x86_64 kernel-vm's and standard UP kernels.

The kernel-vm's are available here:

http://people.centos.org/~tru/kernel-vm/

(The kernel-vm kernels are designed to run inside the VMs at a clock
rate of 100HZ instead of 1000Hz.)

The open-vm-tools are available here:

http://people.centos.org/~hughesjr/open-vm-tools/

The purpose of these RPMS (open-vm-tools) is to replace the VMware-Tools
RPMS that come with VMWare.

Please remove VMWare-Tools inside the VM if you are going to install
these open-vm-tools for testing.

There is an xorg.conf file that should be used to replace the one in
/etc/X11/ inside the VM Client only (not on your host).

The open-vm-tools SHOULD ONLY be installed inside a VM Client and not on
the VM Host.

These open-vm-tools RPMS are only designed to work with CentOS VM
Clients/Guests (should not matter what the host is), though they should
also work if RHEL4 or RHEL5 are the VM Clients/Guests.

Documentation for the vm tools can be found here:

http://open-vm-tools.wiki.sourceforge.net/Packaging

and chapter3 here:

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/server_vm_manual.pdf

(In that PDF file, the installation parts can be ignored, but the
configuration parts and usage parts should work)


Thanks,
Johnny Hughes

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Johnny Hughes wrote:

 <snip>
> There is an xorg.conf file that should be used to replace the one in
> /etc/X11/ inside the VM Client only (not on your host).
Here:

http://people.centos.org/~hughesjr/open-vm-tools/xorg.conf

<snip>

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Johnny Hughes said the following on 12/31/2007 11:37 AM:
<snip>
> The open-vm-tools are available here:
> http://people.centos.org/~hughesjr/open-vm-tools/
> The purpose of these RPMS (open-vm-tools) is to replace the VMware-Tools
> RPMS that come with VMWare.
> Please remove VMWare-Tools inside the VM if you are going to install
> these open-vm-tools for testing.
Thank you for these.
May I ask the costs and benefits?  Following are my guesses and hopes:

My Guesses:
Benefits:
   Easier to install, just toss into repo and yum install NAME
Costs:
   None

My Hopes:
Benefits:
   Easier to install, will be in CentOS repo with vm kernels
   No need to run vmware-config-tools.pl after kernel upgrade
   Time syncing is somehow better
   Johnny will personally help you with all your computer problems (just 
kidding)
Costs:
   None

-- 
Sincerely,
John Thomas

John Thomas wrote:
> Johnny Hughes said the following on 12/31/2007 11:37 AM:
> <snip>
>> The open-vm-tools are available here:
>> http://people.centos.org/~hughesjr/open-vm-tools/
>> The purpose of these RPMS (open-vm-tools) is to replace the
VMware-Tools
>> RPMS that come with VMWare.
>> Please remove VMWare-Tools inside the VM if you are going to install
>> these open-vm-tools for testing.
> Thank you for these.
> May I ask the costs and benefits?  Following are my guesses and hopes:
> 
> My Guesses:
> Benefits:
>   Easier to install, just toss into repo and yum install NAME
> Costs:
>   None
> 
> My Hopes:
> Benefits:
>   Easier to install, will be in CentOS repo with vm kernels
This will be the case, yes.  Though that is not the case now.
>   No need to run vmware-config-tools.pl after kernel upgrade
This is indeed a huge benefit, as it requires one less reboot and does
not require you to do anything via your console or to rebuild anything
as a user.  You also do not need build tools inside your client VM now.
>   Time syncing is somehow better
It is not really better ... but it is the same.  I have found that if
your client is running fast, you need to adjust the vmware.conf file
like this article says:

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1591

And that these tools will keep it from being slow.
>   Johnny will personally help you with all your computer problems (just
> kidding)
For the right price :-D

Other added benefits are that the vmhgfs works without recompiling by
the user.
> Costs:
>   None
> 
I do not see any negative issues.

I do still need to come up with something to copy the xorg.conf file
into place while maintaining a backup, and also the same for a gpm
config file.

But I think this will be a major improvement for VMWare users as are the
kernel-vm kernels.

Thanks,
Johnny Hughes

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